That is Fritz," Darrin Hatfield said on Wednesday, pointing at a picture of a black German Shepherd on his computer screen.
Darrin and his wife, Debbie, prefer to remember him like that -- "that's him being mad because he's stuck in the snow" -- rather than like this: "That one there is pretty nasty, that's the one with him in the ditch."
A week after Fritz and Egon, the Hatfields' two German Shepherds, escaped through an open gate in their backyard, a ditch is where the couple found them.
"It hurt; me and my wife broke down. We had to call my daughter and son-in-law; he pulled Fritz out of the pit because I couldn't do it," Darrin said.
The two dogs attacked and killed a neighbor's cat, then attacked another neighbor's goats. That neighbor shot and killed Egon.
According to Arkansas state law, any person who knows that a dog has killed a domesticated animal, or catches that dog in the act of chasing, injuring or killing a domesticated animal can legally shoot it, and the Hatfields are actually okay with that part.
"I have no problem with the farmer shooting Egon for attacking his goat," Darrin said.
They say it's what an Animal Control officer did and didn't do that disgusts them. He killed Fritz, who the Hatfields say was just standing by Egon's body. And then they say the officer lied about it for days, claiming he hadn't seen the dogs.
"I think, as soon as he saw Fritz and knew who it was, I should have had the phone call. Even if he had to shoot my dog, calling me and letting me know what happened would have been courtesy," said Darrin.
The Hatfields say there was no excuse; the officer knew their dogs. It's painful for the animal lovers. Hundreds of others seem to agree; that's how many have liked the "Justice for Fritz and Egon" Facebook page.
Berryville city officials say they're animal lovers too.
"We are very dog friendly in this town," said city administrative assistant Jay Lee.
Lee says the officer has been warned.
"We do feel like our Animal Control officer did the right thing with the incident. It was the follow-up to the incident where we feel like he had a judgment error," Lee said.
The Hatfields say that judgment error made a terrible situation even worse.
"It's just uncalled for. Everybody deserves a phone call at least," Debbie said.
The Hatfields say they were only told the truth about Fritz and Egon when they found the owner of the goats. They then confronted the Animal Control officer. He finally admitted they'd been thrown in the pit.
The administrative assistant says this is the first incident about which he's heard involving the animal control officer shooting a dog.
(KSPR - March 20, 2013)
