Man says he exhausted options before shooting dog(CO)

gazette.com ^ | 3 March, 2011 | JAKOB RODGERS and MATT STEINER

[marktwain]

The owner of a 70-pound greyhound said Thursday that he exhausted all options before pulling his handgun on a 140-pound dog that had latched its jaws around his greyhound’s neck.

“I had no choice but to shoot into the dog and kill him,” Robert McCombs said.

Tammy Martinez, who owned the dog shot to death, was served a summons Thursday afternoon on suspicion of unlawful ownership of a dangerous animal, a misdemeanor, according to Joe Stafford, director of animal services at the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region. Martinez identifed her dog as a bullmastiff.

The incident left McCombs’ 6-year-old greyhound, Cooper, with a gash to his neck requiring five staples. Martinez’s dog was not injured by Cooper, Stafford said.

McCombs was walking Cooper about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on the 4800 block of El Camino when he said he heard a woman across the street “having some trouble” with her dog. He didn’t turn toward her, however, until he heard yelling. The dog was dragging Martinez, he said.

“He blasted across (the street) and came right at us,” McCombs said. “They fought just a little tiny bit and then that dog clamped down on my dog’s neck.”

Grabbing the bullmastiff’s leash, he tried pulling the dog away from the Cooper but the dog did not relent, causing him to drag both, McCombs said.

He said he kicked the bullmastiff before pulling his gun.

“I told her one last time, I said ‘Get your dog off or I’m going to kill him,’” McCombs said. “The lady was yelling things... and he was not responding to anything at all. She might as well have been a stranger to that dog.

“I could see that my dog was dying because his eyes got real red.”

A tearful Tammy Martinez told The Gazette her dog Flato wasn’t dangerous and shouldn’t have been killed.

Martinez moved to Colorado Springs from Corpus Christi, Texas, with Flato and two other dogs in October, a few months after her husband, Ruben, died from cancer. Flato was a stray the couple took in seven years ago.

Flato was very loving, she said, referring to him as her “dog with the waggly tail.”

“When you sing songs to him, you can hear that thing thumping,” she said.

When Flato saw the greyhound and darted toward it, Martinez fell and was dragged about 15 feet across a grass slope and a sidewalk, causing her to lose her hold on the leash, she said.

“If he was aggressive, he would have went after the owner in self-defense” when kicked, Martinez said.

McCombs shot the attacking dog twice, killing it, Colorado Springs police said. He had a permit to carry a concealed handgun, police said, and appeared to be “within the guidelines of the law” when firing his handgun.

The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region is investigating whether the shooter was justified in firing on the bullmastiff, Stafford said.

“I’m not going to say this is a straight-forward case,” said Stafford. “I don’t ever jump to conclusions. I want to be as objective, impartial and thorough as possible.”

Bullmastiffs are among the dogs banned from Fort Carson under a policy restricting so-called aggressive breeds that also include Rottweilers, pitbulls and Doberman pinschers.

Martinez’s friend, Shawna Pugmire, a former professional dog trainer, was consoling Martinez on Thursday and agreed with her that Flato wasn’t dangerous.

“I let my 6-year-old play with Flato,” Pugmire said. “Given a couple seconds, I have no doubt he would have responded to Tammira (Martinez). And it would have been a whole different outcome for him.”

McCombs said there was a “noticeable difference” in Cooper’s temperment after the incident.

“Most greyhounds are timid anyway — he’s really, really shy,” McCombs said. “I hope he goes back to his playful self once he gets all healed up.”

— Gazette staff writer Lance Benzel contributed to this report.

[Gator113]

LOL... You have to keep it going or your bruised ego will never heal. LMAO

When you calm down and your meds kick in, take the time to read my initial post again. Then you can come back and apologize for your failure at reading comprehension and for being too quick to attack.

You screwed up by focusing on an argument where there wasn’t one. You failed to take into consideration the totality of the circumstance surrounding the event and your lack of knowledge of me personally or of my dog.

Your arguments were without substance and completely void of logic given the specific circumstance..... you made yourself look like an ignorant punk looking for attention.

Again, you can apologize for your missives, public or private, and move on. OR, we can play this silly game for the rest of the day or until a moderator get’s sick of it and Zots us both.

You live too far away, about 3000 miles, or I would invite you to meet my dog so that you could see how wrong you really are. Of course, there’s an even chance that you would still not like me. LOL

You need to shut up and think.

Cheers.....

[paul51]

of course it is all hypothetical but I'd still prefer the space a firearm provides. Granted it's not much but it keeps one from reaching down and getting up close and personal with a mad dog's teeth.

[dangerdoc]

Yep. gun>knife against dog or man.

[driftdiver]

“Falco has become protective to the extreme”

Says it all. My arguments are entirely valid which is why you have gotten so offensive. Because even you realize you are dangerous to those around you.

You revel in a dog that is dangerous to others. 9 times out of 10 those dogs hurt someone and its usually a child.

All your insults won’t change the fact you are quite likely going to injure or kill some innocent person.

[Gator113]

Last night we collected our very first goose egg. I have never eaten a goose egg and I’ve put off breakfast to play with you long enough.

