Category: Grrr

Monster Who Threw Dog Over L.A. Cliff 2 Times Gets Pathetic 2-Year Jail Sentence

In a video from a security camera that went viral in September 2016, a Pit Bull mix can be seen jumping through the passenger window into a car parked on a street in City Terrace, near Los Angeles.

A man gets out of the car, carrying the dog, and flings it over a cliff. The obese, bespectacled loser looks around as he walks back to his car, checking to see if anyone is watching.

The dog survived, but two days later the creep returned to the same spot, and again threw her over the cliff.

Fortunately, someone living across the street witnessed this heinous act and immediately began searching for the dog. “I came out here with my flashlight looking around, I was making some noise trying to get her attention and sure enough I saw her behind a bush off the cliff,” the unidentified good Samaritan told FOX 11.

Amazingly, once again the poor dog survived the fall — which prosecutors later said was about 145 feet — without any injuries. A bush stopped her from falling farther.

“She’s a very nice dog and very kind,” another nearby resident, Ruben Roque, told FOX 11. “I don’t know how somebody can do that to this dog.”

After the dog, who he named Hera Grrl, was temporarily taken by the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control as evidence in its animal cruelty investigation, Roque, a combat veteran, officially adopted her and has been showing her just what a loving home is like.

In February, the monster who threw Hera Grrl over the cliff twice was found and arrested. Andres Spancky Raya, 21, pleaded no contest to one felony count of animal cruelty.

The loser was already on probation for one felony count each of hit-and-run driving resulting in injury to another person, and grand theft auto, according to the Los Angeles Times. At the time, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Raya could face up to three years and eight months in jail.

Raya was finally sentenced yesterday. He must serve five years in state prison — but only two of those years are for the felony animal cruelty count. The other three years are for an unrelated first-degree residential burglary charge.

Doesn’t it seem like it should be the other way around, and he should serve much longer than two or three years for the cruel way he tried to kill his dog?

Dog with 300 Tumors Wanders into Hospital Chapel

Suffering what must have been unbearable, excruciating pain, an 11-year-old Boston Terrier named Pasha still had the ability and good sense to walk into Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, Calif. She was discovered in a corner of the hospital’s chapel.

Pasha’s little body was covered with 300 tumors. One of her eyes was severely ulcerated. Someone had wrapped a rubber band around one of the tumors, and it had become embedded in her skin.

It’s not known how Pasha ended up at the hospital, but her owner, Mary Sodaro, who lives about 90 miles away in Victorville, Calif., was arrested after she called Newport Beach animal control officers and asked about the dog, the Los Angeles Times reports. She’s been charged with a felony count of animal cruelty,  along with the misdemeanors of failing to care for an animal and allowing an animal to roam freely on a public street.

According to the Orange County district attorney’s office, Sodaro said she’d taken Pasha to a veterinarian recently, but would not allow her dog to be treated. Because of Pasha’s “irremediable pain and suffering,” the vet had offered to euthanize her free of charge, but Sodaro refused the offer.

She admitted she had wrapped the rubber band around a golf-ball-sized tumor on Pasha’s jaw because she thought it would cut off blood circulation and the tumor would fall off. But the rubber band became embedded in the tumor, resulting in a skin infection and even more pain for the already suffering dog.

“The fact that the tumor was rubber banded and continued to grow is disturbing,” Orange County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Malone told the Orange County Register. “The tumor had grown to such a size it affected Pasha’s ability to breathe. We have never seen neglect like this.”

The bittersweet news is that poor little Pasha is no longer in pain. A few days after she was found in the hospital chapel, a veterinarian humanely euthanized her.

Here’s the mug shot of the woman who intentionally let her dog suffer with hundreds of tumors. Sodaro listed her occupation as “Comedian” in the Orange County Jail booking log. How I wish it was a joke that the maximum sentence this monster will get is only three years and a half years in state prison.

SEPT. 6, 2017 UPDATE: Sodaro, who had been immediately sentenced to 26 days in jail, has pleaded guilty to the three misdemeanor charges and will not serve any additional jail time (!). She was placed on three years’ informal probation and ordered to undergo mental health counseling. The good news is that she is not allowed to own, possess, care for or live with a pet.

