Disabled vet asks for support; service dog faces euthanasia for biting woman who beat him w/pole

[The Straight Story]

Disabled veteran asks for public support; service dog faces euthanasia for biting woman who beat him with metal pole

An Army Veteran with disabilities is asking for the public's help in saving his service dog, Dutch, from court-ordered euthanasia. After being punched, kicked, and hit with a metal pole for several minutes, Dutch bit his attacker and has now been accused of being a "vicious" dog.

Dutch is a 4-year-old American Allaunt, who is a registered service dog and an important part of Jeremy Aguilar's life. Dutch has never shown any aggressive behavior before or after the incident and is a certified AKC Canine Good Citizen.

Jeremy served in the Army, and fought in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also was also deployed to Hurricane Katrina with the Oklahoma National Guard, which was the first unit to show up. Dutch came into Jeremy’s life a month after he married his wife Heather three years ago. Heather says that Dutch has been "the most therapeutic thing that could have ever happened" to her husband.

...

According to Heather, Dutch's former owner admitted to animal control officers and in court that she was beating Dutch before he bit her.

Heather says that Dutch's former owner said, "I started punching him in the face and kept punching him until my hands hurt so bad I couldn't hit him anymore," after which she grabbed a metal pole and used the pole to beat the service dog. She then pulled Dutch from her backyard into the house by his collar, and grabbed his mouth as soon as they got inside. Dutch then bit her. The woman was bitten on her leg and buttock and Dutch sustained injuries to his face and head.

---------

More details and pics, documentation, etc at link:

http://www.dogheirs.com/dogheirs/posts/2744-disabled-veteran-asks-for-public-support-service-dog-faces-euthanasia-for-biting-woman-who-beat-him-with-metal-poles

[Catherina]

1. What you can do to help

What you can do to help

If you would like to help Dutch, Jeremy and Heather, here is what you can do:

Share Dutch's story
Sign and share: Save Dutch petition
Donate to the Aguilar's legal fund via Paypal ([e-mail])
Follow Save Dutch and his family on Facebook


Done. Why is that woman, that thing, not up on charges of animal abuse?

[NYFlip]

2. Poor pup

Thanks. I just signed the petition

[Flaxbee]

3. that woman is a hideous beast.

thanks for the information. I'll do as much as I can.

[Kalidurga]

4. The woman should be in jail and...

the people that charged the dog with being vicious should be ashamed of themselves.

[silverweb]

5. Signed & shared.

[Marrah_G]

6. Why the hell was she beating the dog?

[Tien1985]

32. She says

the dog was the aggressor in a dog fight and she was trying to pull him off.

[Autumn Colors]

7. K&R, signed & shared

What a horrible, horrible person that woman is.

[LadyHawkAZ]

8. Signed and shared n/t

[Beaverhausen]

9. This is crazy!!!

Why isn't the woman who beat the dog the one being punished?

[oldandhappy]

10. woman belongs in jail

Animal cruelty! The woman is sick. And the court is way off base.

[oldandhappy]

11. signed the petition

[Bette]

12. This is sooo bad.

Gladly signed the petition and didn't hesitate to add several choice words!

[newfie11]

13. Signed nt

[In_The_Wind]

14. Kicked, signed, shared.

I_T_W
[img][/img]

[narnian60]

18. Same here.

[In_The_Wind]

20. I also added my two cents to this effort:

Tell President Obama: Keep Wolves Protected

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/370/286/730/?z00m=20497105

[narnian60]

21. Yes, did that one.

I have signed so many petitions lately (mostly for animals). It is the least I can do since I can't give $ to ALL needy causes.

[In_The_Wind]

23. I gave what I could when I had $$$.

Now, my words will have to be enough.

I also support saving animals and this planet, mother earth is very dear to me.

[hobbit709]

15. Typical animal control crap.

A one size fits all policy with no exceptions for extenuating circumstances. Do you think a human would have put up with that kind of beating for as long as the dog did before reacting to defend himself?
Petition signed.

[avebury]

16. The woman should have been arrested

for interfering with a service dog as well as animal abuse. She admitted to abusing the animal and she is shocked that the dog turned around and bit her? What did she expect. The dog was only defending itself at that point.

[dangerdoll]

17. just put on Facebook

...and I've NEVER posted something and asked others to send it around, but I had to this time. Petition signed. So upset I can barely breathe...

[s-cubed]

19. My brother, who also lives in CO, had a run in

Last edited Fri Feb 8, 2013, 08:46 PM - Edit history (1)

with over zealous courts. His dog chased an escaped peahen in a dog park. Very doggy thing to do. When his dog would not come, he ran the other direction, calling him, a well known tactic to get a dog to follow you. He was accused of trying to leave the scene. Eventually he had to pay a substantial fine and take the dog to a training class (which was a good idea). Since this dog had survived on his wits for his 1st 6 months on an Indian reservation with little care, it's not too surprising he would chase an appetizing peahen.

I found the whole thing strange, in that the court seemed to expect a dog to behave better than a person. How many little kids have you seen chasing birds? Lots!

