Some Thoughts About Max - Page 3

If the dog was tied up....why did the officer get close enough to get bit? He could have easily backed away and left.

Officers where I live carry pepper spray....I witnessed an officer use it on a dog who was loose and a known biter....the dog was wandering the neighborhood and the police were called, the cop came, dog came back home found PO in his yard and went to attack him....the PO used the pepper spray on the dog then the animal control came and got the dog......

This dog had just bit a small child and almost took his ear off a couple of weeks before-it was a mexican family who did not report it so the dog was still free.

There are other ways to handle an aggressive dog beside shooting it.   The person the PO was looking for was not home, the PO should have just left....the dog was protecting his property-Max (as well as any other dogs) did not know that that man was a PO>

Don't blame the family for this.  Wether you believe in tieing out a dog or not-it does not mean the dog deserved to be shot 7 or 8 times.  Especially by a repeat offender.

I agree with Brandoggy.

It appears that common sense and rationality elude some of you.

Common sense must have eluded the Mattia family also!

Vickie

PowerHaus:  I agree dogs should never be tied out on a choke then left unsupervised.  It's a recipe for disaster.  A friend of mine had an Akita bitch.  She & her family were moving so they took the dog to the new house & tied her up in the back yard while they were going back & forth, moving stuff from one house to the other.  After they got to the new house with a load, the daughter went in the back yard to check on the dog.   She was dead.   She had jumped over a low retaining wall and hung herself.  It looked like she slipped & panicked because there were some claw marks on the slope.  Very horrible & totally preventable.

Do Right--I'll leave the eloquence to you this morning.  It's just too early for me to try and resurrect the previous debates.  I will agree with the earlier statement that "speculation does not equal the truth or justice".......but will also add.....neither does burying one's head in the sand and allowing outright stupid and uncaring actions of..what seems to be...a trigger-happy (even cowardly) officer of the law to be excused and possibly condoned by our officials.

All the PDB members who voiced an opinion on the earlier threads are of a certain mindset.  Protect the blue line...at whatever cost.  Defend the dog....at whatever cost.  Or, use both your brain and heart....realizing there is a tremendous cost to pay.  Ask yourself the determining question----Was killing this dog necessary?  You define your character with your choice of mindset.  I'm glad Dog 1 brought back the subject of Max.....I think of him quite often.  Just because we don't write anymore on the subject doesn't mean he's forgotten. After all's been said and done, the only thought that continually comes to mind (for me)............I dare Deputy Dogless to ever show up in my hometown.....that is...with any authority to carry a gun.  

Whew alot of bickering has been going on. I had to shut down last night my fan was running a little to loud on my computer for my liking...

Anyway Vickie in your post you said   " I used to put my dogs out in the yard unsupervised till I went out and found my first H.O.T. dog dead because she had tried to climb your average chain link fence and caught her collar on the top and her feet were just 3 inches off the ground!"  I am truly sorry for your loss, so I can see where you are adament about tieing out and hanging. But by your own statement this can happen even with a dog with a collar on in a fenced in yard. I also will ad I have a large fenced yard also, at least 1/4 acre maybe more. My dogs are out loose in the yard when I am home or in the house with me. When I have to leave they either come with, are in the house or if the trip is short (to the mail and right back) I leave them out. I live in the country. So now we know what page we are on to the care of our dogs.

The point I was trying to make is, I think the Mattia's felt they had contained their dog by tieing him up, he was not allowed to run loose while they were not home. The news report said the son came home and tried to rush Max to the vet so it is my opinion Max was not going to be left tied very long. I have donated to the Mattia's and corresponded some with them. They do not strike me as unresponsible people. Did they make a mistake? Yes. You made a mistake, people learn from their mistakes so it should not be held against them or you, sh_t happens! As far as children chasing a ball into a yard with a tied "pit" or any other dog, well where are their parents???  Seems to me kids should not be left "unsupervised" either. Or at least taught not to go on other peoples property. Again do you feel if you lived in the country, had a fenced yard that was posted and NO collar on a dog, it is wrong to leave the dog for a short time outside by itself? This same scenerio could have happened in those circumstances. To me a fenced yard is containing your dog. I dog in a kennel is equally vulnerable to anyone wanting to mess with it as it also cannot escape. I see dogs that spend alot of time on a tie out as well as dogs locked in kennels. I truly am not sure which is worse.

It is and always will be in my eyes the LEO's bad attitude and actions on this as he was suppose to be smarter than the dog and could have easily left the scene to come back at another time when the family was home. This was not a high profile warrant.

Trailrider,

You ask me

"If you lived in the country, had a fenced yard that was posted and NO collar on a dog, it is wrong to leave the dog for a short time outside by itself?"

In my case I would NEVER leave any of my dogs out side by them selves! And I also never leave a collar on my dogs unattended unless it is a break away collar, and those are pretty usless!  Again, as a Schutzhund enthusiast I have taken the natural ability and instinct of my dogs ability to bite and REFINED IT!  I have done this inorder to give my dog POWER in protection!  I have taught said dog to bite even though I have not commanded it to do so!  Dogs don't reason like you and I and I will not allow my dog to place him/her self in harms way (and I say harms way because the dogs life might be injeopardy if he bit someone.....JUST LIKE MAX DID!) because some morron neighbor, kid, police officer, meter man,,,,,just anyone can come into the yard and be stupid about the dog!  And I would never intentionally place my dog in harms way!  So, that being said, I feel it is my RESPONSIBILITY as a dog owner to supervise my dogs while they are outside just as I would my own children!

I again will say that I do not agree with how the officer conducted himself!  I feel he abused his authority! 

BUT, I do not feel badly for the Mattia's becuase they FAILED their dog.  They tied him out, and left him to his own demise as he was just doing what was natural to do when the PACK LEADER is gone!  The ONLY TRUE VICTIM HERE IS MAX!  HE IS THE VICTIM OF THE ABUSE THAT THE OFFICER HANDED OUT AND THE LACK OF SUPERVISION THAT THE FAMILY FAILED TO PROVIDE!

And, we soon will live in the country.....we close on or before on our new home Aug. 3rd!

I know I will not change anyone's mind here but they way I see it is that the Mattia's were equally at fault as the officer was.......and the dog was the one who paid the price!  And that folks IS the true tragedy here!  And that is where I will leave it!  If you don't see it that way I am sorry, but I don't want to hear it when the next person comes on here bawling about their dog that they left tied out!  I have no sympathy for that!

And as the wise Forest Gump would say....."Momma always said, Stupid is as stupid does."  And  "That's all I have to say about TH-aa-T!"

Vickie

www.PowerHausKennels.com

IMO PowerHaus you most likely feel the way you do because of what happened to your HOT girl. You didn't always feel it was wrong to leave a dog unsupervised or loosing your girl would not have happened. People make mistakes, I do not feel the Mattia's failed their dog anymore than I feel you failed yours. Like I said SH_T HAPPENS. Hopefully we all learn from our mistakes, I think these people are owed the benifit of the doubt.  I do think they are the victims in this case. If their dog was running loose and bit the PO or someone else I would think worse of them. I also don't think most people sit around and think of the worse case scenerio that could happen everyday to themselves or their loved ones if they do this or that, or at least I don't. Probably because of where we live, it is a more relaxed lifestyle, I don't know. But you got your way of thinking and I have mine. Guess its what makes the world go round, be pretty boring if everyone thought the same.

It's funny, to me any way, the number of people on this board who are satisfied to hear one side of the story and then are able to meet out justice. A number of you are making assumptions in order to come to a verdict. Either that, or you had a preconcieved idea, in either case I hope you're never on a jury.