Photo via Hoag/Facebook

GRRR: Jury Finds PetSmart Groomer Not Guilty in 2016 Death of Dachshund

Henry was only supposed to get his nails trimmed in May 2016 at a PetSmart store in San Mateo, Calif. But after spending just three minutes alone with groomer Juan Zarate in a back room, the Dachshund ended up with a punctured lung and two broken ribs. As little Henry bled from his mouth and struggled to breathe, an on-site veterinarian tried to save his life — to no avail.

“We know that the dog was brought there with no injuries or no known illnesses of any kind and we do believe that actions taken by the groomer, during the grooming session, is what caused the dog to die,” San Mateo Police Department Sgt. Rick Decker told ABC7 News at the time.

Zarate was arrested at the store and charged with one count of felony animal cruelty, which has a maximum penalty of three years in prison. He was placed on suspension by PetSmart, which issued a statement saying, “Any incident of animal cruelty goes against everything we believe as a company and as individual pet parents.”

A necropsy performed on Henry showed he had died due to strangulation — “thoracic compression leading to asphyxia.”

Thirteen months later, after a four-day trial, a jury has shockingly found Zarate not guilty of the animal cruelty charge.

That’s right, the jury somehow could not be convinced, despite expert testimony, that Henry’s death was intentional.

“We presented the evidence of an expert veterinarian who testified that this was not an accident,” San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told the Mercury News, “but obviously, the jury did not find her persuasive. I accept that.”

No further information is currently available about the trial, but unlike Wagstaffe, I’m having extreme difficulty accepting the jury’s decision. My heart goes out to Henry’s owners, Terrie Peacock and Stefan Zier.

Groomers Not Required to Be Licensed

Henry is not the only dog that has been killed or injured by a groomer at PetSmart (or Petco, or other pet stores). After Henry’s death, his owners filed a lawsuit alleging that although several customers had complained about pet injuries during PetSmart grooming sessions, the company had taken no action to resolve these issues.

You may be surprised to know that pet groomers are not required to be licensed or certified in any U.S. state. They are regulated in New York City and Miami-Dade County, Fla., but not statewide.

New Jersey could become the first state to require licenses for groomers. The proposed Pet Grooming Licensed Act NJ was originally named “Bijou’s Bill” in memory of a 6-year-old Shih Tzu who died during a routine grooming session — at, yes, a PetSmart store.

Until statewide laws are passed, to prevent a tragedy from happening to your own dog, it could be a life-or-death matter to ask the groomer some important questions, especially at PetSmart and Petco stores, where many of the incidents have occurred.

“It would behoove you to find out who your groomer is, how long they’ve been grooming, what kind of track record they have — you need to do this kind of work,” Bijou’s dog mom, Rosemary Marchetto, told CBS New York.

Photo via Twitter

Off-Duty LAPD Cop Shoots Pet Dog near Downtown Film Set (Updated)

This story was updated May 28, 2017.

As an episode of the Hulu series “Chance” was being filmed on a downtown Los Angeles street the morning of May 26, something horribly dramatic happened off camera. An off-duty LAPD motorcycle officer, who was working as a security guard on the film set, shot and killed a pet dog.

The unidentified cop was working on South Main Street when he got into an argument with Emry Zumreet and was attacked by his “aggressive” Pit Bull — or at least that’s the story from LAPD spokeswoman Jenny Hauser, according to the Los Angeles Times.

LAPD Sgt. Barry Montgomery concurs with Hauser. “A dog belonging to that suspect became aggressive and attacked our officer, and it was at that time that an officer-involved shooting occurred,” he told CBS Los Angeles. The officer was taken to a hospital for minor injuries.

But Zumreet’s attorney and an apparent eyewitness to the shooting tell quite a different story.

“I live in the building above where this happened, the officer was completely fine,” wrote camjameson in a comment on the L.A. Times story.

“At least 100 people from the surrounding buildings were yelling about the incident, having seen it themselves, and everyone claims the officer was not attacked, but that the dog was just growling,” according to camjameson. “This is some cover up if I’ve ever seen it. Your gun should never be your first option in a threatening situation, there are so many other options, especially against a mid-sized dog and a super scrawny dude in a wife-beater with no visible weapons. Shameful.”

According to Ben Meiselas, Zumreet’s attorney, this is what happened:

As Zumreet drove down South Main Street, the LAPD officer stopped traffic due to the TV shoot. Zumreet got into some kind of argument with the officer, and the officer opened the car door. When Zumreet stepped out of his car, the officer pulled out a handgun. Zumreet’s dog jumped out of the car through the open door, and the officer shot him.

