Dad charged with animal cruelty for setting off fireworks next to pet dog

ATLANTA -- An Atlanta father is in hot water after a video was posted online showing him lighting fireworks near his dog.

"I was shocked that somebody would do this to a dog," Fulton County Animal Services field director Timothy Poorman told CBS46. "It's pretty disturbing. I've seen a lot of cruel things happen to animals on this job, and this is one of the most deliberate things I've seen in a long time."

Poorman was alerted to the video after a colleague found it online.

He quickly tracked down the man seen in the video and gave him a citation for animal cruelty.

He could face 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

"He didn't seem very apologetic, I think he was more sorry that he was catching a lot of backlash for it," Poorman said after speaking with the man in the video. "Posting it on social media certainly wasn't his best move. I don't know why they did it. They did it to have fun is what they told me."

The man in the video said his actions were "not reflective of me at all."

He said after the video was shared on social media, he started to receive hate messages and death threats.

"The thing is... is that it wasn't even a prank. It wasn't a prank. A lot of people say you put the plants there to trap the dog. That's ridiculous. I didn't even know the dog was there," William Scaffidi told WSB. "I regret that that that I did it... for the fact that the dog was there."

CNN Wire contributed to this article.