Rest in Peace Mike. You and your owner will meet up again one day.
Hope I can meet you both there.
Posted on 10/17/2015 5:49:57 AM PDT by Altariel
A bomb-sniffing combat dog named Mike survived two tours of duty in Iraq but not the streets of a bucolic little town in Wyoming.
The 9-year-old Belgian Malinois was shot and killed in Powell last Saturday by a bicyclist who said he was attacked, leaving Mike’s devastated owner Matthew Bessler, a retired Army Ranger, wondering how he is going to deal with his combat-related injuries alone.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The local article also stated the dog was 5 to 10 feet away. I think the cyclist panicked when he saw a Shepard.
In other words, the caregiver wasn’t properly caring for a dog with known PTSD.
Ergo, irresponsibility.
There is no such breed as a “Shepard”, and this dog is not the breed you’re thinking of.
The bicyclist was concerned when a dog with PTSD confronted him on the street.
Because it’s the bike rider’s responsibility to manage a loose, aggressive dog and not the owner?
21 gun salute? Will it be a Christian burial? Headstone paid for by the VA? A missing man flyover? Will the Bronze Star be passed down to his bitch? Oh, so many questions, thanks a lot Walt.
No witnesses, the Malinois had worn it's teeth down chewing rocks, it was 5 to 10 feet away and it was old at 9 years but you defend the cyclist based simply on an article that you posted rather than a local one.
The bicyclist was concerned when a dog with PTSD confronted him on the street.
You also assume the 59 yr old "truthful" cyclist knew the dog had PTSD. If he knew enough about the dog to know that then he knew enough to know it had worn it's teeth ect.
How convenient that no one saw the "attack". Btw, was the cyclist a cop?
Buh bye.
How is saying “Responsible dog owners keep their dogs contained” being a jerk?
I think what likely happened is that the dog was set off and went into “warzone mode”; without the owner present to correct it and call it off, the cyclist used a nonviolent deterrent (bicycle between him and the dog) before aiming and shooting at a loose dog who wouldn’t leave him alone.
It’s unfortunate the dog is dead, but entirely preventable. If your dog has mental issues (including PTSD) you take double precautions to keep it secure, for its safety and the safety of others. “I don’t know how the dog escaped” is not a valid excuse.
The dog could have chased a truck down the road and been run over. Would you blame the driver of the truck, or the dog owner for failing to properly secure the animal?
Rest in Peace Mike. You and your owner will meet up again one day.
Hope I can meet you both there.
Thanks for the pic.
For once I really agree with you.
I will add that sometimes I think there are people who are just skittish. They don’t mean harm, but overeact to things that really aren’t that the
Reatening. That is common with dogs. Lots of people afraid of them, and if one is coming to them or barking, etc, they freak out.
Perhaps this man got a bit too scared, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he truly thought the dog was overaggressive. 50-50.
Thank you. It’s unfortunate that this happened. Hopefully more owners will ensure their dogs are properly secured to prevent further tragedies.
I’d like to attack those damn bicyclists..
In other words it is a dog which required additional safeguards to keep it securely on the owner’s property.
It's a bomb sniffing dog used in a combat theater. It's trained to find bombs. It's not only trained in martial arts. It has no ninja skills. Your bias is rendering a bigoted opinion.
And yet, out of four dogs described as chasing a bicyclist, only one is described as attacking. The dog with PTSD who should have been secured more carefully or taken along with his owner on a leash as he was allegedly a service dog.
Let’s see...
The dog had PTSD? Was even prescribed Prozac? Got out on road and chasing cyclist? Methinks the dog committed suicide by cyclist.
Combat working dog, trained to sniff out bombs.
If they are saying he is suffering from PTSD maybe he smelled the ammo and had a flashback.
Especially if the rider was Middle Eastern OR panicked and swerved towards the dog.
But that still doesn’t ‘allow’ the dog to be roaming ESPECIALLY if he has ‘flashbacks’.
Someone said the Vet should face his ‘problems’ like every one else...consider they were probably in combat together and the attachment is life long...Then again - if that is the case maybe the dog should have went hunting with the Vet BUT since people aren’t programmed to see ‘Service Dogs’ as only for the blind, the dog probably wasn’t welcome in most places???
No shit.
Yep, the best choice would have been for the owner to take his dog along with him on a leash. A service dog is with its owner every waking moment.
Very preventable tragedy.
A Judge, perhaps?
Sounds like a lot of happy dog-haters on this thread. If some pussy on a bike shot my dog, and I knew my dog was not aggressive, I would raise hell.
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