"Considering they stopped fighting, couldn't you have sprayed her with Mace, shocked her, whatever you needed to do? You did not have to use deadly force," said Amy Hale.
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| Shot by police while it was trying to rip out the throat of the other pit |
She suggested officers could have sprayed the dog with a nearby garden hose.
Police said they shot the pregnant dog to protect a dog it was attacking and people nearby.
She was two weeks from giving birth, but is now buried in the back yard.
Officers were called to Hale's home at 617 Dawson St. at about 6:44 p.m. after a passerby noticed two pit bulls --- one gray and one brown --- attacking a third pit bull, this one white, in her back yard.
According to police, all three dogs were under a porch, and the white dog came out bleeding with injuries to its neck and legs.
The gray dog resumed its attack on the white dog, tearing at its neck, while the brown dog took an aggressive stance toward the gathering crowd, police said.
The officer fired his AR-15 rifle at the gray dog, killing it, police said. City Animal Control officials detained the other dogs.
Hale, who was at Radio Shack when the shooting happened, said she is in disbelief.
"I'm just in shock." she said. "I feel that everything that went on was crazy."
Her family owns all of the dogs involved. Hennessy, the deceased dog, and King have been with the family for years. They have had Gotti, the white dog, for about a month.
Hennie was like a child to me. I mean all of our dogs are. And to see my husband in that much pain really hurt," said Amy Hale.
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| The Hales don't think this poor dog's face is that big of a deal |
"I'm in a situation now when I just got one of my kids taken away from for honestly no reason that makes sense," said Allan Hale.
"I mean I'm looking at my dog right now, his face is swollen, but like they told me that's going to heal up. From looking at him right now, I honestly see no reason why the cop had to use deadly force on my female," said Hale.
At the time of the incident, the dogs had been left in the yard, which is surrounded by a 6-foot chain link fence, and no one else was home, she said.
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| Look at that giant gap between the gate and the house |
"They were afraid for the people, I guess, outside of the gate. Our dogs were in the gate," Hale said.
Hale said they have not had any problems with the dogs in the past, and she doesn't know what happened while she was gone.
After the shooting, Hale said, she was first told Gotti was seriously injured, but she had the surviving dogs returned and the wounds actually appear minor.
(Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier - Aug 9, 2013)(KWWL)
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