I have read that goose eggs are too rich to be fried and that I should scramble it of make an omlet.

However, I’m going to try the over easy fried egg first.

So, while you change your panties and wash up, I’ll be too busy to respond to any more of your posts.

We should soon have our first duck eggs too....

Cheers...

xxxoo

[driftdiver]

good luck, don’t kill any little kids

[Salamander]

Tough call.

The poster who said 'don't own a dog you can't control' is dead-on.

Odin wears this when out:

So, I don't worry much about something grabbing him by the throat and few dogs ever try and break bad on him, anyway.

*But*, even though I'd hate it like poison, if some dog attacked one of my "defenseless" Ibizans, I'm afraid I'd have no choice but to save my dog, whatever it takes.

I know how to end a dog fight, even if I'm the only person there but whoever owns the attacking dog is going to wish they'd never been born.

If I, as a puny old 100 pound dame can manage to keep *my* dogs under control, so should everyone else.

I would not seek revenge on the dumb, untrained dog but I would make the irresponsible owner's life a living hell.

Just last week in PetSmart I was talking to a man with a beautiful little Golden pup he was out socializing/training.

Some guy with a Husky came down the aisle and that dog went berserk, lunging and "for real" snarling and snapping.

The guy with the pup immediately dropped down to shield his dog ["weakness behavior" to an already-aggressive red-zoned dog] and the guy with the Husky just sort of feebly "tried to pull him back" [crap owner who was getting off on his "savage dog"/out of control dog] and I did the appropriate thing...I stood upright between them, blocking the Husky's way and displayed dominant body posture to the Husky who then STFU and backed down.

The guy with the Husky even had the gall to tell the other guy to get out of his way before his dog attacked.

[insert multiple expletives, here]

I have no idea what would have happened, had I not been there.

I *do* know what my Odin would've gotten had *he* tried to savagely attack some other harmless dog.

Bad behavior is *not* tolerated here.

[dangerdoc]

We had a black lab. He was well socialized with both people and other animals. Other that one time when a homeless man threw a punch at my brother, I never saw him display any signs of aggression towards a human and then, he only growled and got between the man and my brother. He was especially submissive and careful with kids.

However, after about the age of 5, he suddenly became intollerant to any other dog. Literally, he used to be the center of the pack playing on the beach to trying to take on any and all comers. We had to seclude him from any dog contact.

I never could figure out what happened, literally overnight he went from loving dog company to hating every dog in the world. We considered putting him down but he was fine around people and lived out the rest of his life without incident.

He even loved the mailman!

[Salamander]

The “getting between” maneuver is very common dog behavior, especially in a pack situation.

It serves to “defuse” an oncoming battle between two of its pack mates.

That’s why I stepped in as a “surrogate dog” in PetSmart.

The Husky recognized it for what is was and laid off his attack.

Any number of factors could explain the “sudden” aggression.

Some kind of subtle pain, shifting hormones [even in neutered dogs] and it could simply be put down to becoming an “old crotchety coot”...:)

I adivse *everyone* who has a dog who “suddenly” displays abnormal behavior to have FULL tick panel run.

Tick borne diseases account for a very high percentage of “sudden personality changes”, as can elevated liver enzymes and thyroid issues, oddly enough.

Bless you for keeping the old guy around, anyway...:)

[Gator113]

The goose egg turned out great. I highly recommend it.

[Titan Magroyne]

Oh man, I had a sweet little lab whose personality changed like that. She never ran to attack out of the blue, but took great offense if a strange dog “got up in her grill” as dogs do to get acquainted.

Her necropsy turned up a liver dark and hard as a stone, according to the vet who did it. (Her liver levels got checked every year beause she was on anti-seizure meds, but the last test was not particularly alarming.)

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

Good. Wolf traits have no business being a part of companion or working breeds.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

It depends. Some dog breeds have been bred to fight each other. A dog that has mistaken an easy Sunday afternoon for a life or death situation is not going to be swayed by pepper spray.

The comments at 3:50 are some of of the best comments I’ve ever heard about some dog breeds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_OJe7wv6s&feature=related

Having said that, I do not keep protection with me when letting my dog run, it’s a Brittany, but I always have control over my dog and we will walk away from any kind of herding or fighting breed.

[A Strict Constructionist]

How do you spell POTUS.

[wardaddy]

some here think anytime a big dog kills a smaller dog then the smaller dogs owner has some divine right

tks for the compliment

[wardaddy]

u got that right..lol..best to ignore those who live to call everyone bigot...they got their own agenda but never face up

[WestwardHo]

Can’t see a thing without my glasses!
Is that a stray F-15?

[JoeProBono]

[Salamander]

OMG!

WANT!

Odin’s winter coat is adequate but *those* are splendid things!

[Salamander]

Again, I thnk you for saving those wonderful dogs.

As a sight hound owner myself, I know very well how delicate their skin is and how utterly non-combatant they are.

It takes a *lot* to make a sight hound “fight back”.

As pack hounds, it’s just not their nature.

I feel awful for the Grey owner in this story.

Even a “minor” attack by a much less powerful breed can do great damage to their thin, fragile skin.