2 DOGS "UPDATED PART 2"

[hattrk4me]

This is a letter I wrote to the editor of our local news paper, hopefully they won't chop it up too much. I'm hoping that this will drum up some info on who.... Let me know what you think.

My neighbor (Mike) and I are writing this letter to the community to explain the senseless killing of our two dogs. If nothing else, perhaps this will save someone from the sadness and anger we both are experiencing.

On March 2, 2007, our dogs accidentally escaped from my fenced backyard. After the first couple days of searching, we were convinced that our family pets were stolen. We searched intently, posted flyers, listed lost dog announcements on the radio and spent hours driving local roads. We were missing our family pets and hunting partners.

On March 14th we received a tip from a concerned person. He directed us to Klein Rd where we found our two dogs laying dead in the ditch, both shot in the head with a shotgun blast. They lay together with their collars and I.D tags still attached. Both dogs were among most friendly and docile labs we have ever seen, yet some coward decided to kill them. After seeing their wounds it was obvious that they were no farther than 30-40 feet from the shooter when killed. The killer then carted their lifeless bodies to Klein Rd and tossed them into the ditch.

The most difficult part of this tragedy was explaining it to our wives and kids. How do tell your kids about this spineless undertaking? Children can’t understand why a person would kill a family pet for no apparent reason.

To the person/person’s responsible for this gutless action. I want you to grow a backbone and explain to our kid’s, while you watch them wipe the tears from their faces, why you murdered these kind and gentle animals. I would like you to witness the pain you have caused to two families by taking away our faithful companions. I know you saw their collars, because you probably used them to toss the dogs into the ditch like a piece of trash. I know you read their I.D. tags with our address and phone numbers. You could have made a simple phone call. I challenge you to dig deep, find a moral fiber in your body, step up and admit to this heartless act.

Finally, I would like to thank the scores of kind and concerned people who saw our flyers or heard the advertisements on KDLM. We received numerous phone calls about possible sightings that unfortunately did not pan out. We learned that there are more concerned and kind people in and around the Detroit Lakes area than we could imagine. Both our families plead to those who may have any information about the untimely deaths of our loving and faithful companions to contact us.

[Just2fish]

Very well written! Of course Da Hitman is the newspaper guy, so he'll have to give final approval! Thats such a painful story though, I have to say I still can't believe someone could do that...cuts right to the bone. Snarl Snarl.

[woody1975]

Very sad to think that someone would be capable of this.

The letter is well written and I hope they catch those responsible for this heartless act.

DL

[fishermatt]

Sorry, but I'm on the other side of this issue.

Don't want to appear insensitive here, but you also need to be a responsible pet owner and not allow your dogs to escape. That's where the problem started. I have a small daughter, and I've had big dogs come through my yard that I've never seen before. I don't know if they're friendly or have rabies. I feel very threatened when this happens. How will I feel if one of them attacks and maims or kills my daughter? How would you feel if your escaped dog did that to someone else's child? How your "baby" acts at home and how they act after they've escaped may be very different. You let the dogs escape, and you are responsible for the consequenses after that happened.

Page 30 of the DNR Hunting Regs:

Dogs Pursuing Big Game

No persons may allow their dog to chase or kill big game.

Between January 1 and July 14 a dog that is observed wounding, killing, or pursuing in a way that endangers big game may be killed by any person.

The person who shot these dogs may have been within their legal rights. If you let your dog escape or run around unsupervised, you should expect that this will happen eventually. There are 2 sides to every issue.

[hadanooner]

fisherman was that your heart that you lost at birth. Ouch man thats heavy.

[fisherdog19]

Fishermatt, no one should expect that if their dog happens to get out, that someone will shoot them in the head at close range with a shotgun blast. Your quotes from the DNR regs have little merit, since when can a lab chase down and wound a healthy deer since that is the only big game around here. Wouldn't shooting a dog be a last resort, why not call animal control if you see two wandering dogs with collars and name tags? I have two small children as well, but I would never think of killing a collared dog just because it may have gotten loose and is in the vicinity of my home. Even if my children are outside, they are never unsupervised and they know to come to the house if the are frightened by an animal. Should we kill assuming the dogs may do something? Where does it end? Your post is way off base, and very insensitive. This gentleman has lost his father, and canine companion in a matter of weeks, so please, have some compassion. It's my opinion that whoever did this, did it for no reason and most likely is a very ignorant person. There is NO reason for sensless killing of collared pet dogs no matter what you may believe or say. We do not live in the back woods of a third world country.

[shae1986]

I agree with fisherdog and this person that did this should have contacted the DNR directly after this accured.

