I found this story off Craigslist. It's disheartening, however, if it had been a Pitbull, the owners would have been singing a different story. But the outcome would have been NO different.
PLEASE READ.... HELP!!!!
Our Labrador Tex, was put down Yesterday April 4th 2007. He was picked up nearly 3 weeks ago for jumping our fence for the 2nd time. He protected our property by growling at the officer trying to catch him but he never lunged at or bit anyone.. In our eyes he was only doing his job.
Our neighbor has always tried to get us in trouble at one time or another... They have made fraudulent claims time and time again about the amount of dog poop in the backyard. Animal control has come out multiple times & every time has stated that our backyard was fine and that our neighbor had nothing better to do then complain and that he had complained about everyone that had lived in our home prior.
Our neighbor once worked as a prison guard & we were told a while back that he was friends of the local judge and chief of police.
2 weeks before our dog jumped the fence our neighbor threatened us that the next time he did he would end up dead.. Now 5 weeks later our dog is dead.
Strangely enough.. Our Labrador was a great dog, gentle as can be, wonderfuly protective of his home. Great with other dogs, and awesome with our 3 and 1 year old sons. He did however have a trouble with escaping the yard. We exhausted ever possible option to include putting up a larger fence to keep him in. When he got picked up the last time we resolved to give him away to a ranch in Austin that has 60 acers. We knew he would be happy there.. We never got the chance...
Yesterday we went to court... We thought just to pay a fine and to get our dog back.. we thought that the worst possible outcome was that we would have to give him away. The judge told the prosecution that our dog couldn't be put down because he wasn't vicious but that he would order that we surrender Tex to animal control and that Tex couldn't be adopted within our town.
Animal Control actually testified against us (so did our neighbor)... They completely changed the story about our yard and about our dog.. The told us one thing and told the judge another!
We went shortly thereafter to bring Tex some treats and toys and to let the Animal control officers know that someone from Austin would be coming to get him soon. However when we got there we were told he had been put down! (for growling at the officer who tried to catch him while he was in our yard, HE NEVER BIT ANYONE NOR DID HE TRY). The judge specifically said that Tex wasn't supposed to be put down.
So here we are.. We are planing to sue the city (Copperas Cove, about 1 hour North of Austin)over this. Tex was like a child to us. We had him since he was a puppy. We loved him dearly and they killed him without warrant!
So far we have only made an appointment with one specific lawyer.. his rate is $250 an hour.. You may have heard of him.. Dan Corbin, Killeen.
If you know of a cheaper lawyer or someone who might help us out for free or at a % cost then we would really appreciate it. Also if you know of any animal rights groups that can help us out that would be awesome too.. We don't like asking for money so we wont.. We don't even care if we get anything back from the lawsuit.. Its all about principal.. They killed the greatest dog ever and the need to pay! If all you can help with is prayer.. then please PRAY...
THANKS Laura A. Essary laura_essary@yahoo.com
Since yesterday we cave wrote our local news channels, news papers and P.E.T.A. Any other advice/help is greatly appreciated.
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