Posted on 03/04/2004 9:17:35 PM PST by hookman
A Madison County mother believes her daughter's death could have been prevented if an Anderson police officer had not shot her dog to death last month.
Andrea Hill, 26, died after suffering an epileptic seizure Saturday, RTV6's Jennifer Carmack reported.
Hill's mother, Linda Hall, said her medically trained black lab, Max, alerted her whenever her daughter was having a seizure.
"My dog wasn't here to let me know she had a seizure and she suffocated," Hall said.
Max was shot to death by an Anderson police officer Feb. 6. It all started when Hill's 6-year-old son didn't come home, so she called police to help with the search.
"When they first went to the house, there was a very vicious dog within the home," Anderson Deputy Chief Mark Yeskie said.
Hall said she put Max in a bedroom and left with another officer to look for her grandson, but when Officer Phil Allen re-entered the home to check for the child inside, police said Hill had opened the bedroom door, letting the dog out.
"Basically he came out and started attacking the officer. He got to the degree where he was growling, had his mouth open trying to bite the officer," Yeskie said. "You have an officer that's being viciously attacked by a 60-pound dog, and he had no choice."
According to the police report, the officer kicked the dog and shot it several times, Carmack reported, but Hall said the dog didn't pose a threat.
"He opened that door and he shot the dog in the face. The dog came at his shoe, but he didn't bite him. He didn't hurt him. He was getting at his shoe to try to get him to leave," Hall said.
Police said they were not told that the dog was medically trained.
"Through this entire incident we were never told anything special about this dog. It was a 60-pound black lab, is all we knew at the time," Yeskie said. "We're sorry for her death, for the destruction of the dog, but I think we reacted properly."
The Hall family said they are considering filing a lawsuit against the city and police department, Carmack reported.
"I explained to the officers when they came to interview us that the dog was a medical trained dog for epilepsy," Hall said. "If Max would have been alive, we wouldn't have buried my daughter today (Wednesday). Yes, I'm angry."
They did not say where the daughter was. Perhaps the dog was defending her.
I think so, too. What a weenie of a cop to shoot a lab!
Aren't Danes just a fantastic breed? I rescued one 2 years ago, and I'm completely hooked.
I think I Agree
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1412388/posts
I would think that the girl's doctor could corroborate Max's abilities as a trained medical dog.
""When they first went to the house, there was a very vicious dog within the home," Anderson Deputy Chief Mark Yeskie said."
He was protecting his people you a**hat!
"Scumbag dog. I am sick of these kibble eaters with 8 IQs biting at anything that moves."
You're absolutely right, the cop is supposed to have the higher IQ and act accordingly instead of falling back on his reptile brain instincts.
Well, let's face it...the boys in blue do a hard, thankless job, and sometimes are quite heroic...but for what they pay local cops, you're not likely to be able to hire the sharpest knife in the drawer.
"Dogs are territorial creatures. Some of them will growl at a stranger who enters their turf."
Cops are territorial creatures. Some of them will growl at a citizen who enters their turf.
Even if the dog did growl, what the hell did the cop expect? He was a strange man that, according to the dog, that did not belong in the house. The dog reacted like many dogs would. Most dogs will not actually attack if you slowly back away. The dog just wants to make sure you're clearing his "territory" and the area he's protecting.
The cop used absolutely no judgement whatsoever. That is obvious from his actions. Did he think the dog would kill him? If so, he has no business being a cop considering all the real and credible threats out there to a cop.
The cop should be summarily fired for atrocious lack of judgement.
Let's hope they sue the pants off the police department. Stupid, stupid, stupid. None of this had to happen.
The police department needs to replace the dog.
" My habitually drunken neighbor can't go near the animal, and if homeless people try to talk to me they get a message. "
LOL... say, can I trade in my current creepy senile peeping tom on an ATV neighbor for your drunken neighbor? That is as long as he's too drunk to walk outside of his home.
Unfortunately it will not bring back her daughter. What a true tragedy.
First this woman loses her six year old son and then she can't make other arrangments to monitor her 26 year old daughter after the loss of the dog. She knew the dog was gone. She doesn't sound reliable nor does her account of the events surrounding the death of the dog sound reliable.
My son was quadriplegic, and we got a Canine Companion for him. A 70 lb. black lab named Harley.
When we got him, I was away. It was just my son in his wheelchair and my husband.
We had him about a week, when I came home. They tell you to attach his leash to the wheelchair and bed for the 1st 2 weeks, so that he bonds to the person in the chair and bed, rather than anyone else in the family.
Anyway, I came home and went into my son's room to see him and his new dog..........and the dog growled at me. He scared me for a moment. I didn't go any further and the dog never got up. He growled while he was lying at my son's feet.
Of course, he was on a leash and I knew it. But Harley is the greatest, most gentlest dog there is.
Very sad that the cop thought he had to shoot him. Labs are the best.
More and more police are proving every day that they are incapable of handling the responsibility of carrying a firearm. Stick to writing tickets, boys...secretaries with a badge is about the size of it.
"She doesn't sound reliable nor does her account of the events surrounding the death of the dog sound reliable."
True, this sounds like the M. Jackson, scam artist mother.
Yes, Jackson is an obvious tranny queer pedophile but this family scammed him regardless.
Yes, the fact remains a loyal lab dog died in vain and so did the daughter BUT the real guardian sounds like a flake.
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