Outrage Grows after Florida Cop Shoots Rescued Dog 3 Times

As he drove around a Florida City neighborhood Tuesday, police officer Marcus Terry noticed that a car door had been left open in the driveway of a house.

He knocked on the front door to alert the residents. When Sage Raphael opened the door, her family’s rescued 2-year-old Pit Bull mix, Duchess, bolted out.

“She was excited. Someone’s at the door,” Gillian Palacios, Raphael’s mom, told CBS Miami. “She’s excited to see who it is, you know, normal dog behavior.”

As Raphael watched in horror, Terry quickly pulled out his gun and shot Duchess three times in the head.

“I was about to grab her. I had her and two seconds later, it’s three gunshots,” Raphael told CBS Miami.

“Your dog charged me,” Terry told her and her mom, who ran out when she heard the gunshots, Local 10 News reports. He said Animal Services would pick up Duchess, and then walked away, leaving the dog lying in a pool of blood.

A surveillance camera captured the horrible incident on video. Duchess doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of aggression in the second or two before Terry killed her.

“She was curious. She wasn’t barking (and) she wasn’t growling,” Palacios, who fosters homeless dogs, told Local 10 News. “There was no reason for him to think she was aggressive in any way. There were a million things he could have done other than shoot her three times in the head.”

Officer Ken Armenteros, a spokesman for the Florida City Police Department, told Local 10 News that facts about the shooting are currently being gathered.

“We don’t have the luxury of hindsight,” he said. “We have to use the information that is given to us in a split second. So, the officer has to make that decision with the information that he has available.”

Terry has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

“He needs to take responsibility for his actions,” Raphael told CBS Miami. “If he didn’t want to be in this position, he should have never pulled that gun and made that first move.”

An online petition asking that Terry be fired has more than 22,400 signatures as of Thursday morning.

Sadly, some police officers tend to be gun happy when dealing with pet dogs who are just doing what comes naturally — protecting their families and property.

Across the country, far too many dogs have been shot and killed by police officers who have had no training in how to deal with them. According to Ozymandias Media, which produced the new documentary “Of Dogs and Men” on the topic, a dog is shot by law enforcement every 98 minutes.

In 2013, Colorado became the first state to pass a “Dog Protection Act,” which requires all law enforcement officers to undergo training in dealing with dogs. In May, Texas enacted a law that requires a statewide comprehensive training program in dog encounters to be created by Jan. 1, 2016.

This is a start, but as Duchess and these sad statistics make clear, teaching law enforcement officers how to humanely deal with dogs should be required in every state. Officers who choose to treat dogs inhumanely should be charged with animal cruelty.

Here’s the surveillance video showing Duchess being killed by Terry. Please be warned it is very graphic and disturbing.

My heart goes out to Palacios and Raphael. Rest in peace, Duchess.

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‘Angel Dog’ Appears as Woman Spreads Beloved Golden Retriever’s Ashes

When Wagner, Ashley Lang’s beloved 12-year-old Golden Retriever, passed away, she spread his ashes in one of his favorite places — the appropriately named Wagner Park in Aspen, Colo.

As she did so, a friend took a picture on her phone. In the photo, which is going viral and giving lots of people chills, the ashes form the shape of what appears to be a jumping dog.

“This is Ashley spreading her dog Wagner’s ashes,” wrote KOLO reporter Amanda Sanchez, who shared the photo, in the caption. “He was the love of her life. She lives in Chicago but flew to Aspen to spread the ashes at Wagner Park. Need I say more???”

Lang told CBS Chicago she believes it was Wagner’s way of saying goodbye.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” she said. “The tail and the legs, and he looks like he’s, you know, leaping to go up. Everyone keeps calling him the ‘angel dog.’”

The Nevada Humane Society shared the photo last night on its Facebook page, and it’s gotten more than 7,000 Likes so far.

“Who believes the Rainbow Bridge is real and who believes our pets are looking over us once they pass on?” the humane society asked.

But is the picture real…or Photoshopped, as some doubters believe?

“No one else is questioning that despite general darkness and shadows, the grass and building in the background are lighter?” wrote one commenter. “I think this is a bad Photoshop job.”

The majority of people seem to think it’s legit, however.

“When our precious Lab died at 6 from cancer, my husband used to feel her jumping up on the bed and softly find a place to lay down,” wrote another commenter. “Seeing this makes me believe him!”

What do you think…could this really be an “angel dog?”

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Retired Hero Military Dog ‘Major Mike’ Shot Dead by Bicyclist

Mike, a 10-year-old Belgian Malinois, earned two Bronze Stars for his work as a bomb-sniffing dog during two tours of duty in Iraq with his partner, Army Ranger Matthew Bessler. Because of his successful detection of thousands of pounds of explosives, saving the lives of hundreds of people, Mike was promoted to the rank of major.

