Posted on 03/08/2012 11:47:38 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
NATALIA — An elderly woman in Natalia said police there shot and killed seven of her dogs.
Epifania Avalos said Natalia police showed up Feb. 1 prepared to seize her animals, but something went horribly wrong.
“I told them not to do it,” Avalos said. “Please don’t do it. I was crying and I’m still missing my animals and they said ‘no, we have to get rid of them.’”
Residents in Natalia are only allowed to have four pets, Avalos admits to having 15 animals, but said her animals did not have to die.
But wait... There's more..
A cop (not involved in the dog masscre) tells the chief that he may go public to the Texas Rangers. Then he gets fired.
Hoo boy.
A former Natalia police officer who planned to ask the Texas Rangers to investigate an incident in which his co-workers fatally shot several dogs was fired last week.
Rudy Anzaldua, 52, submitted paperwork Monday through a lawyer to the city of Natalia to appeal his termination, which was effective Wednesday. He was told he was fired because of low performance.
“We believe that he was fired unjustly, and that there are no facts to support his termination,” said Anzaldua's attorney, Robert Leonard of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas. “We believe he was the victim of retribution by the chief.”
Anzaldua, still listed on the city's website as one of the department's four patrolmen, worked for the city for three years. Last month, he started to question his co-workers after two officers shot and killed six dogs while investigating a complaint involving a homeowner's pets on Feb. 1.
Dominga Cardona, 70, called police to her home in the 900 block of Fifth Street that day to complain about her neighbor's dogs, according to an incident report. Cardona told an officer that dogs belonging to Epifania Avalos, 66, jumped on her as she took out the garbage, and previously, Avalos' dogs had killed her own pets, the report states.
Avalos told the officer she had more than 15 dogs, the report states, and the officer said she was violating seven city ordinances: The dogs weren't vaccinated, Avalos lacked vaccination certificates, the dogs had no rabies tags, Avalos was harboring unvaccinated animals, the dogs were running at-large, the animals were a nuisance and there were more than four dogs in one household.
According to the report, the officer told her her dogs would be removed, and a second policeman and Chief Alfred Ortiz were called for backup.
Avalos refused to help police retrieve the dogs, saying, “If you want them then you get them,” and added, “There's some of these dogs that I cannot touch because they will bite me, and if they bite me then they'll bite you,” the report states.
While trying to capture the dogs, the report states that several animals tried to bite the officers, who responded with gunfire. Six dogs were killed and nine were seized. A small black-and-white dog that ran away when police arrived remained at Avalos' home, and both Avalos and Cardona, who also had uncontained dogs, were issued citations.
The women are due in Municipal Court on March 16.
Anzaldua wasn't there when the dogs were killed, but said he heard his fellow officers retell details of the incident.
“They were bragging about it, and I felt that what they did was wrong — for them to shoot Chihuahuas and laugh about it,” he said, adding that the dogs were a combination of small and large animals. “They were making fun of one officer because they thought he was going to shoot his foot, because a Chihuahua was gnawing on his shoe.”
A dog-lover who had met Avalos during previous complaints, Anzaldua said the shootings upset him. He pulled the incident report, he said, and asked officers if they had video footage of the shooting. He also talked about going to the Texas Rangers but planned to do so anonymously, he said.
Last Tuesday, Anzaldua said Ortiz called him into his office. He said the chief had heard of Anzaldua's plans to ask other agencies to investigate the shootings.
“I feared for my job, and I told him I wasn't going to go anywhere with the information,” he said. “The next day, I got my termination papers.”
Ortiz on Monday declined to comment on the dog-shooting incident or Anzaldua's firing. City Manager Beth Leonesio said she had no comment regarding the former employee and referred a reporter to the city attorney.
She added that the city's position is that the Police Department handled the Feb. 1 incident appropriately.
“It was enforcement of a city ordinance,” she said. “We had so many citizens complain, and the police chief had tried very hard to work with the citizens.”
Avalos' husband on Monday said she'd had the dogs for about a decade and cared deeply for them, spending hundreds of dollars each month on dog kibble.
I know revenge is inappropriate. But also note that it works for the Muslims.
Whislte blowers get fired. They do.
So, if you’re gonna blow the whistle - here’s a suggestion.
DON’T GO OPENLY DISCUSSING THE IDEA BEFORE YOU DO IT.
Funny how you never hear about this around these parts in rural West Virginia. Most of the cops around here are smart enough to know that a lot of these armed to the teeth good ole’ boys wouldn’t hesitate to shoot a cop dead that killed their dog...
I can imagine that day is coming. The police will shoot the wrong dog and some police headquarters is going to get shot up.
I will probably have little sympathy for that day. Too many dogs getting shot without casue.
It may not be that obvious from the story, but the parties involved are - well - ignorant.
And the cops are just as bad.
Natalia Texas may not be a border town. It is a good hundred miles north of Mexico. But they have that border town culture.
I can imagine that day is coming when police will shoot you for saying such a thing about them.
Actually the day is coming when the cops will be called out to a situation and the cops will simply gun down seven people and skate by saying, “I feared for my life.”
>> I will probably have little sympathy for that day.
The consequence: apathy.
How are you a dog lover when you have fifteen dogs, six of which are dangerous enough you can not handle, un-vaccinated, running lose causing havoc in the neighborhood. Sorry, I would not consider that person a dog lover.
I think there’s a difference between a cop killing someone’s beloved pet and shooting some drug dealer’s pit bull they kept for protection.
And specifically in this case; there is a difference where we have an irresponsible idiot (I won’t even caller har owner) who has 15 dogs running loose day and night.
Yeah, she cries and cries after the massacre, but if she wasn’t an idiot, she would not have had 15 dogs beyond her control.
Exactly what the authorities want.
If they create a situation where there is a gulf divide between them and us, it makes it more easier to impose upon us.
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The day is here but to skate the story needs to be a tad more elaborate. |
Your right, don’t advertise what you are going to do...but these dogs didn’t have rabies shots and would roam the area....The woman with these dogs was definately in the wrong, especially not having rabies shots for her dogs...not a good pet owner....not having rabies shots may have been part of the shooting, although animal control could have used poles to capture the animals....but to just shoot them when not threatened is so wrong also....
I know they are gunning down individuals like dogs now but wait until it’s seven!
Very good advice.
While I understand that barking dogs, and especially a herd of them, might distress the neighbors, what I don't understand is how "any" police department could manage to hire a bunch of cretins who would do such a thing. A sad testament to unsatisfactory human life.
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