Woman says she shot dog to protect daughter, goats

Daily Comet ^ | September 15, 2010 | Eric Heisig

[LongElegantLegs]

MONTEGUT — Precious Ridenour loves animals.

Throughout her house and backyard, she has dogs, cats, birds, snakes and goats. For Ridenour, that’s what makes the charges against her hard to take.

Ridenour, 43, shot a dog she claims ran into her yard on Victor LeBouef Street and threatened her animals and, more importantly, her 7-year-old daughter, AprilMoon.

“I can get another goat, she can get another dog. You can’t get another one of her,” she said, pointing to her daughter.

According to Ridenour and witnesses, a dog ran into Ridenour’s back yard that Saturday and began to attack one of her five goats, which were tied up in different part of the yard, Ridenour said. After injuring one goat, the dog ran out of the yard before jumping a fence and returning, approaching Ridenour’s daughter. Ridenour shot the dog through the chest on her property with a pistol, she said...

...Christensen denies the dog, named Sarah, attacked the goats. Despite police reports that identified the dog as a pit bull, Sarah was a boxer-shar pei mix, she said.

[tiki]

In our state it is legal to shoot any stray that comes on your land if you have livestock. We don’t like to shoot them but we have.

[CharlesWayneCT]

I think this picture is exactly what you might have expected to see if you heard the story was from Loiusiana:

[LongElegantLegs]

Well, there’s conflicting reports on this shooting; the owner and the police say the dog was under the owner’s control when it was shot, while the goat owner claims she has witness statements backing up her claims that the dog was loose and attacking. It’ll be interesting to see what the follow-up reveals, if there is one.

Either way, if the dog attacked the goat, the owner should be held responsible for that.

[stinkerpot65]

How evil is this? The owner of the mean dog should have been arrested and imprisoned. Any time a dog threatens a human, the dog’s owner should go to prison.

[LongElegantLegs]

I think Precious, AprilMoon, Colton, and whatever the goat’s called, are an adorable family. I sure hope that’s a coke can in her hand, though.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Strange news article, and if accurate, really strange police response. For example, here is the entirety of description for witnesses to the actual shooting:

According to Ridenour and witnesses, a dog ran into Ridenour’s back yard that Saturday ...
...
However, police and the dog’s owner said the animal was restrained...

It makes it sound like the "police" are witnesses, but there is no indication the police have ANY information other than that told them by the owner.

Christensen denies the dog, named Sarah, attacked the goats.

Can't they check the goat, who supposedly had an injured leg?

“Sarah wasn’t a dog to run around the neighborhood,” said Christensen, who lives about two blocks away from Ridenour. “And she never touched those goats.”

But the dog was shot in Ridenour's yard -- so CLEARLY the dog DID run around the neighborhood.

She said while she was holding the harness, Ridenour fired.

Her story is that while she was holding a dog by grabbing the harness, the other woman shot accurately enough to kill the dog without hitting her. Cops can't shoot that straight.

Kim Faciane, Ridenour’s neighbor, called Christensen’s account a “bald-faced lie.” “She did not have it by the harness,” Faciane said.

Sounds like a disinterested eyewitness directly contradicts the testimony that the police claim is the truth.

[Ridenour] says she collected statements from witnesses supporting her claims that she fired to defend her daughter.

Sounds like there are multiple witnesses that back up the claim the dog was in the yard and not restrained.

Maj. Malcolm Wolfe, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said the investigating deputy collected statements from witnesses.

And yet the newspaper couldn't find a single witness who would corroborate the story;

“The deputy did nothing wrong,” Wolfe said. “He made a legal arrest; the dog was under the control of the owner at the time the suspect shot the dog.”

How do they know? Where are the witnesses who give them that information? Why did other eyewitnesses tell the paper otherwise?

It's almost like they have a video of the incident or something; you rarely see the police so certain of the facts, when the only thing they have is witness testimony.

