John Jennings, Newton Daily News –
The owner of the dog that was shot by a Newton police officer over the weekend was speaking out about the incident Monday.
Jeri Fahrenkrug was not a witness to the shooting of her dog, Griz, which occurred after Newton police responded to a complaint at 10:10 a.m. Saturday of a dog running loose in the Emerson Hough area, but she received a call from her brother telling her that the police had just shot the pit bull near her yard.
“Two of the officers were very rude to me,” Fahrenkrug said. “They told me the dog was shot because he was loose and he lunged at the officer. But the officer was 30 feet away, and a neighbor saw the dog running away from the police.”
Cindy Crady, who lives near Fahrenkrug, was a witness to the shooting and corroborated Fahrenkrug’s story.
“That is not an aggressive dog, and he didn’t act aggressively toward the officer,” Crady said.
Crady said she was standing in her doorway and saw several police cars arrive. She didn’t see Griz at first but was watching the officer.
“I didn’t notice the dog at first, but then I saw him standing by a tree,” Crady said. “I recognized the dog as belonging to Jeri. He didn’t charge after the officer, but he looked at the officer then turned his head and appeared to be heading back toward his own yard. He didn’t act aggressive toward the officer at all. He got shot from behind.”
Crady said she felt the officer — Lt. Ron Cook —shot the dog from approximately 20 feet away.
Crady’s description of Griz’s demeanor, however, is quite different from that described by retired Iowa State Patrol Officer Gordon Dodds (see the letter to the editor on page 4). Dodds was the individual who reported the pit bull running loose to Jasper County Dispatch on Saturday morning after he saw a man being harassed by the dog near Emerson Hough. Dodds said the dog was snarling and growling at the man, and Dodds rescued the man by allowing him to get into his car.
But Fahrenkrug said she could not understand why her dog had to be shot.
“It should have been the last resort,” Fahrenkrug said of the shooting. “Why couldn’t they have Tasered him or tranquilized him? Why didn’t he just get back in his car and wait until the Animal Rescue League arrived? They were two minutes away.”
Fahrenkrug said she is planning to hire a lawyer and is having T-shirts printed in order to pay for the lawyer fees.
“My dog was just two and a half years old. He just wanted to play. He was never aggressive with anybody.”
Although some questioned why the officer did not wait for an animal control officer to arrive, Newton Police Chief Jeff Hoebelheinrich said Griz was advancing on the officer and the officer feared for his safety. In addition, a report had been received that the dog had acted aggressively toward another person earlier that morning, and a report had been taken on the dog on Aug. 23 indicating that it had bitten a person. Fahrenkrug was cited at that time for having no dog license.
Dog owners, especially those with aggressive breeds should be forced to carry a $5 million liability insurance policy. Unlicensed dogs should face a $500 fine. Any Pit Bull or other aggressive breed that threatens to bite, or actually bites a human, no matter the severity should face charges, and show cause why the animal should not be put down, and held liable for all damages, punitive or otherwise. All Pit Bulls outside of their home or cages should be muzzled.
I am pretty tired of walking down the street and being accosted by unlicensed, poorly trained, and poorly kept pit bulls.
I remind people, my right to freely walk down any street, trumps those of dog owners.
Congratulations to the officers for trying to keep their communtiy safe. Job well done!
TO ANYBODY WHO JUSTIFIES DISCRIMINATING AGAINST PITBULLS. Your disgusting. how you can commend someone for taking an innocent life and how can you discriminate a breed. ANY dog can bit and ANY dog can not like people and become aggressive not just pitbulls. All dogs are EQUAL and should be treated that way rather than implying that one breed of dog is worse than another. Your sick.
I’ve seen pitties fight and they are vicious mine was a champ only lost once
Pitties are prone to attack other dogs, not people.
pitbulls are not attack dogs by nature. My pitbull red was protecting my granddaughter when another dog entered my yard. And lucky the officer was a bad aim my pitbull RED is still alive happened oct. 14th and he his home today. Very loving happy dog and would never hurt anyone just don’t like other dogs. lots of dogs don’t not just pitts. It’s funny once the media gets ahold of the story how the cops change their story. It’s really no wonder people hate cops they lie and get away with it. My heart goes out to grizz owner how very sad. You are not a bad owner don’t listen to the crap. If a dog can find away out hes gunna roam without anyone knowing. Thats why we have animal control officers they are better trained. And in my city the animal control told me he would not have shot the dog.