When they both retired, Bessler adopted Mike, and his partner became his service dog at their home in Powell, Wyo.

“I raised him and trained him as a puppy,” Bessler told the Billings Gazette. “The ability he has to sense some of the issues that I have with seizures, with my PTSD, my TBI (traumatic brain injury) and severe anxiety disorders, how he can calm me down just by him being in my presence. He can help take the focus and help change the focus of what’s going on with me and help me calm down or relax me.”

Mike, who also suffered from PTSD,  was the only known combat dog who transformed into a service dog, Bessler said.

“Michael is a brother,” he told the Washington Post in July. “He needs me just as much as I need him.”

Bessler said that when his depression led to thoughts of suicide, Mike would climb into his lap so he couldn’t move. Or he’d drop one of his beloved tennis balls in Bessler’s lap and refuse to budge until his dog dad threw it.

“When you can escape yourself for a minute, and stop being selfish and think about the things you have, in my world, it’s that dog,” Bessler told the Washington Post.

While Bessler was away on a hunting trip Oct. 10, an unidentified 59-year-old man riding a bicycle on Bessler’s street told police he was “attacked by a German shepherd-looking dog,” the Powell Tribune reports. The alleged attacker was Mike.

The man, who had no injuries, claimed he got off his bike and used it as a shield, but Mike kept trying to bite him. So he pulled out a revolver he happened to have with him and shot Mike with what he said was birdshot. The “attacking” dog was 5 to 10 feet away from him at the time he was shot — in the rear end.

Afterward, the man said Mike ran away. He didn’t think he had killed him.

There were no eyewitnesses to the shooting. A neighbor told Bessler she hadn’t heard any barking at the time. She found Mike, limping, on Bessler’s property.

“If Mike were to go toward somebody or feel there was a threat, he would start barking first,” Bessler told the Billings Gazette. “If the guy was actually fending the dogs off with a bicycle, (Mike) would have really been barking, and there was no barking. All there was was just a shot.”

Park County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lance Mathess told the Powell Tribune the bicyclist said he was “genuinely in fear of his life and well-being, and the dog was ‘definitely in full attack mode and not backing down at all.’” (How strange, then, that Mike was shot at least 5 feet away from him, and in the rear.)

The bicyclist changed his initial story, in which he claimed he was attacked by a pack of dogs, including a puppy and Yorkshire Terrier. He later said only Mike had been threatening him.

Bessler thinks the fact that Mike was shot in the rear — two pellet marks went into his heart, killing him — is “inconsistent with a dog that’s attacking somebody,” he told the Powell Tribune.

“He would never attack someone,” he said. “The only time he ever protected property was when somebody stepped on to my property and looked into the back of my truck.” He said Mike would rarely get out on the street.

“He was very laid back. He would lean up against people, he liked being petted, he played ball,” Bessler told the Billings Gazette. “He was happy. He was a happy-go-lucky dog.”

From years of chewing on rocks due to anxiety, Mike’s teeth had been worn down to non-threatening nubs.

“I believe the gentleman just shot the dog on my property,” Bessler told the Powell Tribune. “I don’t buy his story.”

The bicyclist is not facing any charges, Park County Sheriff Scott Steward told the Powell Tribune. The sheriff didn’t seem to think there was anything disturbing or illegal about the man having a revolver.

“A lot of people, when they walk or ride bikes around here, they’ve got pepper spray, a gun or a stick,” Steward said. “And that’s because dogs come out and chase bikes (and) people.”

But Bessler, who grew up in Powell, said he was “flabbergasted” over why someone would be carrying the type of weapon the bicyclist was carrying.

“I think that a person that mounts a Judge, a .410 shot, onto their handlebars, has pretty premeditated intentions that they want to shoot a dog,” he told the Billings Gazette. “If he’s passed my house multiple times and he needs to mount a firearm to the handles of his bicycle, he doesn’t have intentions of just shooting snakes.”

The Park County Sheriff’s Office is reportedly following up on a few inconsistencies in the bicyclist’s story.

Bessler told the Billings Gazette he would like “to take a civil avenue to go after him — the gentleman that shot him — because Mike was a retired military officer. I mean, it’s not just a wrongful use of force.”

He said that even if the bicyclist’s claims are true, “I’m disgusted with the fact that the guy hasn’t even shown his face to say, ‘I’m sorry this happened.’”

After a necropsy is completed to determine how Mike died, Bessler hopes his hero dog can be given a funeral with military honors.

The “RIP Major Mike” GoFundMe campaign has been launched to raise expenses for a military funeral for Mike. As of this morning, about $4,200 of the $6,000 goal has been raised. Any extra donations will be given to a program that supports war veterans.