Edit: fix typo

[woodsprite]

37. A while back, I read where dogs in Quebec that were let loose in dog parks

were expected to be bi-lingual and answer to commands in both french and english.

So you're right about expecting more from them than a person.

[GoneOffShore]

22. Signed.

Thanks for posting.

[yewberry]

24. Signed and a kick.

Outrageous.

[glinda]

25. K & R n/t

[RebelOne]

26. Signed. n/t

[Warpy]

27. Considering how severely he was provoked before he bit

just who the hell is the pea brained asshole who ordered him put down?

The woman who was bitten should be cooling her heels and getting over her sore ass in prison on a charge of animal cruelty.

Of course dogs who are attacked will fight back! That stupid woman is lucky he didn't head right for her throat.

[sagetea]

28. Signed and kicking...

N/T

Ho

sage

[VenusRising]

29. Signed the petition.

Save Dutch!!

[Tien1985]

30. There will be more coming

about this story.

The woman is claiming there was a dog fight and Dutch was the aggressor. She couldn't get him off the other dog so she grabbed the pole off a tiki torch and tried to separate them with that, beating him in the process (because -if this version is true- beating an animal always makes it stop fighting ). She claims he bit her inside when she was trying to clean the blood off of his coat.

While my first reaction is to want to nail her to the wall, I want to know the whole story. Why WAS she beating the dog? If there was a dog fight, where is the other dog? Was it a stray, and if not, where the eff is the owner of the other dog and what are its medical needs, because surely it would have plenty?

Here is the link that is giving the former owner's story: [link:http://www.montrosepress.com/breaking_news/veteran-works-to-save-dutch-the-dog-police-detail-attack/article_8356b1ba-7236-11e2-a705-001a4bcf887a.html|

[Tien1985]

33. Out of hand

All right, the story is officially out of hand. Here are the "facts" I can gather, they probably aren't exhaustive, but it's hard to get all the info on this one

-The "Former Owner", Heather, is the current owner's bother's girlfriend

-Heather and the current owner, Jeremy, have known each other since high school

-Dutch was made a service dog after the "incident" in order to try to show his temperament is all right

-After beating him with her hands and kicking him didn't stop him, she beat him with a pole to stop him

-Heather claims Dutch was attacking one of her dogs, Jeremy's side says they are "doubtful" of her version of events, but have not outright denied Dutch attacked another dog

-The Vet report being shown clearly says there were no bite wounds or scratches on Dutch, only swelling from what looks like the dog being hit

-Dutch is well over 100lbs of dog

-There are conflicting stories about how bad the bite(s) were. One says not even a stitch, another says down to the bone both times.



The internet wants this woman's head on a platter. If she wants to have any sort of reputation outside of "Hi, my name is dog beater." She needs to come forward and prove the extent of her injuries and those to her dog. I'm not saying this is right or just. But it is what it is. This is already getting out of hand. I don't think it will be long before they find her full name, address and any social media she uses. If she is falsifying any of this... well, good luck to her.

If there was another dog, where is it and how is it doing, because not much will last in a fight against 150lbs of American Allaunt. I hope mystery/imaginary dog is okay.

As for Jeremy, the owner, he needs to CLEARLY state all the facts, because if he is in the right, and the woman is lying, his not being completely honest will only hurt his case. Omission is still lying. It's too late to take this back. It's going viral.


I'm all for the petition, but I won't send a donation unless some hard facts come out. I WANT to believe Dutch is a good dog. But as usual, all the people in this story stink!

[Progressive dog]

31. Signed petition nt

[asm128]

34. Signed!

Kick

[bklyncowgirl]

35. Breaking up a dogfight is dangerous but if you intervene you shoud take the consequences.

I was once involved in a situation where a pack of greyhounds went after my border collie. The border collie, Hershey, outmaneuvered them but eventually the bigger, faster dogs brought her down. I tackled them and slugged the most aggressive dog knowing full well he could turn on me. Fortunately the dog was so shocked he backed off right off.

Even if he had gone after me, I would never consider wanting to have the dog destroyed--he was doing what his nature--and unfortunately very likely his racing training told him to do. The owner of the greyhound on the other hand was a complete anal port who kept on screaming at me about how I had popped his poor little pup.

Hope they give his poor dog a reprieve.

[Beaverhausen]

36. UPDATE FROM THE SAVE DUTCH FACEBOOK PAGE-

Unfortunately, we must report that things did not go well today in the courtroom. Jeremy and Heather have been given about two hours to turn Dutch over for euthanasia. To make things worse, sources say the judge claimed Jeremy did not show enough remorse for the woman who was bitten and sentenced him to 20 days in jail. We have been instructed to take this page down and will do so within a few hours. We want to take this last opportunity to thank everyone for their amazing support though. Please keep Dutch and his family in your thoughts today. :'(


THIS IS FUCKED UP!!!

the facebook page is now taken down. It just showed up on my news feed though.

[The Straight Story]

38. Thanks for the update, going to post a new OP w/link to that and give you credit (nt)