I believe this officer should have waited for animal control. There are to many police officers untrained for this situation. Any dog I don’t care what kind (if a person in uniform or not someone the dog knows)comes to their property the dog is going to protect it’s territory. My pitbull was just shot by an untrained officer in my yard while fighting with another dog that was unleashed and entered my yard. The other dog bit my dog first or had to of because the officer said my dog had ahold of the other dog and wouldnt let go the officer attempted to tase my dog and missed and hit the other dog oops then had to shoot my dog. This is pitbull profiling prejidice should have never entered the pitbulls yard….
http://www.examiner.com/article/pit-bulls-scoring-better-than-121-other-breeds-temperament-are-gentle-dogs
Pit bulls should be outlawed within the city limits. It is their nature to be aggressive. Just look at the owners of these pit bulls, most of them are drug dealers and criminals and they use their dogs to intimidate people. I know of two occasions where a pit bull ripped off the face of two little children.
Woah, not aggressive by nature, aggressive by training & neglect, just like any other breed of dog. Research before you slander a wonderful breed. Also, I am an owner of 3 Pitbulls, I’m not a drug dealing thug, I’m a working mom. Does that fit your description dippy? I know of 10 million Pitbulls that didn’t bite anyone, so don’t start that crap. All dogs bite. Stick to the story at hand or keep your mouth shut.
Pit Bulls are attack dogs by nature and training. If you don’t want your dog shot keep it under control. Why do you think you should support your loose dog over the safety and well being of people just walking by. My neighbor has two pit bulls that are real friendly when they are around but charge everyone who walks by scaring people half to death. Why would you tie your Pit Bulls in the front yard where they can reach the sidewalk. Dog owners need to use common sense and understand that all dogs will try to protect their home.
The police need to be better trained with dogs. Too many pets being shot instead of pepper sprayed. Murder should be a last resort. If a witness said the dog wasn’t charging, then I don’t believe it was. Too many people are biased against Pit Bulls & the media is largely to blame along with irresponsible owners. Had this dog been a different breed I believe the outcome would have been different. Sad to say, but it is racism against dogs. Rest in Peace Griz. <3 Why do we have to live in a world with such prejudice? I have 2 Pitbulls & 1 Pitbull mix. Great dogs!!!!! Any dog would get fearful around a police man or anyone in uniform. FYI, Pit Bulls pass temperment tests at 84%, better than MOST other breeds. Get your facts straight before you judge. For every one dog that bites, there's 10 million others that don't that you won't hear about. My heart goes out to the owner of Griz, I would lose my mind if this happened to me.
Well, this sounds like one of those irresponsible dog owners that you blame. Failing to get a dog license and a history of allowing the dog to run loose. But where do you get the notion that “Any dog would get fearful around a police man or anyone in uniform?”
HEY Mrs. S….. Pepper Spray does NOT work on dogs
1.) They are NOT attack dogs by nature, please research & educate yourself & don’t spew uniformed chatter, that doesn’t help any.
2.) Dogs get out of yards every day, lots of responsible people have no idea they need a city dog license – it is not well advertised in any Iowa city. She apparently had all vaccinations up to date & the dog was said to not be aggressive by a witness, so decent owner.
3.) Police should know if pepper spray works or tranquilizer would definitely have subdued a situation.
4.) The shitbag officer could have waited for the Animal League who were on their way & can obviously deal better with pets than police can.
5.) Do dogs like the mailman or UPS men, no, my guess is because they are men & in uniform.
6.) LVS, precautionary measures need to be taken with ALL pet ownership. Leash laws, & common sense need to be in play no matter what kind of dog you have. Stop being ignorant & blaming the dog. This officer was out of line completely. If he can’t handle his job, maybe he should resign.
MrsS, Most dogs do like the UPS man. There are a few who don’t but most do. I know this from 31 years experience. And the ones who bit me were always freindly according to their owners!!
Nobody’s blaming the dog, Mrs. S. The irresponsible owner is at fault and the dog had to pay the price. This is consistent with pit-bull defenders who say, “Don’t blame the dog. Go after the irresponsible owners.” Well, I blame the owner that the dog is dead.
Oh really, so if a Lab or Sheltie is out loose it’s okay for some trigger happy, untrained cop to shoot them? Nah. Not okay to shoot a pet regardless. This officer is to blame. And happyguy, I’ve worked with & owned pets for 15+ years & in my experience they don’t do well with UPS or mail deliveries. I was speaking from my experience with various kinds of dogs. Bottom line, the only one out of control in this was the officer. No pet should be shot for running loose.
MrsS…I am sorry but you are wrong. The vast majority of dogs I encountered in 31 years of mainly residential and rural route deliveries were very freindly and had no problem with my brown uniform. The same applied to the 30 some other drivers I worked with daily. We’ve had 4 different dogs over the years and none of those had trouble with men in uniform, be it UPS, mail, or police. The owner is at fault for not obeying the leash laws. The police officer was just doing his job and most likely hated to do what he was sworn by oath to do.
