By: N Gilbert
Ernest Dempsey – Killing Ace wasn’t the end of it; Michigan is doing it again as Monroe County is all set to put to death an entire family of boxer dogs because one of them bit a girl who allegedly trespassed the owner’s property while he was away. While the one, a female dog named Brooklyn, did bite the teenage girl, the other three living as part of the family have been arrested and kept imprisoned for 7 months under the label “dangerous” without any reason and are now close to be killed by the animal control.
The story of the four boxers has been posted on the dogs’ Facebook page and owner Timothy Iocoangeli, 48, has been struggling all around to save his dogs from open victimization at the hands of animal control and the courts – all of whom have refused to give the dogs a chance at fair trial in light of evidence and then decide about them.
As he describes in the facebook post, when Timothy Iocoangeli was way on April 24 this year, Brooklyn bit a teenage girl accompanied by a another teenager, both friends of Iocoangeli’s son; according to Iocoangeli, one of these visitors opened the gate to the house while visiting his son but without caring for the presence of dogs in the house. The girl was bitten bad by Brooklyn because, as Iocoangeli explains this female dog had five of her 2-month-old puppies in her care at the house.
The animal control responded by seizing all dogs without bothering which or any of them were dangerous, including the puppy. To facilitate this injustice, media at once called the incident as attack by a” pack of vicious dogs” even though no assessment was done by anyone of the dogs. Interestingly, the channel reporter tells that the girl was reportedly “inside the house” when she was attacked. Why would a teenage girl go inside the house without being accompanied by the owner or his son? Nobody has been bothered with this question while it remains at the core of the entire case.
In declaring Iocoangeli’s boxers dangerous, the animal control and judges at the hearings entirely ignored the city’s own law which states that a dog cannot be considered dangerous if it attacks in protecting its property against strangers. In other words, biting a trespasser does not prove a dog dangerous. And even if one dog is prove dangerous – which will surely be not easy to prove objectively because of the defense reason – why do other dogs have to be killed in absence of any evidence of any biting or mauling?
As the owner tells, an officer at the animal control offered her release of the dogs if he could pay $3000 within a week. But when he excused for not being able to afford it, the dogs were kept in the pound and the owner or his family was not allowed to visit them. Imprisoned for no crime, kept isolated from family, these dogs have been so recklessly victimized by the city that the ideal of justice has been strangled well before putting the dogs down. And if that was not enough, Timothy Iocoangeli was given a choice by the prosecution to either give up on all dogs or else go to jail. Iocoangeli says he turned himself in instead of letting his dogs be euthanized by his agreement. While he was released on bail, he still faces jail time for up to 4 years on charges of keeping “dangerous animals” in the house while his dogs can be put to death any time by the animal control.
One act of carelessness by visiting teenagers has literally destroyed the happy life of a man who even washed cars to raise money for saving his beloved family pets. Monroe County animal control and city authorities chose to victimize innocent animals and a man who refused to accept their twisting of their own rules for a show of efficiency and mock justice. Can such an outrage be acceptable in country which is leading the world in matters of rights and justice? Is it not an open act of judicial murder? Allowing such abuse of authority can no doubt lead to future victimization of civilians in the name of management and control.
To raise a voice against the euthanasia possibly planned for some time the coming week, contact the Monroe County Animal Control at their website or 911 S Raisinville Rd, Monroe, MI 48161 (phone 734-240-3125). To contact the mayor’s office, call Mayor’s office at 734-384-9144 (http://www.ci.monroe.mi.us/mayor_1.cfm).
If you are able to help, please join this event https://www.facebook.com/events/361468750600903/ as apparently they are in need of only $3500.00 according to the court.
There is also a petition to sign: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/379/301/779/stop-the-unjust-euthanizing-of-four-boxers/#next_action
Article via Journal of Humanitarian Affairs.
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