Posted on 08/25/2016 11:37:20 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A Stephens County deputy was fired after his K9 officer died while in his care.
The incident came to light August and, since then, the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office has conducted an investigation and terminated Matthew Peck.
The investigation has been turned over to the district attorney to decide if felony animal cruelty charges with be formally filed.
"We were shocked, and we're saddened,” said Stephens County Sheriff Wayne McKinney. “This is a loss of one of our deputies or K9 deputies."
K9 Deputy Bak was just 2 years old when he joined the force, but his name will be joining those of four other fallen deputies on a monument outside the Stephens County Courthouse.
"The handler has the utmost responsibility to make sure that that dog is well taken care of,” McKinney said.
Peck has been Bak's partner for four years until sources said he left the dog inside his deputy cruiser during his days off work.
Sources said he did not discover the animal until days later when he was back on duty.
He smelled the dead animal while on his way to court one morning.
Sources said Bak was left inside the deputy's car for 36 hours.
"A tremendous amount of work goes into the dogs and not only with their dogs but with their handlers. Those two become partners,” McKinney said. "We will replace Bak and remember him, but we'll continue."
NewsChannel 4 contacted Peck’s attorney, but he declined to comment on the case.
He should have been fired, and he should have to pay for the cost to replace the canine officer. Those animals give their all, and he left the dog in a cruiser for 36 hours? Idiot!
This guy will never have a badge or a gun after he’s found guilty of animal cruelty. Technically they could press “capital murder” since the dog was considered an officer of the police force. Need to look this chump up to see what he looks like.
You have got to be kidding me.
He should be jailed.
Lock this fiend inside a hot car for 36 hours. Throw what’s left after that into a nameless quarry.
I just get mad hearing this. what was this guy doing working as a k-9 handler. most who want to work with K-9 partners love there partner. I have heard story’s of K-9 handlers and there families thinking of the dog as a member of the family and when the dog gets to old to work they become the family dog. I am sure that anyone working with this jerk knew he was not an animal person because you cant hide something like this as long as this guy was a K-9 animal handler.
What a beautiful dog.
If it was me who did this, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I do believe I would kill myself.
I am gutted by this.
WT literal F?
36 hours? How is that possible?
These stories make me crazy.
I’ve spent a lot of time with K-9s and they are indeed extraordinary.
It’s not only the training they get—it’s damnned hard to find a dog with the right combination of drives, nerves and overall physical capacity to be a good candidate for police work.
Handlers are carefully selected from a pool of experienced patrol officers and thoroughly examined for suitability. Every now and then, a bad one slips through the net.
I desperately hope this handler ends up in jail. Such a tragic loss of a fine K-9 officer.
I don’t know, Salamander.
Sometimes I read something like this, and I wonder if I am already in Hell, because surely something like this cannot happen anywhere else.
I feel like I am ashamed to be in the same species of the creatures who did this thing to this beautiful girl.
I can imagine nothing more horrible than what was done to her.
There are monsters among us.
Dang it, wrong thread response to you, Sal, I apologize, I thought you were responding to the thread of the poor little girl, I didn’t realize it was about the poor German Shepherd.
I’m up too late, please disregard my last post to you.
I don’t understand how a person can leave their dog in the car for 36 hours and not think hey where’s my dog.
I bring Isis with me everywhere I go so long as it’s not too hot that she would be placed at risk.
First thing I do when I get home is let her out.
All I know is if I caused her death by being a dumb ass, I would be coming behind her shortly thereafter.
No way I could live it down. No way.
34 years.
I have *no* idea.
If I can’t see one of mine for 10 seconds in the back yard, I freak out.
[Odin thinks it’s funny to hide behind the Leyland Cypress and peak out at me from under the bottom branches...damn weirdo dog]
I know exactly how you feel.
I get laughed at for my obsessive “care” but I go crazy when I think there’s something bothering them.
Probably the worst example of my innate looniness, was the winter I tried to put dog coats on my pygmy goats, because I thought they’d be too cold at night.
Boy, was that ever an epic fail.
[they wouldn’t stay on and nobody makes winter goat coats, apparently]
When we went to pick up Seven, it was June and pretty hot.
On the way back, the Yukon’s AC went wonky and barely put out any cool air.
She was very hot, so I sat, for 170 miles, holding an 18 pound puppy, outstretched and belly up to the air vents, so she’d stay cool enough.
By the time I got home, I felt like my arms and shoulders were broken.
We won’t even go into the insane network camera system I have, so I can monitor them on my phone, when I’m not home.
o.O
He should be up on manslaughter charges. People get officer murder sentences for killing police dogs.
I guess that deputy only thought of his dog as a piece of gear rather than a partner.Otherwise how could you be so careless then to leave your partner locked in a car.In this case more like an oven without food or water.
Disgusting.
If I kill a police dog it’s murder. If a cop does it, he gets fired.
I’m so effing sick of double standards.
L
“Peck has been Bak’s partner for four years until sources said he left the dog inside his deputy cruiser during his days off work. “
WTF? You’re a K-9 officer, how do you not notice that your partner is not there?
There’s something very missing from this story, or very wrong with this idiot Deputy.
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