I said I was speaking from my experience, that doesn’t mean I’m wrong, it means we’ve had different experiences. Also, you think the police man hated to do it? Then he could have waited for the Animal League, used a tranquilizer, or better yet been working somewhere where he wouldn’t have the opportunity to murder a pet. A loose pet doesn’t warrant a violent death sentence. There are animal officers for pets that got out of yards or off leash. The officer was at fault, he fired the gun, he chose to do it, he killed someone’s pet.
MrsS, Why is it you don’t understand plain english and the simpilist laws. The pet owner was breaking the law when the dog started running around unleashed. Are you following that ok so far? The police officer has a duty to protect innosent people. You got that? Pit bulls have a history of being very aggressive animals. Are we still on the same page? If Newton is like MC the officer could have waited a very long time for the dog catcher to get there. Still ok? Police officers don’t carry dart guns. You still there? By the time the help you wanted to arrive got there that dog could have been long gone or worse case have bittin, malled, or killed someone. 1 more step, I hope you are still with it. This officer did what he needed to do to protect the people in the neighborhood. If he attempted to call the dog to him and it ran away his only choice was to kill the animal.. The police did their duty…the dog owner didn’t do his. Thus the dog was shot. That was pretty easy to follow now wasn’t it?
happyguy, what don’t you get? It said in the article, police report & witness spoke that the officer had options. Dogs running loose don’t deserve to be murdered. This officer could have waited for animal services, it was witnessed that he was not being threatened. Thanks for the diagram of how exactly your head is shoved up your butt.
MrsS, I am glad that you can take the leap of faith believing that eye witnesses can never be wrong. They are conflicting most of the time.
And your 15 years of experience is a small data set compared to the whole picture. For instance, I have never been shot by any of the guns I have been around so they MUST be 100% perfectly safe right? Now who’s head is where now?
Never know the truth because the dog can’t talk and take the honest word of the officer in charge – right ?
Well done!!! Keep shootin boys.
I sure as hell hope your not a Vet around here, right? If so, I can almost guess WHO you are jackass!!
In fact,
maybe NIT should locate your ip address and plaster your jackass comment & inform the public of just how you feel about animals!
Don’t feed the troll.
Agreed! I wish there was a federal law against breeding this dangerous breed. The only people who own them are those who are trying to be cool. Disgusting! And like you said, keep shooting!
Breed specific legislation is a dumb idea. The people who are horrible pit bull owners and raise them to be aggressive will just go out and buy alligators or skunks or killer bees.
I know that some dogs are aggressive and dangerous, but when police come charging into your home, a lot of dogs will be protective. It sucks when they raid the wrong house and they kill a beloved pet. My own dogs get very excited when company comes and police would probably misinterpret their exuberance as aggression. They also get very excited when the pizza delivery guy shows up! If the dog doesn’t have his teeth barred, isn’t growling, or have his ears back, he’s not likely to attack an intruder.
The dog was running loose (apparantly for a second time)a resposible pet owner doesn’t let this happen.
Your point is?
That doesn’t give ANYONE a right to shoot a pet, witnesses said the dog wasn’t charging and was heading the opposite direction! Pit bulls are targets for IGNORANT PEOPLE!
Pit bulls are targets for people who don’t want to be ripped to shreds. The more of these ugly things blown off the face of the earth the better. People who own them ought to be thrown in prison for possession of a dangerous weapon.
I doubt it happens very often that the police get the wrong house and kill a dog there. I’m not saying it hasn’t happened, just not enough to try and make a point on. Bottom line is if you are a dog owner and you love your pet keep it chained up or fenced in. Having been a delivery driver for 31 years I know all to well that many “freindly” dogs do bite. Everyone that bit me was freindly according to its owner.
I am sorry about the dog but I and my husband were walking down the sidewalk a few years back and a pit bull came after us. WE started for the other side of the street while thank God I had a cell phone called the police. When the police arrived the dog went after them and they had no choice but to shoot. When people were outside standing around AFTER this happened they blamed the police they weren’t even outside! I know the dog was a friendly dog because the owners had kids but the dog got out of the fenced in backyard and when we walked by the dog was just protecting the property. Most everyone wants to blame the police but when owning a dog and I mean any kind of dog things can happen. So when read or hear about how a police shot a dog I don’t always believe what I read or hear
There are way too many reports of officers shooting dogs without provocation. Most dogs are friendly but the officers don’t know the difference between a friendly approach and an aggressive one. They don’t know enough about canine behavior to be assassinating them. Half the time they won’t even give the owner a chance to restrain the dog when they raid a home – too often the wrong address. Some of the incidents I have read about are just tragic.
Assassinate? Hardly.