It was last Thursday that the dog’s owner brutally beat him with a garden tool and left him for dead in nearby woods.
“When I pulled into the driveway, I could see blood on the side of the pick-up truck,” Officer Brian Shameklis said.
Police feared little Jameson was dead in the snow covered woods, but Officers Shameklis, Michael Whitney, Jason Chelo, Alison Metcalfe, and Dispatcher Anthony Silva were determined to find him.
“We’re flashing around and thought I saw movement but with flashlights and dark and everything like that (it was hard to see), and his head moved and one of us yelled he’s still alive,” canine officer Michael Whitney said.
After being rushed to a Springfield veterinarian at the Boston Road Animal Hospital, Jameson was transferred to a Weymouth neurologist for brain surgery. Growing medical bills have totaled over $10,000. It was the police officers who put their own credit cards up to pay for at least Jameson’s down payment. A Facebook page was quickly launched and www.petchance.org began fundraising to help.
“The outpouring of sympathy and concern and frustration and anger that something like this happened in the community,” founder of “Ludlow Residents Against Animal Cruelty” Kimberly Kulig said. “It’s showing that everyone coming together can outdue the evil done that night.”
To the tune of over $10,000 in donations. Now one of the first faces Jameson saw that dark night, Detective Metcalfe, is his new owner and given him his new name as a fresh start. With a fitting superman sweater and little hat, Jameson returned to Ludlow Wednesday to see many well wishers at a vigil.
“Jameson could not be in better hands than where he is,” Michelle Diotalevi said.
With his new family both in and outside the police department.
“For us to come to work and to save the dog first of all and then to have the whole animal lover community band together to try to save one dog- it’s refreshing and it’s heartwarming- and we don’t see that everyday,” Metcalfe said.
Doctors are optimistic for Jameson’s prognosis, as he continues on medication for recovering, still needs rehab, and still needs staples taken out of his head in the next week.
After that, it’s own to his new, happier life with the Metcalfes.
Jameson’s former owner, Ricardo Costa was charged with animal cruelty and held on $2500 cash bail.
When Officer Shameklis asked Costa about the whereabouts of his dog, he initially said he had given the dog away, but when Shameklis inquired about the blood he had seen in the driveway Costa admitted that he had killed his dog, Valadas said.
Costa lead Officer Shameklis to the garage and showed him how he had struck the animal in the head four or five times with a large set of pruning loppers. There was blood, hair, and blood droplets leading to the overhead door. There was also blood on the pruning loppers, Valadas said.
Costa was arrested, but voluntarily agreed to show the Detective and Officer to where he had discarded the dog.
Costa lead them to a parking area near the Red Bridge State Park by the lower end of a power generation dam in the town of Wilbraham. Costa pointed to where he had thrown the dog over a snow bank, Valadas said.
Officer Shameklis and Detective Metcalfe immediately crawled over the snow bank and saw a black dog laying in the snow. They initially thought the dog was dead, but when they called out and approached the dog, they found it still alive and moving.
(WGGB - Feb 12, 2014)
what a cute pup
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