Looking forward to the update to this story to explain why the police are so certain. Well, obviously there were other stories, since the owner complains that those other stories got the breed of her dog wrong -- that is, if we can believe what she is saying.

In the end, here's the key to the story:

Ridenour shot the dog through the chest on her property with a pistol, she said.

If you are going to shoot at something, hit it.

[CharlesWayneCT]

OK, I found several other stories. NONE of them say the dog was a pit bull, and in the comments people even note that nobody was saying the dog was a pit bull, and one commenter pointed out that if it WAS a pit bull, the story would have said so.

So I don't know where the whole "they are calling my dog a pit bull" came from -- it wasn't from any news I can find.

Here's an article that answers some questions but makes the whole story more weird:

Deputies said they were called out to the 100 block of Arcement Street around 5:15 p.m. to investigate the incident.

OK, so they didn't observe it, and all they have to go on is witness testimony.

The dog's owner told them she was walking "Sara" around the block when the canine got away and ran toward some goats in a yard in the 100 block of Victor Lebouef Street.

Remember, the dog supposedly had a harness, so somehow the dog got away from her owner walking the dog on a leash. Or she wasn't holding the leash. And note, the "witness" is the dog's owner.

Investigators said the owner added she ran into the yard after "Sara" and grabbed her by the collar, but the suspect walked up and shot the dog. The owner said she brought her dog home, where it died.

Again, the story is from the dog's owner (and note here it says "collar", not "harness" as in the other story). The woman carried her dog home, so blood splatter would be useless, and the crime scene was unusable. So they have no forensic evidence to back up the owner's story.

Deputies said there was no chance of danger after the owner regained control of the dog.

That is the most absurd line in the story. "regained control" indicates the owner had LOST control. If the dog could get away from the owner once, how can the deputies know it couldn't get away again?

And of course, we still have the question, how do they know the owner regained control? According to the police report, that came from the owner. If there was a witness listed in the police report, wouldn't the paper have mentioned it?

Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois Jr. said people are encouraged to call the sheriff's office to report matters such as a loose dog and not them into their own hands.

It sounds like a Sheriff who doesn't like being shown up, and wants to be self-important. I suppose it's better for him if you call him to the aftermath of a child killing, then to protect your child.

[Boogieman]

Who to believe?

If you believe the owner, the dog didn’t attack anyone and she had it by the harness when it was shot. Now, if the dog didn’t attack anyone and was under control, why would the mother shoot it? Seems like shoddy police work.

[CharlesWayneCT]

You know, I have a feeling there is something in this story that the papers just aren’t reporting. The police seem awfully sure about this given the facts as we are being told. I wonder if there is a history here.

[LongElegantLegs]

I agree, I think there may be other factors at play here. This story’s wierd.

[BufordP]

I wonder if there is a history here.

Or a relationship.

[CharlesWayneCT]

It’s backwoods Louisiana, I’m sure there’s a relationship or two.....

[TigersEye]

Maj. Malcolm Wolfe, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said the investigating deputy collected statements from witnesses. (except that witness statements say he didn't)

“The deputy did nothing wrong,” Wolfe said. “He made a legal arrest; the dog was under the control of the owner at the time the suspect shot the dog.”

"He did the best he could with no dog left to shoot and donut glaze in his eyes." /s

“I can get another goat, she can get another dog. You can’t get another one of her,” she said, pointing to her daughter.

The government doesn't seem able to understand that anymore and there is a big collision coming because of that.

[pikachu]

And yet the newspaper couldn't find a single witness who would corroborate the story;

I can almost guarantee you that the report never left their desk during the half hour they researched and wrote the article. And they are probably expecting a Pulitzer for their work.

[TigersEye]

Ordinary Americans?

[goat granny]

same here in Michigan, if you have hoofed animals you can legally shot any stray dog..best to S S S though. Like you said, we had to once, its not fun, but you have to protect those animals under your care....anything hanging around our pastures wouldn’t last long (if they had 4 legs)