Family Outraged over Police Shooting Dogs, Animal Control Director Says It Was In Defense
By Toni Miles
Posted: Dec 8, 2009 12:46 PM
Updated: Dec 8, 2009 5:37 PM
CORPUS CHRISTI--A Corpus Christi family is mourning the loss of two of their dogs and holding on to hope that their other dog will live and be returned to them after being shot by a CCPD officer.
The Director of the City's Animal Control Services says the officer shot the dogs to defend an animal control officer who had gone onto the property.
"It kind of caught me by surprise. I didn't know what had happened. The reason I found out, my little dog was left behind with a bullet hole in his jaw, just sitting there," said Daniel Hernandez
Hernandez says he and his family have been in shock since Sunday. That's when their three dogs were shot by a CCPD officer after someone complained one of their dogs was loose.
"It turns out all the neighbors say they weren't even loose. We don't know if it was somebody else's dog that was loose," Hernandez said.
Hernandez filed a complaint about the shootings with the CCPD's Internal Affairs Division. CCPD Sgt. Russell Jenkins did not want to talk to us on camera about the incident because an investigation is underway, but we did talk to the manager of Animal Control Services.
"My officer did respond to a call to Mr. Hernandez's home where two of his dogs were loose and had gone after some police officers. My officer went in, attempted to catch the dogs, at this time, they were on their property. Two were not chained. One was chained," said Kelli Copeland, Animal Control Services' Program Manager.
Copeland says the officer shot the dogs becuase the animal control officer who went onto the property was in danger. Because of the shootings, one of the dogs was shot, killed and carried off by animal control officers on Sunday. On Tuesday, Hernandez had to put down another dog who was left behind after being shot because officers thought the dog had crawled under the house and died. Their dog Precious was shot in the right side of the face. The family is still waiting for her to be released to them from the Animal Control Services Center.
One neighbor, who did not want to appear on camera, says he saw what happened and had a translator tell us what he saw.
"He says he feels bad. The dogs were tied up, and they were shot, so what could he expect? That's a concern for him," the translator told us.
In the meantime, the Hernandezes say they are heart-broken over the loss of their two dogs and hope to be reunited with their remaining dog Precious, sooner rather than later.
Copeland says they'll have to review the situation before releasing Precious to the Hernandezes and that the family may be written tickets if it's found that the dogs were not registered and did not have their rabies vaccinations.
