MICHIGAN -- The life-and-death cause of a Doberman pinscher in Royal Oak went viral online after authorities said the pet might need to be destroyed for biting a man outside a grocery store last fall.
Scores of calls and hundreds of e-mails from dog lovers to Royal Oak City Hall this week came from as far as Nova Scotia and China on behalf of Heidi.
The Doberman's bite to a Warren man, seconds after he asked whether the dog was friendly, left him with a broken nose and impaired breathing that required surgery, City Attorney Dave Gillam said.
The resulting legal battle over the dog's fate has global viewers of www.saveheidi.com in a rush to sign an online petition that Gillam said Thursday unfairly defends the dog while bad-mouthing the city.
The website says Heidi, a 5-year-old rescued Doberman, "popped up at the same time that the stranger bent over to pet her. She collided with his face" during the incident Oct. 15 outside the Fresh Approach grocery store.
Not so, Gillam contended.
"Somehow it has been portrayed that we want to destroy this dog, have it drawn and quartered, for a dog that just gave a man a head butt. That could not be further from the truth," he said.
Reports from the Beaumont Hospital emergency room and Royal Oak animal control officers both said the victim's nose was broken by the force of the dog's bite, city documents said.
Gillam said Royal Oak is enforcing its vicious dog ordinance by requesting that the owner either move out of the city with her two Dobermans, have Heidi destroyed or put the dog through obedience training and have it muzzled in public. Heidi's owner faces a Thursday court date for a pretrial conference, he said.
The dog's owner, Jan Spalding of Royal Oak, has been given two tickets, one for the dog's bite and another because Heidi wasn't licensed with the city; the violations are misdemeanors punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine, Gillam said.
Spalding could not be reached Thursday but her website said: "Heidi has no previous incidents of aggressive behavior and is a well-trained, obedient, loving success story of a Doberman rescue."
The injured man, Kevin Seagraves, might need more surgery, and he plans to sue Spalding, Seagraves' attorney Harold Perakis said.
"We're not trying to destroy this dog, and neither is the city, but we want to make sure this doesn't happen to someone else," Perakis said Thursday.
(Detroit Free Press - Feb 3, 2012)
