Jul
Investigation Called for After ‘Town Dog’ is Shot Dead
It’s been described as the ‘ultimate betrayal of man’s best friend’…
A controversy is brewing over the fatal shooting of a dog residents had doted on and declared the “Town Dog” after it showed up during June’s devastating flood.
Buddy, a Catahoula hunting dog, was fatally shot the first weekend of July by a sheriff’s deputy after Owen County’s sheriff said the canine bit a woman on the hand.
But members of the Owen County Humane Society Board question what really happened to Buddy. They call the shooting “the ultimate betrayal of man’s best friend.”
Buddy showed up June 7 in Spencer after torrential rains caused widespread flooding across much of south-central Indiana. No one knew where Buddy came from, so he became a mascot of sorts for the town about 15 miles northwest of Bloomington.
An entire neighborhood banded together to have him neutered, vaccinated and collared. Two women even got permission from Spencer’s police department to have Buddy declared “Town Dog.”
During the subsequent weeks, every time he was spotted in the parking lot at a McDonald’s, workers there would bring the dog a hamburger.
But when Buddy wandered onto the Owen County Fairgrounds during the first weekend of July, Owen County Sheriff Chester “Pudge” Richardson said the dog apparently got into a goat pen.
Richardson said the dog bit the hand of a fair board member’s wife when she tried to get him out. He said a sheriff’s deputy then shot Buddy dead.
“What I know is that he got into the pen, bit somebody and had to be destroyed,” Richardson said Friday.
But the events leading up to the shooting are being questioned by members of the Owen County Humane Society Board of Directors. In a news release sent to The Herald-Times of Bloomington, the six-member board demanded to know what happened to Buddy and why.
They claim that while at the fairgrounds that day, the board’s president, Lova Standeford, saw Buddy tied to a trailer without any water, so she gave him some.
Standeford said a woman and two fair board members told her that if she wanted the dog she should take him and “if not, they would take him out back and shoot him.”
Standeford did not think they were serious.
Richardson said he is now investigating what happened.
“There are all kinds of rumors about what was said and what happened, and when I get the full details I will call you,” he said Friday.
The people of Spencer banded together to have him neutered, vaccinated and collared. But, no one bothered to give him a home. Why was the “Town Dog” left to wander the streets?
The President of the Humane Society’s Board of Directors saw the dog tied to a trailer…but she didn’t think to investigate further?
Now, everyone’s outraged–blaming the deputy for shooting Buddy, after he went after some pinned goats and bit a woman.
Too many things surrounding this story don’t make sense.
The people of Spencer should accept responsibility.
A “Town Dog” left to wander the streets???
Istead of going after the officer who shot a stray dog that was attacking innocent livestock and had just bit a innocent woman, how about going after the woman that took the dog to get it neutered, vaccinated and collared. That sound like she took the dog in and would have been the owner. This woman should be responable for the dog bitting that woman.
Oh poor Buddy, “the ultimate betrayal of man’s best friend”, the freak’n dog was a stray and bit someone…
Now the town is selling “Justice for Buddy” t-shirts… the dog bit a woman. The town wants to build somekind of memorial for Buddy, “The Town Dog”, who do one wanted. Did I mention the Buddy bit someone? I dunno, call me smart but it sounds like justice was served. I would like to add that I love dogs, but I see nothing wrong with shooting the bitting dog because the Owen County Humane Society could not and would not take the dog.
Everyone is so upset that the dog was shot. The Owen County Humane Society would not take him, no one in the town would take him… What do the town’s people expect? Just let the bitting dog run free again? Seriously… What should have been done that the deputy didnt already do?
Wonder if the officer who shot this dog was on attachment from the London Metropolitan Police?
Both forces seem to have a shoot first ask questions later policy re dogs?
Over here dog owners go ballistic (no pun intended) if the ‘evil’ council dog warden dares to seize their dog if it strays! How mad would they be if their dog ended up being shot in the street?
If the town has ordinances in place regarding dog control, how can this dog be a ‘town dog’ if dogs have to be controlled and presumably this means not be wandering around town on their own there must have been an infringement of the town’s dog control laws?