Photos via Twitter; GoFundMe.com

Ridiculously Cute Pit Bull Who Makes His Own Bed Gets Adopted

If your dogs are anything like mine, they have no problem unmaking a bed by kicking away pillows and pulling off sheets and blankets.

But a ridiculously cute, wigglebutt, 1-year-old Pit Bull named Rush can do just the opposite: as more than 860,000 YouTube viewers have witnessed, Rush can make his own bed.

Thanks to that video, uploaded two weeks ago by the SICSA (Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Stray Animals) Pet Adoption Center of Kettering, Ohio, the very talented Rush now has a very loving forever home.

“The family had seen the video, came and met Rush, and fell in love,” Nora Vondrell, the shelter’s executive director, told ABC News.

The timing couldn’t be better — October is National Pit Bull Awareness Month.

“There are a lot of negative stereotypes about the American Pit Bull,” Vondrell said. “If we were able to highlight the cute, cuddly points of Rush, then we can help people look beyond the Pit Bull label.”

After Rush was brought to SICSA by animal control earlier this year, he was adopted, but he was returned to the shelter in September because he was too rambunctious for the family.

“They weren’t just casting Rush away,” Vondrell told ABC News. “They really did try some things, but it wasn’t a good fit for their family. He is a high-energy dog that really wants to be with you, but he likes to play and run.”

SICSA trained Rush to improve his behavior — but he figured out how to make his bed on his own.

“Day after day, the staff would watch Rush make his bed, and one day, one of our marketing interns got it on video,” Vondrell told ABC News. “We put it on social media to encourage people to come in and adopt the animal.”

It worked. Rush was adopted by Angie and Ronnie Wallace, a local couple who said in a SICSA video they knew it was meant to be when, on their way to the shelter, they saw a Cincinnati Bengals billboard with the words “Rush to be there.”

The couple told WKEF they get asked a lot if Rush still makes his bed.

“He will drag around a blanket, but he slept in our bed the first two days,” Angie Wallace said.

Vondrell told ABC News the shelter hopes to get the message out that although some people may think shelter dogs are misbehaved or have diseases, in reality they are wonderful and healthy.

“What we are asking is for you to visit your local animal shelter,” Vondrell said. “See if there’s an animal that you can love and find a forever home.

“There are lots of Rushes out there.”

Here’s the video that led to Rush’s adoption. Enjoy!

Photos via Facebook

Were Burned L.A. Dogs Victims of the Sun, Not Abusers?

Since July, at least eight dogs have been found in northeast Los Angeles County and neighboring Kern County with severe burns down the middle of their backs.

Most recently, a Chihuahua puppy with what appeared to be chemical burns was found in Boyle Heights on Oct. 8. This was the first known attack on a dog in the City of Los Angeles.

A reward that’s increased to $50,000 has been offered for information leading to the conviction of the abuser(s).

But the initial findings in a controversial report by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department conclude it wasn’t a person who burned the dogs with some kind of chemical — in almost all cases, the abuser was the sun.

“Both animal forensic experts and veterinary experts formed the opinion the dogs were not intentionally burnt, but suffering from burns caused by the sun, solar thermal necrosis,” the LACSD said in a statement, KNBC reports.

“If a dog was burned with any substance anywhere on their body, it is common behavior they will scratch at it with their paws or attempt to lick the injured area. None of the dogs had burns to their paws, mouths or tongues.”

(Wouldn’t it be pretty difficult, if not impossible, for a dog to reach a burn down the middle of his back with his tongue, or even a paw?)

Investigators looked at 10 cases. Nine of the dogs had been discovered with burns during the past three months. Only one dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel found back in 2012, had suffered chemical burns, according to the report.

One of the nine dogs was Fergus, a stray Golden Retriever found burned in Lancaster two months ago. He has recovered from his injury and was adopted this week. His veterinarian, Dr. Alan Schulman, was shocked with the LACSD’s findings, and sticks by his original diagnosis of an acid burn.

“I’m flat-out stunned,” he told KNBC. “I must’ve been absent from vet school that day.”

A woman from Doggy Smiles Rescue who’s fostering Taco, another of the burn victims, told KNBC the report was “ridiculous.”

“His skin was literally peeling off his back and it pretty much went clear down to the bone,” she said. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not the sun’s fault.”

L.A. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich told KNBC he is very concerned about the welfare of dogs. He said that as the LACSD investigation continues, the $50,000 reward is still being offered.

Anyone with information is asked to call L.A. County Sheriff’s Deputy Daniel Gore at 661-940-3851 or the L.A. County Department of Animal Care and Control at 661-974-8096.

Photo via Facebook

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