11 replies to this topic

[Sharon]

   I had hoped to get some help from one of the Huntsville TV stations but they seem to be dragging their heels.
   Last week someone came on to our property and shot our German Shepherd at our back door. She was shot in the mouth and in only a few minutes was dead. This animal was trained with a family within the Humane Soceity of Athens, AL that had autist children. My youngest has a learning disability like autism in many way.  Her first family had to move and we were able to get Suzy. She was trained to protect the children and did a wonderful job of watching our house and property. Someone had tried to kill her by leaving poison food on our property but she would only eat what we gave her. As a result we kept her inside alot but she got out for a bathroom break and was alone for only a few minutes.
   Over the years we have been harassed with break ins and thefts and vandals hit my washing machine and dryer and even our lawn mower and tiller. We know someone is trying to make us move. My older two girls are honor students at the school here. We are the few Catholics in this area and have friends of all races, there is a bunch who harrass mix race families in this area.
    This shooting happen during a time when we went to court on an assult case of an older student who bullied and bet up Lily. The judge imposed a restaining order on all parties but also on any third parties who may act out on the bully's behalf.
    I am trying to find help from any animal rights groups or animal lovers to have reward $$ to offer to find Suzy's killer or killers. Even crooks are animal lovers and when you add money to the pot, they will turn each other in to get extra $$$. We had hoped one of the Huntsville stations would act on this but have not contact us back after asking to do a story on this.
   I went and took some very  difficult pics of Suzy being dead and also of all the blood all over our back door and door steps (she bleed greatly).
    Our cops are aware of all this as I have reported everything in detail. We have a feeling we know who is doing all this but need evidence to get them in court.
    But killing this animal in the manner it was done is prue evil. Over the week I have told countless people how God has a special place in hell with people who do this type of evil. Suzy was very intellect and did a wonderful job taking care of us but also one of Lily's close friends. The dog could track a scent off our property so we knew how they were getting up here so close to the house. Our neighbor's dog saw all this and jump her fence we think to chase or follow the crook.
    Our sherrif believes offering reward $$ will help break this case, perhaps some related ones in this area.
Any of you with ties to any body who believes in protecting animals that can help with advice, we would love to hear from you.

[bjd]

Hi, Sharon:

What a terrible thing to have happened.  I'm so sorry to hear of your loss.  And I just wanted to comment that's it's a little worrisome that they came so close to your house to shoot.  Usually cowardly no-goods like that will work a distance so they don't run much of a risk.  Somebody shot my stepmother's Beagle while he was boarding at a vet's and was out in the yard -- it was a BB gun and he wasn't severely injured, but it still was mean.  There are some really stupid, ugly people in this world.

I don't mean to scare you, and it does sound like most of the harassment you have suffered has been from a distance and relatively benign, but this was a very aggressive action and I hope you have talked to your law enforcement and legal contacts about protecting yourselves.  I don't know what can be done, but do please take care of yourselves, get restraining orders and other orders if you can, and I hope they get whoever did that.

And remember, the only thing that can stop hate is the absence of hate, 24/7.  Take care,

Barb

[GaTechinHSV]

there has been a rash of serious crime in Huntsville of late. My nieghbor was broken into on a Weds morning at 1:00 AM while they were at home. The cops caught those folks about 4 days later. Apparently, the crime rate in HSV took a serious jump in Sept 2005 and hasn't let up since.  Sounds as if you may have been the latest victim of a possible robbery, but it also could have been someone tired of hearing a dog bark or such.
Hate to hear it, particularly for your kid.  

[Titan]

I am so sorry to hear about this... Please be sure to let us know if you make any progress.

[Jack Watkins]

Sorry about your dog, Sharon. What a terrible thing to do. Hopefully some of our members in the media will help pass your story along.

[Sharon]

Rose was the one who found Suzy like this and it scared her. She didn't want Lily to see any of this and truthfully Iris doesn't understand it one bit.  Just the cold heartness of this act. And also there is  daycare directly across the street which had kids in it when this happen. We have observed various people watching our place alot, which of course we turn all info over to the cops. The assult on Lily happen only a few weeks after a family near us with mix race children finally left. The way that family was treated was just inhumane and it makes Huntland look like everyone here is !**backward central. Anyhow we are getting the word out, maybe the guilt will over take them. There is a restaining order in effect for third parties acting out. Judge got word of Suzy's shooting and all the harrassment. Lily hopes we can get another guard dog, the lab/terrior puppy we have is good for barking but still in guard dog 101 training.

