Free Republic

A woman who served in Iraq for more than three years is now fighting to adopt the German Shepherd who she survived a roadside bomb with. As a dog handler for the military, Megan Leavey, 28, completed over 100 missions during two six-month tours in Iraq with the military service dog Rex. And since being discharged from the military in December 2007 Leavey has campaigned to adopt the bomb-sniffing canine so he can enjoy a civilian life with her in Rockport, New York. ... Recovered from his war injuries, the military considered Rex a valuable work dog and denied Leavey's...

Sioux Falls, SD - German shepherds may be the target of thieves in the Sioux Falls area. According to KSFY News, several German shepherds have disappeared recently. One dog owner believes that foul play is to blame for the disappearance of her two shepherds. Stacy Rostyne told KSFY News that she put her dogs out on the morning of January 5 and when she got back home after work, they were nowhere to be found. Rostyne put up fliers in the area and then something interesting began to happen...other German shepherd owners in the area started to call her to...

Orange County, CA - A week ago, Black Beauty was housed at the Orange County animal shelter without a name and without hope. She was sick and unfortunately, she was also short on time.It with the utmost joy that I am able to report that she is out of that facility and safe with the German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County.It is easy to see that this beautiful dog is going to be an absolute head-turner as soon as she receives a good grooming and some high quality food.Black Beauty is currently at a veterinarian receiving treatment for a skin...

The owner of a pit bull and a boxer involved in a fatal dog shooting Thursday was cited Friday on suspicion of two counts of unlawful ownership of a dangerous animal, said Erica Meyer a Humane Society spokeswoman. The incident happened around 4 p.m. Thursday at a house on Portrait Place in northeast Colorado Springs. Bud Linton, who owns a german shepherd, said the two dogs had jumped his 6-foot fence and were fighting with his dog, Max. Linton said he coaxed max into the house when the boxer and pit bull chased after a neighbor and her two small...

LOS ALTOS -- A dog chased a cat up a tree Tuesday morning in the Bay Area -- same old story, right? Well, except in this case, the "cat" is a rather large mountain lion. The California Department of Fish and Game reported to an upscale home on La Barranca and Elena roads in Los Altos on Tuesday morning after learning of a mountain lion 30 to 40 feet up a tree. An 85-pound German Shepard named Cody apparently was scary enough to send the mountain lion running. The big cats have been known to eat things larger than Cody,...

Kelso, WA - Lug and Marley, German shepherds, are quarantined at the Cowlitz County Humane Society after biting a woman who walked into their home while their owner was away. The dogs have been labeled "potentially dangerous" and it will be up to a judge to determine their fate - live or die. It is stunning that these dogs have been impounded. The woman who was "attacked", Elizabeth Elder, walked into the dogs' home - knowing that the owner was not there. Apparently Elder is a friend of the dogs' owner, Ingrid Sacha. It seems that Elder took the familiarity...

CAMP PENDLETON – The second RPG round blew Cpl. Mike Dowling off his feet. The Marine had never seen combat before, but in 2004, he found himself in the thick of battle in Iraq's infamous "Triangle of Death." Boom! The blast from the rocket-propelled grenade slammed him into the ground, along with a fellow Marine, Sgt. Rex. As Dowling recounts in his just-published book, the explosion must have knocked him out cold for a second: "I come to with Rex on his feet, eyes white with fear and searching wildly in the smoke and dust to find me. "Then he's...

Dover, TN - It has happened again - a companion dog has been shot and killed by the police. In this case, the dog's name was Girl - she was a German shepherd who was a constant companion to 73 yr-old Blanks "Buddy" Phippen. Back on January 21, Buddy and Girl were sitting in their front yard when a car crashed into a nearby utility pole. From this point on, details become a bit muddy.

DeKalb County, GA - On Tuesday night, a DeKalb County police officer went to a family's home on Silva Court in response to a domestic dispute call. When the officer went into the family's garage, he encountered a German shepherd who was on a chain. Upon seeing a stranger approach, the German shepherd lunged - the officer's response was to shoot and kill the dog. Tragically, after the damage was done, it was discovered that the responding police officer had actually gone to the wrong house. Right now, the officer is not facing any charges - there will be an...

