A girl's beloved dog, a grisly nightmare

Star Tribune ^ | 3/15/07 | Mary Lynn Smith

[Millee]

Crystal Brown's world was turned upside down a month ago when Chevy, her 4-year-old Australian shepherd mix, didn't come home.

"I told him everything and he never shared any of my secrets," said Crystal, 17, who has had some troubled times in her young life. Chevy was her therapy dog, and she leaned on him for comfort and support.

Two weeks ago, a gift-wrapped box was left at the house where she lives with her grandmother in St. Paul's Rice Street area. Inside the box, Crystal was horrified to find her dog's head.

"This was so cruel," Crystal said Wednesday. "This is one sick, twisted person."

The incident is considered so shocking that the Humane Society of the United States announced Wednesday that it was offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Homicide investigators are looking into the case because of the "implied" terroristic threat, St. Paul Police Sgt. Jim Gray said.

"This was extraordinarily heinous," said Dale Bartlett, the Humane Society's deputy manager for animal cruelty issues. "I deal with hundreds and hundreds of cruelty cases each year. When I read about this case, it took my breath away. It's horrible."

[Millee]

Stop the world, I want off. What kind of sick freaks have we got running around out there??? Ugh.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Don't worry, there will be people here soon enough saying

- It is just a dog
- How can you care about a dog when you don't care about abortion?
- I wonder if she cares about her family as much as her dog
- I bet she owed someone drug money
- Is it a pitbull? If so, it deserved to die.

As you can see, there will be plenty of people ready to excuse this sick act or downplay it because they don't see what the big deal is.

[EveningStar]

sick

[EveningStar]

I hope you're wrong, but given the way some on this board are... :(

[Hoodlum91]

You forgot people making the perp an illegal that wouldn't be here if Bush built the fence.

[xcamel]

Very sick.

[SouthernBoyupNorth]

were this to happen to my dog I would want the Sick sorry SOB who did it to swing from his nuts.... before i put a bullet through his head.

[Dead Corpse]

More proof we need to get out of Darwin's way. The sick f*ck who would do that to a dog and torture the girl with it needs killin'.

[BJClinton]

This isn't just about a dog, this is a terroristic threat.

[r9etb]

The sick f*ck who would do that to a dog and torture the girl with it needs killin'.

The sick f*ck who would do that to a dog will do it to humans before too much longer.

[Millee]

Yep. I have two doggies myself, can't imagine the anguish I would feel if this happened to either one. Sick SOB doesn't deserve air.

[woofie]

"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons."

- James Thurber

[HairOfTheDog]

Ug... I don't want to doggie ping this.... it's too depressing.

[domenad]

The person who did this should be executed. A person who would do this to a defenseless and friendly animal just for kicks is a person who will eventually prey on a defenseless human.

[EveningStar]

I understand.

[Lady Jag]

Sounds perfect to me.

[Rakkasan1]

pissed muslim airport cabbie?

[Publius6961]

Stories like this leave me at a loss for words.
Although fundamentally I don't consider animals to be "worth" the same as human beings, as a general statement, most animals are worth more than some human beings.

As the owner of an Australian-Lab mix myself, I know how I would feel at the atrocity against a gentle, friendly animal, which is part of a family.

Aside from this, I can only repeat my conviction that any two-legged animal who would take such a life is just a whisker away from doing it to a human being. I see little difference in the warped sick sterile spirit that can commit either act.

The perpetrator should be put away a long, long time, preferably before he graduates to higher life forms.

[EveningStar]

pissed muslim airport cabbie?

Congratulations on making the first idiotic post to this thread.

[Lady Jag]

A Dog's Life

After ceasing to deny that nearly all humans have no interest in others beyond use and discard, like the woman I met in a Netherlands tulip nursery, whom I thought wanted to talk to ME but who brusquely showed me her back once she figured out I wasn't a customer, I realized that most of the highest beings I have ever met were dogs and that the usually derogatory expression 'to die like a dog' is actually an honor. Robert M Wilson