Posted on 03/04/2011 9:00:24 AM PST by 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.
Yes, she does, doesn’t she?
Recall when she wanted all the Katrina homeless dogs “shot on sight” before they could harass the stray cats?
I was horrified by that.
Actually, the best way to break a bite or fight is grab the aggressive dog by the hind legs, haul its arse off the ground as high as you can and “twist”, thereby kicking in its cerebral “gyroscope”.
NO dog likes being off balance and that will instantly snap its brain out of attack mode into self-balance mode.
The second key is *always* carry a small, spare leash in your pocket.
[mine is a 4 foot 3/8” flat braided nylon one...it wads up into a tiny ball in my pocket]
If there’s no one there to help you, quickly loop the spare leash around the waist of the attacked dog, tie it off to ~anything~ handy and then get -behind- the attacker and do the “wheelbarrow” maneuver while pulling away from the tethered dog.
It has the added advantage of keeping you *out* of bite reach of the “wheel-barrowed” dog.
Those *horrible* “personal sirens” some women carry will freak out the average dog.
Sounds like a shrieking air raid siren going off.
You have to use something that totally is beyond the realm of a dog’s normal mental processes.
A blaring siren sure fits that bill....and hurts their ears something fierce.
I have re-read WD’s post several times and for the life of me, cannot conceive how you arrived at that over-wrought, histrionic conclusion.
But it didn’t have one and now the dog is dead -because- it was owned by an irresponsible idiot.
~This~ is how we get breed-specific legislation; because of idiots who literally bite off more dog than they can chew.
It is my hope that the so-called “owner” is sued until her ears bleed *and* charged with whatever crime is on the books for this type of case.
Her dog’s death was HER fault, alone.
[but it’s -always- the dogs who pay for their owner’s “sins”]
If a dog were killing one of your cats, what would ~you~ do?
Try to surround it with a white light of peace and love?
Sight hounds have an entirely different “kill bite” than other dogs.
While “normal” dogs go right for the under-throat, sight hounds use a top-of-the-neck/spine bite.
[much like a big cat does]
They were created to hunt and that’s how they kill.
[ironically, they’re not “fighters” at all but they are very efficient killers]
My Dobermann was “raised” by 4 Ibizan Hounds and 1 Portuguese Podengo Medio and he has learned their technique very well.
I don’t even think he knows the “normal” way.
Kudos to the Wolfhound.
A liver can “blow” without warning and quite suddenly.
My sweet old Ibizan was being treated for degenerative myelopathy and on Nov 4/08 day [yeah, it was a VERY bad day] I awoke to find her totally bloated and drowning in her own body fluids [massive, acute ascites] because her liver gave out in *one* night.
She was fine when I went to bed and dead 7 hours later.
Just like that.
I’m sure the poll people thought I was insane because my eyes were swollen from crying but I went to vote anyway, for all the good it did.
I’m terribly sorry for your loss.
Sometimes, no matter what you do, you can’t do anything.
:(
Every potential dog owner *must* read the complete history of whatever breed they’re thinking about getting.
Hopefully, most of them would be dissuaded by what could potentially happen, should ~they~ fail their dog.
Um, no.
Cowl neck sweaters went out of style in the 80s....;D
easy Jeffie...this is supposed to be a homicide free forum hoss.
; )
You’re quite a backstabber. You managed to get everyone of my posts pulled. In all of the years I have been a participant on FR, this is the first time my posts have been pulled.
Without ANY justification, you went on an immediate attack, yet I end up getting pulled.
Well, FR has been crashing and burning anyway, so oh well....
Pinging post to the proper perp.
In my experience, dobbies seem to come in two flavors: inbred stupid (and mean) or very bright. Sounds like you got the second - in spades!
You’re quite a backstabber. You managed to get everyone of my posts pulled. In all of the years I have been a participant on FR, this is the first time my posts have been pulled.
Without ANY justification, you went on an immediate attack, yet I end up getting pulled.
Well, FR has been crashing and burning anyway, so oh well....
Oh, and I forgot:
“Kudos to the Wolfhound.”
Thanks. That’s what I thought at the time, too!
He’s a European line-bred.
They simply don’t put up with “stupid and mean”.
They will not even allow owners to breed a litter *unless* at least one of the parents has a working title already.
I’ve owned many more American breds than Euros, though.
None of them were stupid and mean...but then again, they weren’t owned by somebody who had no clue how to cultivate their Dobe’s unique style of intellect....LOL
He’s scary-smart.
When he was 4 months old, in _10 minutes_, he learned to sit, down, give paw, give other paw.
He learns things on his own, as well.
A few days ago he encountered his first “open” set of stairs and at first , he didn’t know how to navigate them without falling through.
Five minutes [and 30 trips up/down] later, he’d mastered them and kept standing at the top, looking down at us, “grinning”.
He was so pleased with himself.
What a nut.
Awesome dogs.
Hop over to YouTube and punch in “Wolfhound lure coursing” or “Deerhound lure coursing”.
They’re both just incredible dogs.
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