A Shae

[PikeKing]

Fishermatt i pray for you. I actually had to read your post twice. I basically am at a loss for words for what you wrote. Two labs taken from a yard and shot with a shotgun a close range and you twist it into rabid dogs? This sickens me just as much the act itself. Again i pray for you.

[Gissert]

fishermatt -

Oh my goodness! I don't know where to start!

I do agree that dogs running deer can be a problem, but this does not appear to be the case at all.

In addition, should a dog exhibit viscious behavior, then extreme action may be very well justified. You are quite correct that there may be another side to the story. Sadly the owner will probably never know that side of the story. If the dogs have ID on them, someone with any heart at all would contact the owner and tell them what happened. To throw them in a ditch to decay is about as cowardly as it gets.

The fellow had a fenced yard, and obviously cared deeply for these dogs.

We had a couple of labs turn up in our neighborhood last fall. I caught them on my trail cameras, and my neighbor was not too pleased that they were chowing on their cat food. Both did have collars, but no names. I was not happy that they were running loose, but they were obviously animals that were well cared for.

I got a hold of the young male, and placed him in the kennel with my dog. I proceeded to call the sherrifs office, and all the neighbors I knew. I also called the locale Humane Society, and they immediately knew who the dog(s) belonged to. A few minutes later I received a call from the very worried and grateful owner. He had been driving a beet truck, and had a friend exercising and feeding his dogs. The older female took off, the male pup followed, and would not return. Turns out the dogs were barely a mile from their home. The female went home on her own, but the 7 month pup was lost and confused. Luckily the folks in our neighborhood exercised great restraint and none of them took the cowardly way out.

Feral/free ranging dogs are bad, and the DNR has provisions for dealing with them as you noted. I have also been on that side of the fence the last few years when we had a golden retriever and a shepard type working the neighborhood. Thank goodness that I never had to drop the hammer on them.

To just shoot a dog that is collared and obviously docile is flat out wrong, IMO.

[vitalshot5]

How did the shooter know if these dogs had rabies or not?? Maybe these dogs together on the run act differently when their authority figure is not with them.....I've seen many a dog go nuts on the run.....I'm sorry, but for the most part I agree with Fishermatt....if the dogs would not have gotten loose this would not even be an issue....I do feel bad for the kids losing a pet, but maybe the shooter was thinking about his/her own kids welfare at the time.....Calling the DNR or Sheriff in a perfect world would be great but dogs run and roam....it may have been too late and they may hurt something in the mean time.....I find it hard to believe that this is the first time the dogs ever got out of there shelter.

[CatManLee]

I feel for you man, sorry to hear about your loss.

I think shooting the dogs was wrong! My dog is like my kid, those of you who have kids, think about this...It's not right to shoot any dog without "reason", yah if the dog IS vicious, then there is a reason, but if it can be, it should be avoided at all costs. If anything try and get the number off the tags and call the owners first (A warning perhaps)or heck, call the cops.

Unfortunately some people have a "dumb (Contact Us Please)" Mentality and if they think it's justified, need to shoot everything that moves, what a bunch of losers!!

[HossFisher]

First of all i am very sorry for all of your losses and i have been following this story for a while now. I think that shooting a dog at any time is wrong. There is almost always another way out of the situation. I dont see how someone could pull the trigger on two collored pets. If the dogs were really being aggresive toward someone and they did shoot them, what kind of real person would just drag there lifeless bodies into a ditch and leave them to rot? I recently saw a story on the news where a young girl had lost her pet dog. She put up flyers all around town. The next day she got a nice gift wrapped up in a box on her front door and in it was her dogs head. How do you explain this???? Was her dog was attacking someone so they chopped off it head and felt sorry so they decided give it back to her????? There are sick creeps out in the world who get some kind of sick pleasure out of doing this! I think writing a letter to the newspaper is a great idea so these creeps who do did this dont ever do this again. ONCE AGAIN I'M AM SO SORRY FOR YOUR LOSSES, I CANT EVEN IMAGINE IF THIS HAPPENED MY PET!

[fisherdog19]

I'm sorry, but those that agree with Fishermatt cannot be more narrowminded. There is NO way any of you could justify what was done. Bottom line is that if you see two collared pet dogs running around you should first call the animal control center and let them know the location of them. If they are exhibiting some sort of bad behavior, which I doubt they were, just go inside and make the call. My dog has gotten out a few times, and is very friendly, I have had neighbors call me and let me know they had her, or just return her. THERE IS NO GOOD EXCUSE OR JUSTIFICATION, house dogs do not act viscious away from home.

[coffee]

I've also been following this sad saga. You may want to check out the "FOUND YELLOW LAB" post that is on the 'Alexandria Area Lakes' thread of this site. Read the first five or six posts, it may serve as a lesson to many of us when we ask ourselves "what would I have done?"

