Tag: German Shepherd

Hero German Shepherd Shot 3 Times Protecting Boy During Home Invasion (He’s OK!)

Early Wednesday afternoon, Javier Mercado, 16, was upstairs with with his 2-year-old German Shepherd, Rex, in their Des Moines, Wash., home when they both heard the glass shatter in a sliding door.

Rex immediately bolted downstairs and started barking. “I heard one guy scream, ‘The dog bit me, get the dog,'” Mercado told KING 5 News.

Mercado grabbed his cell phone, hid in a bedroom closet and called 911. He could hear the intruders beating Rex, then he heard Rex just outside the closet door. The intruders came upstairs and ransacked the bedrooms.

When they entered Mercado’s bedroom, Rex used what little strength he had left to bark at them. Then Mercado heard the unthinkable.

“I heard one gunshot and several after that,” he told KING 5 News. “And my dog just cried after every shot that hit him.”

Just like any of us would want to do, Mercado wanted to rush out and help his dog, but the 911 dispatcher told him to stay put. “I thought he was dead for sure. I broke down,” Mercado said.

While Mercado remained inside the closet, police and SWAT officers arrived, but the criminals ran off when they heard the sirens. The officers rushed Rex to BluePearl Renton Veterinary Partners, a local animal hospital.

Then Mercado got a phone call he’ll probably never forget. It was the animal hospital, letting him know Rex had survived the three gunshots to his neck and hind legs.

This hero dog wasn’t out of the woods yet. Yesterday he had surgery to repair a fractured bone his left hind leg by inserting a surgical pin and screw.

These surgeries can be very expensive. To help cover the costs, Mercado’s aunt, Susy Cadena, launched a GoFundMe campaign that has raised over $57,000.

“We have exceeded the goal and we just wanted to assure you that all the money will go toward Rex’s medical expenses and his recovery,” Cadena noted in an update. “Anything left will be donated to institutions and organizations whose mission is to protect our loved pets.”

As of yesterday, Rex is in stable condition. He’s recovering in the intensive care unit, “receiving pain medication, antibiotics, wound care and round-the-clock monitoring,” according to the BluePearl Veterinary Partners Facebook page.

For updates on Rex’s progress, you can follow the Rex the Hero Dog Facebook page.

“I feel like if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today telling you this story,” Mercado told KING 5 News.

Photo via Rex the Hero Dog Facebook page

German Shepherd Stays by Pit Bull Buddy’s Body on Busy Highway

A German Shepherd refused to leave the side of her Pit Bull buddy who’d probably been killed by a car on a busy New Jersey highway.

When Totowa Station troopers responded to a call during rush hour yesterday morning about two dogs on the shoulder of Interstate 280, they found the German Shepherd lying beside the Pit Bull — and she wasn’t about to budge.

The troopers “knew they had to get the Shepherd off the highway, but she did not want to leave the other dog’s side,” the New Jersey State Police said in a statement on its Facebook page. “They eventually were able to get her out of harm’s way and into the back of a troop car.”

Back at the station, the troopers gave the German Shepherd water and played a game of fetch with her. An unidentified local animal rescue shelter has taken her in.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of the other dog, but we’re elated that we were able to rescue the Shepherd,” the statement said. Thank you, troopers!

According to a comment on the New Jersey State Police Facebook page, the German Shepherd was microchipped and has been reunited with her owner.

If it’s true that this devoted dog is back at home, hopefully her owner will ensure she never ends up on a busy highway again. This is not the first and won’t be the last true tale of how amazingly loyal dogs are, in life and death, to their four-legged and two-legged companions.

Photo via New Jersey State Police Facebook page

Watch Amazing Bodycam Footage of Police Dog Tracking Down Suspect

A police dog named Blue has nothing to be blue about after tracking down a man for two miles across a river and farmland in England before finally nabbing him. The nearly hour-long chase in September 2016 was captured on the bodycam worn by the German Shepherd’s handler. The team works with the Bedfordshire, Cambridge and Hertfordshire (BCH) Dog Unit.

“Blue’s nose led his handler down a footpath, into thick bushes and across a knee-deep stream,” reports the Hertfordshire Constabulary, which released the footage of the chase this week. “He continued to track over fences, fields and another stream before finding a jacket believed to belong to the driver.”

Blue followed the scent down country lanes and across farmlands before finding Samuel hiding in thick undergrowth.

The chase started after the suspect, Elroy Samuel, failed to stop when officers tried to pull him over. He crashed into another car and then fled into the woods. After his capture, Samuel was charged with six crimes, including aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving and failing to stop for police. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

“Our dogs and handlers are highly trained and determined, as demonstrated by Blue and his handler’s prolonged tracking,” said Sergeant Cray Birch from the BCH Dog Unit. “I am very grateful for their work, as they proved to be an invaluable asset at this incident.”

Earlier this month, Blue received a PDSA Animal Award  — one of the most prestigious awards of its kind in the world — for yet another heroic act last year. In December, Blue led his handler to a man who had suffered an asthma attack and collapsed in the woods.

If not for Blue and his handler, “the incident may have had a very different outcome,” Chief Supt. Dales said at the award ceremony. Nice work, Blue!

Photo credit: Hertfordshire Constabulary

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

German Shepherd Escapes Shelter Trying to Find Owner Who Lost His Home

A Southern California man who lost his home also lost something very precious to him: his 3-year-old German Shepherd, Ginger. He had to give up his beloved dog since he could no longer afford to care for her.

The heartbroken man left Ginger at the Apple Valley Animal Shelter on Sept. 17. But Ginger missed him so much that after the shelter closed that day, she managed to escape — by jumping out of her kennel and figuring out how to open three doors with her paws.

After Ginger set off the doors’ security alarms, shelter staff was notified that someone was moving through the shelter “at a high rate of speed.” When the staff checked surveillance videos, they were surprised to see the “intruder” was actually escapee Ginger.

“She had to go through three doors and one of them wasn’t the push-bar kind. It was a handle,” Gina Whiteside, director of animal services for the shelter, told the San Bernardino Sun.

‘On Her Way to Her Old Home’

Ginger was found about 3 miles from the shelter a few days later. “We think she was on her way to her old home,” Whiteside told the Sun.

Back at the shelter, Gina was put in a more secure kennel. The shelter hopes “she will be adopted preferably by someone who knows this breed,” a spokeswoman told FOX 11.

“Ginger is a smart, resourceful dog,” the Apple Valley Animal Shelter wrote on its Facebook page Sept. 23. “She needs an experienced owner and a job that puts her greatness to use.”

I do hope Ginger finds a home — but since she obviously loves her dog dad so much, it would also be nice if she could be fostered until he’s able to get a new place to live, and I hope that happens very soon.

For information about Ginger and other pets available for adoption, call the Apple Valley Animal Shelter at 760-240-7000, ext. 7555, or email avasrescues@applevalley.org.

Photo via Facebook

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