[LadyPox]

Star-Herald
Scottsbluff, NE

Posted: Monday, September 17, 2012 11:52 am
Updated: 4:58 pm, Mon Sep 17, 2012.

By MAUNETTE LOEKS Staff Reporter

A Scottsbluff man is mourning the loss of his 3-year-old German shepherd after the dog died after being mutilated Saturday by an attacker.

On Saturday morning, the family of Christopher Henderson had to euthanize its dog, Ike. The dog had been partially skinned from its belly to its genitals, Henderson told the Star-Herald Monday morning.

“The veterinarian told me that if it was his dog, he would put him to sleep,” Henderson said.

Scotts Bluff County Sheriff Mark Overman confirms that an investigation is under way.

As of Monday morning, the cause of Ike’s injuries was not specifically determined. Henderson says he believes the dog had been purposefully injured by a neighbor.

“The cuts on his belly were clean,” he said. “They were knife cuts.”

On Friday night, Henderson said his mother and her boyfriend had been unable to find Ike, who usually stayed with them. The injured dog eventually came crawling back to her home.

Prior to the attack, Ike had been in some mischief in the past for getting in the neighbor’s chicken coop. The neighbor’s dogs had also been involved, Henderson said, as he said he saw them involved in attacking the neighbor’s chickens as well.

“They (the neighbor’s) had called the sheriff’s department on us once, but we hadn’t heard any complaints in at least six months. …We did what we could to put a stop to it,” Henderson said.

He had put a kennel at his mother’s home to attempt to thwart Ike in his nightly ventures. It was part of the nightly routine to put Ike and the dog’s mother, which the Hendersons also own, in the kennel. When the dog disappeared, Henderson hoped he would turn up at his family’s home, located on Streeks Road northeast of Gering.

The neighbor also has bred purebred pitbulls, he said, and a female may be in heat. Henderson theorizes his dog may have been caught mating with the neighbor's dog, resulting in the attack.

On Saturday morning, Henderson said, he received a call from his mother that the dog had come home badly injured. Overman said his deputy described the dog “as basically filleted.”

Two vets concurred that the injuries weren’t inflicted by another animal or a wire fence, Henderson said.

“He had lost a lot of blood,” he said. “His skin was just hanging there. There was a lot of flesh exposed.”

Though the dog had been badly injured, Henderson said he hoped he could be saved.

“He had crawled home. He obviously had a will to live. Once I saw that, I made the decision to take him into the animal clinic to see if he could be saved.”

However, the vet told the family that surgery would mean a long recovery time and involve a large risk of infection. He gave the dog about a 10 percent chance of survival. The family decided to euthanize the dog to end its suffering.

At the Henderson home, Henderson said, his brother-in-law had followed a blood trail made by the dog straight to a neighbor’s property. However, Overman said that claim and some other claims of evidence found “are greatly exaggerated.”

Overman denied Facebook comments made by the family that a person must have witnessed the crime for an investigation to be pursued. He said his deputy had not been aware of any statements that had given the family that impression.

The dog’s death is under investigation, he said. Though it is not illegal in the county for a person to shoot a dog that has killed or threatened livestock or other animals, Overman said injuring a dog in the attack described by the owners would be a crime under animal cruelty statutes. “It is a horrible and disgusting thing … that a person could do that to a dog is cruel,” Overman said.

As the family mourns Ike, Henderson said, they think of the dog that he was.

“He was really easygoing,” he said. “He was great with kids. He loved everybody, even strangers. He was a klutzy dog — he always seemed to be under my feet — but he was a good dog.”

Henderson said he hopes to see justice done. At the very least, he said, he wants others in the area to know that a dangerous person lives near them. He has concern for dogs belonging to his own family and other neighbors.

“I want to let people know that there is someone like this in your neighborhood,” he said, adding that the individual who mutilated his dog has to be “sick.” “Obviously, there are some heartless people out there…to think that someone could even think to do that to a dog.

"You do not know what that person is capable of — they could do this to a human being.”

[bloodgasm]

Oh God.

[LadyPox]

I bet what set them off was catching Ike fucking one of their prized pit bulls. If they do this to another dog, you have to wonder how they are raising those pits. They might be the kind of pits your mother warned you about!

[ices]

You cannot just skin an animal without having done so for some time.

Definitely done it before.

[wujuan]

the stupid fuck head of an owner should've been a better owner. dont let your animals run loose and to want to tortue the poor dog with surgery. oh no, how about the will to live. is that the only reason you took him to vet? if he didnt have it would you have let him suffer? stupid fuck. if you loved him that much you sure had a shitty way of showing it. grrr...

[invertigo]

Gross

[Wolf]

Sounds like someone finally got tired of his wayward dog and decided to teach the owner a lesson. No amout of reasoning from either side will ever justify what this poor dog had to endure.

[Cumulonimbus]

This makes me sick.

[dcaccount22]

owner is an idiot how hard is it to keep your wandering, intact male dog inside when your not home or sleeping? Poor poor dog

[chefbob09]

almost sure it was a fucking muslim who did it