[BRULEDRIFTER]

FisherMatt and VitalShot, if the person that shot these dogs had a valid reason why did they dump them in a ditch instead of calling the proper authorities after the shooting? Yes the dogs escaped and were roaming free but sometimes stuff just happens. Even if they had valid reason to feel threatened and therefor dispatch the dogs you then call the sheriff and tell them what has occured you don't just throw them in a ditch!

[12lb8oz]

It really ticks me off to hear this. I have a black lab, he stays around home pretty good but from time to time of course he will wander a little bit. I live in a neighborhood where there is 4-5 dogs passing through my yard on a daily basis. I don't agree with just letting a dog roam around at all, but I also realize that from time to time even the best behaved dog is going to wander a bit if given the chance. I could see shooting the dog if it was like a pitbull or something acting in an aggressive manner but come on, these were labs. Very, very rarely have I ever been frightened by a lab. I hope word gets back to you and you somehow get justice on this worthless SOB who shot the dogs.

[hattrk4me]

WOW! im glad this is getting so many respnses. i have a lot to add, but i broke my hand on friday. its very hard to type. i will respnd to a few posts when i can

[hattrk4me]

sidelake i could not agree with you more!

[DEADhead]

hattrk4me, they say bad luck comes in threes. now with your broken hand, that makes three, so let the good luck go your way now! looks like you deserve some.

[fisherdog19]

Hope you broke it on what everyone else hopes you did , if you know what I mean.

[hattrk4me]

unfortunatly i did not. i was walking across my drive, slipped on some ice, down i went. i tried to catch myself and uned up breaking two bones in my hand as i hit the concrete

[fishermatt]

A friend of mine had a black lab that attacked the Mail carrier by jumping through a screen door and biting the person on the arm, sending them to the ER. The dog was "euthanized." I didn't expect you Dog lovers to agree with this line of thinking. You will probably never know what these dogs were doing when they were shot. Maybe they were taking a dump in a person's yard for the 100th time, and the person had had enough of that. How many of you let your dogs loose so they'll crap somewhere that YOU don't have to clean it up???? The blame belongs squarely on the person who allowed them to run loose. That's the lesson for all you dog owners to learn here. Sorry for being a Realist.

[hattrk4me]

YOU MY FRIEND ARE AN IGNORANT PERSON. YOU HAVE NO CLUE WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. THESE DOGS HAVE NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE OUR TWO YARDS. THEIR IS NO EXCUSE FOR WHAT HAPPEND TO THEM. IF THEY DID SOMETHING THAT JUSTIFIES BEING SHOT FINE, BUT THEY SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME. I WISH THEY WOULD HAVE CRAPPED ON YOUR DOOR STEP BEFORE THIS COWARD KILLED THEM.

[hattrk4me]

IF YOU CAN READ, THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED OUT. WE DID NOT LET THEM RUN. THEY ESCAPED = I DID NOT OPEN THE GATE, AND TELL THEM TO GO HAVE FUN, BUT BE BACK BY MIDNIGHT!

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Fishermatt,

You never answered my question. You are right we have no idea what the dogs were doing or if the shooting was justified and we never will I am not debating that. But if this shooting was justified why just dump them in a ditch? Why not call the authorities,tell them what happened and let them tell the dog owner? A person with any conscience and ethics would have made a follow up phone call.

Also I take from your post that if the dogs only sin was crapping in someones yard death was the proper punishment for you???

To answer your question, yes I pick up my dogs crap if it is on someone elses property, ALWAYS. As far as your friends dog and any other that attacks someone they should be put down.

To state that the owner who let them run is the only person responsible is ridiculous. Are they partially responsible? Yes, but so is the shooter. Again I am not saying the shooting was right or wrong until they just dumped the dog in the ditch. Then they became irresponsible at best.

[fishermatt]

I do agree that dumping the dogs in a ditch where they could be seen was pretty poor taste, and suggests that whoever did this was reasonably sick. Some punk kids driving around high on Meth and killing whatever they see, and these dogs were probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. Moral of the story: When your pet is loose and out of your sight, bad things may happen.

[Bushwacker]

Wow, I don't know if I have ever read anything in my entire life that has made me so upset. There are forums and other places to post editorial opinions on canines and their behaviors. I don't think the correct place for this is in the thread started by a person who just lost a member of his family. A dog is just a dog, to almost everyone except the person that bought a little puppy, fed it everyday, excercised it everyday, ect... I think the side tracking on this thread is in the poorest taste I have ever seen.

hattrk4me, I am very sorry for your loss.

[DEADhead]

Quote:

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I think the side tracking on this thread is in the poorest taste I have ever seen.

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I agree, and will be locking the thread.

hattrk4me, good lucking healing the wounds.