Apparently gunning down stray dogs on the streets wasn’t enough for the dog unfriendly officials of Cumberland County, North Carolina. Now they want to slay, within 72 hours, every dog that comes into the shelter who is, or appears to be a mix of: American Staffordshire terrier, Rottweiller, Akita, chow chow, Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, Great Dane, Presa Canario, Siberian husky or mastiff. There’s a convenient catch-all pit bull category as well. They’re not doing it yet, despite what you may be reading on the misinformation highway. But they’re talking about it. The county’s Animal Control Board is recommending that...

On Oct. 4, Jason Dubin drove to La Guardia Airport to pick up the newest member of his household. Six days after that first happy meeting, Mr. Dubin returned to La Guardia with that same member, a German shepherd named Emmi, and sent her on a Continental Airlines flight to Seattle with a one-way ticket. “I just couldn’t control her anymore; it was just time to part ways,” said Mr. Dubin, who made the drive from his Port Jefferson home on Long Island as Emmi, who is 5, fidgeted and barked in the back seat. Mr. Dubin had bought the...

Investigators are awaiting autopsy results to determine what caused the death of Hex the champion German Shepherd. Meanwhile, his family is continuing to raise money in hopes of finding his killer or killers. Al and Marcia Govednik found the body of their prized German Shepherd the morning of Saturday, October 8, 2011, nearly two weeks after they believe Hex was stolen from their front yard. "They just beat him and his collar was missing and they dropped him right there," said Marcia Govednik as she pointed to the ditch.

One week after his dog, Shadow, was shot and killed by a retired state trooper at a park, a new German Shepherd donated by the Stevens-Swan Humane Society has helped Bernard Sperfeld cope with the tragic loss. “We will bond and she will be my new partner, so all my love and my big heart will go to her now,” Sperfeld said of Heidi, who has already taken to cuddling up with Sperfeld just hours after the new dog was brought home Wednesday afternoon. But Sperfeld still gets choked up as he recalls the fate of Shadow, who was shot...

Ciuchcia was left for dead on a railway track in Poland. But now, she has been given a new lease of life -- with wheels replacing her paralyzed back legs.

NORWALK – Kimberly Nizato, the woman accused of nearly starving her dog to death, was sentenced Monday to a misdemeanor count of animal cruelty. Defense attorney Andrew Stein successfully argued to Judge Robert J. Higa that the District Attorney Office's case did not meet the standard for a felony conviction.

A brave police dog whose skull was fractured when thugs threw bricks, bottles and petrol bombs at him during the riots continued to patrol the streets for two hours, despite blood dripping from his head. ... PC Wells, who has cared for Obi since the dog was just an eight-week-old puppy, described he and his dog came under siege by remorseless thugs who deliberately targeted his 'best friend and closest colleague'. ... PC Wells said he was shocked at the violence that flared, which left all of the eight dogs in his unit on Tottenham High Road with cut pads...

Brittany Moore and Ava (credit: CBS) Filed under Local, News Related tags Brittany Moore, Erie, Jamie Chester ERIE, Colo. (CBS4)- The district attorney has cleared an Erie police officer who shot and killed a family’s pet earlier this month. District Attorney Stan Garnett said the dog lunged at the officer. Its owner, Brittany Moore, says the German shepherd named Ava didn’t do anything that warranted being shot.

Portland, OR - Bill is a senior German shepherd who wandered into a yard...he was taken to the Multnomah County Animal shelter and listed as a "stray"... Now he waits. The theory is that Bill was dumped by his family - why, no one may ever know. What is known is that Bill is a senior dog - and he is blind. Someone out there would love to have this beautiful senior dog by their side - that someone needs to be found and they need to be found quickly. Please take a moment to share Bill's story. Anyone interested...

A London police officer was treated for a reportedly self-inflicted injury after two police dogs died because he allegedly left them in a police car outside a dog training centre on Sunday while the temperatures outside reached 29 C. Training centre staff took the two dogs, a German shepherd puppy and a working Belgian malinois, to a veterinarian for emergency surgery, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said in a statement. The dogs died at the vet's office. The officer who left the dogs in the car was later found "suffering a hand injury," a police...

A London Metropolitan Police dog handler has reportedly tried to kill himself after two police dogs he left in the back of his car on one of the hottest days of the year died. British media is reporting that Sergeant Ian Craven jumped from a colleague’s vehicle and later slashed his wrists when he learned that the two dogs had died. In an interview with the Toronto Star on Tuesday, the police force refused to confirm whether those reports were true. The two dogs, a Belgian Malinois named Chay and a five-month-old German shepherd puppy called Milly, died Sunday after...