[ SHOWGSD-L ] what is happening in Arizona?
- From: Peggy <pmick@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: showgsd-l <showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, ChGermanShepherdShow <CHGermanShepherdShowDogsList@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:45:04 -0400
shared by Peggy
40 loose dogs in Cochise are shot in month
By Kimberly Matas
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
More than 40 dogs in Cochise County have been shot in the last month as a way
to control at-large canines.
Since mid-July, officers with the Cochise County Sheriff's Department's animal
control division have been going to communities in rural Cochise County, citing
dog owners whose pets are at large and shooting animals they deem aggressive,
said Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Carol Capas. Sheriff's deputies and a
representative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture accompanied the animal
control officers.
Capas said the decision to kill dogs was based on reports from residents about
aggressive animals. The department has received seven calls about vicious dogs
since January, and two people have been bitten by dogs in the past month, she
said.
Capas said four dogs were killed in Bowie last week, while six dogs were
transported to a local shelter. Bowie is about 100 miles east of Tucson. On the
same day in the community of Winchester Estates, 11 dogs were shot and 12 were
taken to the shelter, she said.
The Arizona Range News in Willcox reported on Aug. 3 that 26 dogs had been shot
in Pirtleville, Naco and Dos Cabezas, and nine dogs were taken to the shelter.
Capas said all of the dogs were shot by the USDA representative, whose position
is partially funded by the county.
"If we absolutely, positively cannot get them in any other way and they are
acting in an aggressive way toward our animal control officers, we euthanize
the animals," Capas said.
Not so, say residents whose dogs have been shot.
Mickey Cooke of Bowie was home with her husband, Tommy Cooke, last Wednesday
when two animal control officers pulled up in separate trucks and ticketed the
couple because their two dogs were outside of their yard. Fifteen minutes
later, she said, the officers returned, accompanied by officials in two other
vehicles, because the Cookes' dogs had again left the yard.
Her husband was in a heated discussion with the officials, Cooke said, when she
went into the house to answer the telephone. Moments later she heard a gunshot
and one of her dogs had been killed.
"The main animal control officer ... he was driving off and my husband was
still yelling at him, and the animal control officer waved and said, 'Have a
nice day.' He was just such a smart aleck. They didn't do anything
professional."
Marci Zerkle was returning from Sierra Vista last Wednesday when she passed an
animal control truck. When she got back to her Bowie home and discovered her
dogs were missing, she figured they had been impounded, she said.
The next day she drove to the pound in Willcox and found one of her dogs. She
described the other to an animal control officer and was told it didn't match
the description of any of the four dogs shot in Bowie.
When Zerkle returned home, she said, neighbors told her that her dog was in her
yard when the officers chased it out and shot it.
"It's not just the fact that they killed my dog. I'm not just an angry dog
owner. I'm angry they were shooting in my town in the middle of the day. There
are businesses; there were people all around," she said.
Spokeswoman Capas said she has heard rumors that the county was shooting dogs
in their yards, running over dogs and killing licensed family pets. None of
this is true, she said. And of the dogs taken to the pound, only one owner has
come forward to get her dog, Capas said.
Bowie residents upset by the shootings were to meet last night with a
representative of Cochise County animal control.
The Tucson-based Animal Cruelty Taskforce of Southern Arizona has received
complaints about the incidents and is compiling information to present to the
Cochise County Attorney's Office, said spokesman Marsh Myers.
● Contact reporter Kimberly Matas at 807-8431 or at kmatas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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