Meter man’s killing of poodle justified? California authorities said a meter reader acted in self-defense when he killed a toy poodle after striking it with a metallic rod. But Shirley Newman insisted her 6-pound pet never posed a threat to the worker. “He could have taken his meter stick and shooed her,” Newman told CNN. “Had he caused a laceration I would have said self-defense. But he shattered her jaw and broke her face.” The incident happened on April 16 in Rancho Santa Margarita, a community in Orange County. According to Newman, her four-year-old dog, Calisto, snuck out of a gate that surrounded the family’s garage. “I went to open the gate and my six pound poodle got out and I saw the gas meter man walking toward our house, “ she said. “I waved and said ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll come get her.’” Newman said her husband, who went to retrieve the pet, was told by the meter reader “something’s wrong with your dog.” She said the worker, who is employed by the Southern California Gas Company, told her husband the dog was “convulsing.” Newman said the injuries to her dog were horrific. “I saw her and she was bleeding so badly,” she said. “I immediately took her down to the vet and saw a doctor.” Calisto was rushed to the Santa Animal Care Center where Dr. Amy Parker first thought the dog was hit by a car. “”I was working on her as a severe trauma case,” said Parker. “She was seizing, she was not able to breathe, the blood was bleeding into her lungs, she was having difficult time getting oxygen,” Parker said. Parker described the pet’s injuries as significant and said all of her facial bones were cracked and fractured. “We were all very shocked that what we were looking at was induced by a person.” After consulting with Newman, the decision was made to have the animal euthanized. She said the loss has been extremely painful. “She is our family pet, we love her to pieces,” Newman said. “My son is 15, he cried himself to sleep for four nights.” Newman said Calisto was prone to bark but would never act aggressively to people. “She barked but if you went down and pet her or got near her she went backwards,” she said. “She never bit anyone.” According to Newman, the worker, who has not been identified, initially told her he had accidentally struck her pet, an assertion she doubted. “She was a yappy dog and I think he got mad and he whacked her,” she said. An animal control officer from OC Animal Care, and two officers from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department determined the meter reader was justified in hitting the toy poodle. “They determined that the dog was off its property and acting aggressively towards the gas company person and he took a single defensive action to prevent the dog from biting him and unfortunately resulting in the dog passing away,” said Ryan Drabek, Interim Director for OC Animal Care. “Just an unfortunate incident but according to our officers we didn’t believe there were any criminal actions that took place.” Denise King, spokeswoman for the Southern California Gas Company, told CNN the utility regretted the incident. “It was a very sad and unfortunate accident and we’re looking at it very closely,” she said. “I can’t speak to the specifics because we have an internal investigation going on.” King said the meter reader has not been disciplined. “From what I heard he is very upset and feels very badly about what occurred,” she said. “Our sympathies go out to the pet owners.” She also said the company offered to pay the pet owner for the veterinary bills and to cover the expenses if the family decides to adopt a pet in the future. For Shirley Newman, the official responses only add to her suffering. "I never thought it would ever happen and someone would be so brutal to a tiny dog,” she said.
What a dick! My smallest cat is more than six pounds! I hope the fucker loses his job, and the family successfully sues the living dog-piss (no pun intended) out of this cowardly shit-bag!
This is why I never, EVER take my little dog out without being on a leash. All it takes is one person who physically reacts to the yap before they stop to think and she'd be a goner.
I'm usually a rational man, but I think I might have savagely attacked that meter man in a case like this.
Nah. Just post his picture with the caption "This is the man who needed lethal force to defend himself from a toy poodle." He'll be a laughingstock for the rest of his life.
That guy deserves to be brought before the Council of Man Law and have his dick chopped off because he is obviously not a man if he needs to defend himself from a TOY POODLE by way of beating the poor animal. I mean seriously, my aunt has a poodle, and the only one in our family who may feel a need to defend himself against it is my 4 year old cousin.....
How do I find this man? And where is the closest police station to where he lives? I would program a trip to the police station in my gps, with his home as a waypoint.
This seems like more of accident than anything else. The owners of this dog have to take their share of the blame as well. You have to secure your dog, you have to train your dog, you have to be responsible. Plus meter readers must have to deal with dogs all day long, I'd imagine they have a response plan as well for an off-leash, charging, barking dog. A single strike doesn't sound unreasonable in that scenario. Obviously excessive force was used in this instance but I'm not convinced any malice was involved. Sounds like a sad story all the way around.
It's not so obvious that excessive force was used. I see nothing in the story that would contradict a scenario in which the meter reader heard a barking dog coming up behind him, without seeing the dog, and took a single swipe with the tool that was already in his hand as he turned around. I see no reason to presume that he knew this was a six pound dog that posed no real threat. Maybe he knew, and maybe he didn't but should have known, but maybe not. If all that happened was that a meter man was a little paranoid about dogs and took a defensive swipe without looking when he heard a dog barking and running up behind him, well, that I can understand.
I've hit dogs before, I've even kicked a couple, to get them off of my leg, but I've never broken a dog's face or any bones in their body for that matter. This little half-pint may have been out of control, but a little punt should have been more than enough to deal with it.
Yes, the bark of a toy poodle is often confused with that of a pitt bull. I just don't buy that a dog that size could put genuine fear into a man that probably has a lot of experience with dogs in his profession. He was probably in a pissy mood about something and took it out on the yappy poodle. The fact that he pretended to not know what happened to it makes him look even worse. I would have buried this guy's teeth with my dog.
The amount of force used to subdue the dog was greater than necessary in my opinion. That may well be the case. Seems with both agree there is no evidence of malice.
Maybe so, that's not the impression I got from the story. Well, let's look at this statement- This is only a few snippets of third hand knowledge. Doesn't sound like anybody witnessed the event either. In my opinion there just isn't enough info to make a conclusion one way or the other.
Yeah, the guy thought it was a much bigger dog, and hit it without looking. That's why he just happened to smash its head.
Indefensible, cowardly shitbag. And the rationalizations are fucking pathetic. There is no excuse for this.
Yup. After I read this, I had to make a trip to Lowes. Amazing, the things that they have to repair dry wall.
I hope that meter man doesn't have any kids. I'd hate to think what he would do to a mouthy kid if he's driven to rage by a toy poodle. This is why I was so afraid the few times my dog got out. I went after her immediately but you never know what could happen. She's the most affectionate dog who ever lived but she's part pit bull. All it takes is one asshole to overreact and scream, "There's a pit bull!" and try to kill her because people assume pit bulls are natural born killers when they're not. If someone could do that to a toy poodle.....what a pussy he must be. No one is afraid of a toy poodle. It barked at him and he lost his temper. That's what happened. It was a toy poodle. Have you ever heard a toy poodle bark? It sounds pathetic. The owners went after her immediately. I wouldn't be frightened of a toy poodle barking that I couldn't see. One of the times my dog got out the front door, it was when a gas meter man was around. She ran at him, he reached down and started scratching behind her ears. He asked if she was part pit and I told him yes. He said you could tell she was gentle and that she was only rambunctious and wanted to play. He said he loved pits, that they're only mean when they're raised to fight and mistreated. Reading this story, it occurs to me that things could have ended very differently for me that morning. I got a stronger leash for her that afternoon after work. A toy poodle. He shattered the face of a toy poodle.
If it'd been a 90 pound german shepard or some such, maybe it would be justified. But a six pound toy poodle? There is no excuse, no rationalization that can suffice. Lawyerly bullshit or not, this guy is a shitbag and needs to lose his job (at the very least) over this.
