Punish Animal Control Officer Who Wrongly Abused Therapy Service Dog

  • by: SUE LEE
  • recipient: Hillsboro Police Law Enforcement

Please sign and share this petition to ensure that this animal control officer who harmed a therapy service dog be severely punished for his actions. As a result of this unwarranted beating on this dog, Doji the therapy service dog may not be able to help others as she often did.

In Hillsboro, Oregon, 9-year old Labrador named Doji was known as a therapy service dog. Apparently, one day when his owner, Mr. Starr was away from home, Doji got out of his backyard. Neighbors reported that Doji and another dog had gotten loose from their yard and were barking. No one knows for sure how the gate opened; Mr. Starr believes the wind blew it open, but the dogs were out in front of the home by the street. An animal control officer by the name of Hoyt Stepp was on the scene, stating that the dogs became aggressive. This is when Mr. Stepp allegedly hit Doji with a bite stick to the face to get her to back down.

Neighbors however witnessed the entire incident when the animal control officer arrived, except for what happened within the animal’s back yard and they stated that the dogs were not at all being aggressive. When confronted by the animal control officer, the dogs ran back into their own yards. Mr. Starr stated “At that point witnesses say the officer followed the dogs into the backyard. One witness told me your animals were perfectly fine until we could no longer see them.”

No one knows for sure what occurred in the backyard except that Doji was beaten so badly by the animal control officer who followed him there and she is probably going to lose her right eye. Aren’t animal control officers supposed to care and protect animals in safe, non-violent manner? These dogs clearly did not attack the officer or present a threat to anyone; they mistakenly got out of their yard but were followed back home where they were beaten! For what??

Mr. Stepp is now working in the office, not in the field until a full investigation is completed by Hillsboro Police. Mr. Starr is extremely upset over the injury to his service dog! He states that if the officer is not punished properly, he will be suing. After all, witnesses can attest to the fact that the dogs never showed aggression during the who incident, contrary to what Mr. Stepp claims.

Mr. Starr states that this is his baby and loves to save lives. “I don’t want any other animal owner to have to go through what I’m going through now,” Starr said. “To have to worry about their animal. To wonder whether Dojie will ever be able to rescue another soul from the river.” Starr says Dojie is an experienced river rescue dog trained to help people who fall out of rafts on whitewater trips find their way to shore. This owner hopes to gain justice for his dog and get Mr. Stepp punished for his unwarranted behavior against this animal. Please sign and share this petition to ensure that this animal control officer who harmed a therapy service dog be severely punished for his actions. As a result of this unwarranted beating on this dog, Doji the therapy service dog may not be able to help others as she loved to do.

 

Hillsboro Police Law Enforcement – Please investigate the beating of DoJi, the therapy service dog who was beaten by an animal control officer. These people are supposed to save and protect animals in a humane way without harming them. Witnesses can attest to the fact that the dogs were not aggressive as he stated but even if this were the case, there are ways to catch and restrain an animal without beating it to the point of it losing its eye. Please complete this investigation to its fullest to ensure that the animal control officer, Mr. Stepp is punished for inhumanely treating this dog the way he did by beating her!


 

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