AR-News: (TX - US) Jury to rule on shooting of 5 hunting dogs

Sat Jun 5 20:53:56 EDT 2004

Jury to rule on animal cruelty case
http://web.seguingazette.com/report.lasso?wcd=6878
By Bryan Kirk
Seguin Gazette

Published June 04, 2004 

A grand jury is expected to determine this morning whether or not the 
shooting of five hunting dogs warrants an indictment for animal cruelty.

The potential charges stem from an incident that occurred March 8 on Tschoepe 
Road, when five dogs that were part of a hog-hunting party led by Roland and 
Ilene Henry, who live nearby, ran onto Shawn Vickers’ property allegedly in 
pursuit of a wild hog.

Vickers, who was outside with his children and several guests, said he felt 
the dogs threatened both people and cattle on his property.

“We felt like one of the calves had been killed or injured,” Vickers said.

Some of the cattle belong to Casey Wills, who lives on a ranch nearby. Wills 
said Vickers called him and said he believed the cattle were being attacked by 
dogs.

“I could hear all the racket in the background,” said Wills, who arrived a 
few minutes later and shot one of the dogs that he believed was attacking his 
cattle.

Within a few minutes, five hunting dogs had been shot. One of them was 
seriously wounded and spent three weeks recovering from major surgery, and three 
more were dead 

“The story has been that we were angry at them for having the dogs in here, 
and therefore shot the dogs. That is absolutely not the case,” Vickers said. 

The latest incident was not the first, Vickers said, claiming that “Cork,” 
the Henry’s dog that was seriously wounded in the shooting, was discovered on 
the Vickers’ porch prior to the incident.

A search of the area by sheriff’s deputies after the shooting revealed no 
evidence of the cattle being attacked by the dogs and no evidence of a feral hog.

According to Section 822.013 of the Texas Health and safety Code: “ (a) A dog 
or coyote that is attacking, is about to attack or has recently attacked 
livestock, domestic animals or fowls may be killed by: (1) any person witnessing 
the attack; or (2) the attacked animal’s owner or a person acting on behalf of 
the owner if the owner or person has knowledge of the attack. (b) A person who 
kills a dog or coyote as provided by this section is not liable for damages 
to the owner, keeper or person in control of the dog or coyote.”

Ken Miniard, fields inspector with the Texas Cattle Raisers Association, said 
state law should protect Vickers.

“If they bothered the cattle in any way, he was justified in shooting,” 
Miniard said. “I wasn’t there, but if I had a bunch of dogs run through my 
pasture at night, I would probably react the same way and protect my livestock.” 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/attachments/20040605/f1aa6ee9/attachment.html