[Colby]

Very sorry about your dog...what a stupid, vile thing to do  

Sharp rise in crime in September 2005? Hmm...wonder what that could be connected to  

[wesl]

What an evil thing to do!  

You might want to PM Santa on here.  He is a report for Ch 19 and is on here all the time.

Another media source is Tracy Roberts at Ch 48 - call 533-4848 and ask for her by name.  She is one of the best around.

Best of luck.

[BlountWolf]

Sharon - 63 more comments on your story here. I hope you don't mind that I cross-posted it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/20/18365/6050

[Colby]

This in particular caught my eye:

Criminal Offenses Offenses Against Property) 39-14-205 Intentional killing of police dog or animal

1989 amend. 1996

Summary: Prohibits the intentional or knowingly unlawful killing of another's animal with the intent to deprive the owner of the animal's life, and without owner consent, commits a theft of that animal. In calculating the value of a police dog, both the cost of the dog and any specialized training must be taken into account.

Exception: Acting under reasonable belief that animal was creating an imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury to either the offender, an animal belonging to the offender, or another person. exception does not apply if offender is a trespasser on owner's property exception does not apply if offender kills a police dog while trying to escape a crime

Penalty: Depends on value of animal (39-14-105): $500 or less = Class A misdemeanor, (40-35-111) maximum 11 months and 29 days confinement and/or maximum $2,500 fine. $501 -- $1,000 = Class E Felony, (40-35-111) 1-6 years confinement and/or maximum $3,000 fine. $1,000 -- $10,000 = Class D Felony, (40-35-111) 2-12 years confinement and/or maximum $5,000 fine.


I'm suprised, actually, by the penalties, I didn't know the laws were that strict.

[Ghost]

Sharon... this is a tragic story.  If someone is targeting you simply because you're a race mixed family, then those people should be held accountable not only for what they did to your loving pet, but because of their bigoted racial attitudes which I interpret as a possible hate crime.  I'm not a big fan of the organization because I think they sometimes get on the wrong side of an issue instead of the correct side, but in your situation, I wonder if the ACLU could become involved?

[Sharon]

To give you all a time line of happenings. Suzy was shot last Thursday at roughly 5pm. The court hearing was this week on Tuesday at 1pm. Between the shooting and court we had some harassing phone calls which were lewd in nature and also we heard their the grapevine that the girl plan to have friends of hers again try to beat up Lily. We got on the horn to the sherrif and they had a good number of cops on duty to watch stuff during court.
We are not actually mixed race although way back, I mean way back we are black Irish although I am as pale looking as you can get. Our family is friends with a Hispanic family (here legally) and many of my girls friends are all races. There is some mixed race families locally we know and we work with a Catholic outreach which helps several families who are stuggling. They all work but high gas prices take the toll. The common thread is that all these families have mix race family members.
Suzy was only some 10 feet from the back door and someone used a silenter on a gun to do this. We have a home security system which has audio. Suzy would point to what ever was bothering her. We know she did n't charge after anyone that afternoon. Our home has been broken into so many times the crooks know this. The night before Suzy was shot she was on my daughter's bedroom and heard something outside in the dark. She took her teeth and pull back the curtains , barked some and then tried to open the window with her mouth. Who ever it was ran off as they knew we knew they were there. The back part of the property is grown up and they can hide back there easily. In the past year when we have tried to cut down the growth, harassment or theft of some type has happen. Someone doesn't want us to clear the back acre. Is drug trade involved , perhaps?
We do a bunch here which harasses families in this area . Everyone knows who these people are and we have seen them in action, Suzy has chased them away from our property when she has alerted us to threats. Thing is that the local cops all thur the years have not taken action against them.  
It was Suzy's nature to corner someone but if one of the kids was near by she was very protective.
From what I know about these people they are very motivated by money so we believe the crooks who know them would turn them in for $$.
As you can guess some families have chosen to move from this area. We don't plan to. The girls are well established at school and are some of the better students who score well all the time.  
I'm still looking for some group to offer reward money and we are still working closely with our sheriff.