“He executed the dog because it was a Pit Bull,” Meiselas told the Los Angeles Times. He said witnesses have come forward to say the shooting was unnecessary.

Another witness, Nelson Aguilar, told KCAL9 he heard two men yelling and then two gunshots. He recorded the rest of what he saw on his cell phone.

“And I saw the dog, and the dog had been shot, and it was squirming on the floor,” he said. “And I saw the owner, and the owner was yelling, talking about, ‘You killed my dog.'”

Aguilar said the Zumreet was arrested after he kept going into the roped-off area, “hugging his dog.” Meiselas told the Times Zumreet called the LAPD for help before he was arrested. According to KCAL9, police haven’t decided whether any charges will be pressed against him.

Hopefully security cameras in the area recorded what really happened. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Coincidentally, the series “Chance” that was filming near the shooting is about a forensic neuropsychiatrist (Hugh Laurie) who’s pulled into “a violent and dangerous world of mistaken identity, police corruption and mental illness,” according to Hulu.

Preventing ‘Puppycide’

It’s a horrible statistic, but more than 10,000 pet dogs are shot by police officers in this country every year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. There’s even a term for it: “puppycide.”

To prevent this, some police departments are training their officers how to deal with scared or agitated pets in non-lethal ways.

In response to the shocking, viral 2013 video of a Hawthorne, Calif., police officer shooting a Rottweiler named Max as his owner begged him not to, spcaLA began offering the class, “Dog Behavior for Law Enforcement” to all police departments in California.

In 2013, Colorado became the first state to pass a “Dog Protection Act,” which requires similar training for law enforcement officers. Two years later, Texas enacted a law that required the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to establish a statewide comprehensive training program in dog encounters.

These programs are a good start, but as those sad statistics make clear, teaching law enforcement officers how to humanely deal with dogs should be required in every state.

Photo via YouTube

GRRR: 2 Hero Dogs Who Apprehended NYC Mugger Euthanized by Shelter

When a teenager snatched a woman’s purse in Queens, N.Y., earlier this month, two stray dogs — a German Shepherd and a Pit Bull — took off after the thief. They pinned him down in nearby Springfield Park and bit him.

Even then, the four-legged crimestoppers were treated very poorly by officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit. The two dogs were pepper-sprayed, beaten with batons and shot with tranquilizer darts before being transported to Animal Care & Control of NYC (AC&C).

“The dogs were still lingering, looking to get him,” a police source told the New York Post. “They were set up to continue their mauling.”

The 15-year-old boy was treated for bite wounds at a local hospital. He was charged with petit larceny and will live on to hopefully not steal more purses.

But if he does, those two hero dogs won’t be around to stop him. Even though George Petruncio of Sewell, N.J., let AC&C know he wanted to adopt the German Shepherd and Pit Bull, the two dogs were euthanized yesterday because they were allegedly too aggressive.

“They never gave the dogs a chance,” Petruncio told the Post. “They did a good thing and this is how you repay them? It’s garbage.”

Polices officers in Queens’ 105th precinct also did their best to spare the lives of the two dogs. They offered to help AC&C place them with a rescue group.

“The dogs deserved a second chance because of how they helped out,” a police source told the Post. “It just doesn’t seem like justice was served for these dogs.”

AC&C has a troubling reputation with animals, and not only dogs. Earlier this week a bull that escaped from a slaughterhouse — and was promised to be released to a sanctuary — died after being shot with multiple tranquilizer darts. In December, a beloved deer that lived in a Harlem park died from stress after it was captured by AC&C.

However, it wasn’t the AC&C, but the NYC Department of Health that issued death sentences for the hero dogs.

“After a comprehensive assessment by an animal behavioral specialist, the two dogs that mauled a teenager were determined too aggressive to be placed at rescue organization or put up for adoption,” spokesman Julien A. Martinez said yesterday. “They were humanely euthanized today.”

The heartbreaking tale of these two hero dogs makes me all the more thankful for groups like BAD RAP and Best Friends Animal Society, who took in and rehabilitated some other famous dogs that were also deemed too aggressive to ever be adopted: the survivors of Michael Vick’s dog-fighting operation. Many of those dogs went on to become therapy and service dogs — and even earned the title of ASPCA Dog of the Year.

Good thing the AC&C’s animal behavioral specialist and the NYC Department of Health didn’t get to Vick’s dogs first.

Photo credit: FastPhive

Exit mobile version