WARNING: Thread drift ahead
I could see getting your nose out of joint if it was a dog. Dogs are cool. Cats, on the other hand, much like other people's children...are vermin.
I must risk to differ. I spend the prior evening enjoying libations with friends old and new and listening in horror of a group of
dogs who attacked not one, but two people without provication, and my long time friend debate with himself about not shooting the mangy currs dead when he had the chance at the scene of the first attack, which occured just a few doors from his home. Details below:
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Two massive dogs have nowhere to go
Rebecca Waddingham,
[email protected]
December 17, 2004
Two dogs will likely be euthanized early next year if their owner can't come up with the money to keep them alive.
In an emotional case, a Weld County Court judge said Thursday he can't legally order the dogs to be put down -- at least not yet.
The dogs are part of a group of three massive mixed-breed dogs that mauled a Firestone woman in early September and were taken to Coal Ridge Animal Hospital in Longmont.
When their owner went to visit, the dogs mauled caretaker Adam Stutzman, 18. Photographs show him on an operating table with deep wounds on his neck and face.
The dogs were then moved to another building, which also didn't want them, so they wound up at the Humane Society of Weld County in Greeley, where they remain.
The problem is, the Humane Society doesn't want them anymore.
"I'd like to get rid of them if I could," said Roger Messick, executive director of the Humane Society. "They've been a real pain ... the staff is concerned for their own safety."
Messick said the dogs' owners insist they are a German shepherd-boxer mix. But Messick said they are mastiff mixes because the dogs are so huge.
He said caregivers have to tranquilize the largest male dog every day just to get him out of a cage.
"But even then, his behavior is not good," Messick said.
Nothing can be done, however, at least until the dogs' bond payments run out. They are to be kept alive, on $1,800 bond, until Jan. 7, when the bond expires. After that date, whoever has the dogs -- whether it's the Humane Society of Weld County or another shelter -- can decide what to do with them, including euthanizing.
But at least one dog, the only female, is going to the Colorado Dog Academy, where she can be salvaged with plenty of training. Nobody would agree to take the two male dogs off the Humane Society's hands.
David Riley, 37, of Firestone, the dogs' owner, faces trial in February on three counts of harboring a dangerous animal, a misdemeanor. That charge stems from the September attack on Firestone resident Rosa Storm, 41. But Riley can't be charged for the mauling of Stutzman, because a new Colorado law exempts pet caretakers from the right to press charges if they are attacked.
Riley and his mother, Jackie Riley, were adamant in court that their dogs be spared. David Riley tried to interrupt his own lawyer and Judge Marcelo Kopcow to insist he would fight for his dogs.
And tensions flared in the hallway after the proceedings, with Jackie Riley getting into an accusatory shouting match with Stutzman's co-workers and friends.
"Three normal dogs would never do what they did to him," said Susan Burke Rose, who said she is an expert on dog behavior and who evaluated the three dogs.
But Jackie Riley contends that Stutzman shouldn't have been in a pen with the dogs, and the animals attacked because they felt threatened.
"The lies are not on my side," she said.
Burke Rose insisted the Rileys should acknowledge their dogs' wrongdoing.
"A normal, responsible owner would be horrified at what their dogs did," she said. "They took (Stutzman) down with intent to kill him."
An attorney for Stutzman's insurance company said there's a high likelihood of Stutzman pursuing civil action against the Rileys.
Stutzman said he hopes the dogs are destroyed -- to protect other humans.
"I love animals and I don't like to see animals put down," he said. "But sometimes it needs to be done."
David Riley's trial begins Feb. 23.
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Source:
http://www.greeleytrib.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041217/NEWS/112170037
I've yet to hear of a domestic cat, or a group there of, behaive in such a fashion. Cats generally just want to be left alone unless you're small enought to be seen as dinner.
No slight on those who love dogs and have them in their home. I like dogs, get along great with most, and if I did not think the resident cats would turn one into a shreaded, cowering whimp I'd have one or more myself.