Wednesday, 24 May 2023
ALLEN PARISH, LA (KPLC) –
Over the weekend, Donna Courville’s dog was shot and killed by an Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy.
On June 30, Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office responded to the Calcasieu river launch in Leblanc after receiving a call reporting that a large and “very aggressive” dog was scaring nearby residents and children.Â
The dog showed signs of aggression by charging at the officer, said Sheriff Doug Hebert, who stands by the deputy’s actions.
“There’s no way you can have a situation with an aggressive dog out there harming kids..it’s a sad deal, the officer felt horrible about having to shoot the dog but he had no choice.”
Courville says the deputy shot her dog, Spanky, four times before leaving the body abandoned behind a tree near the river.
“I just couldn’t believe what I seen, why do that, I don’t like the fact of shooting a dog..they could have took it another way, do something differently; supposedly they couldn’t,” said Courville.
Donna admitted that she left Spanky after he ran off after spotting a squirrel, she says she left to get treats to lure him back; but unfortunately when she returned he was already dead.
Hebert says being that Allen Parish doesn’t have animal control services in the area, law enforcement takes on the role. As for leaving the dog, he says the deputy was called on another assignment which prompted him to leave quickly without properly disposing of the body.
“Circumstances would look like, he just shot and left the dog, that’s not what happened, he just didn’t have a body bag or anything to put the dog in but he did go back there to try and find the owner and or bury the dog.”
He says that knowing how to deal with “bad dogs” isn’t really something that is offered during police academy training.
“It’s not really something that we have in our academy training is how to deal with bad dogs, quite frankly, the deputy’s job is to protect the public and that was the posture that he took,” said Hebert.
Donna says she has nightmares of how she found Spanky. She started a Facebook page called “Justice for Spanky” to make more people aware of the situation. She says she just wants justice for her dog and she hopes that officers can somehow receive better training on how to better handle situations with aggressive dogs.
She does plan to seek legal counsel.
Lawyer, Alyson Antoon says whenever faced with these types of cases, one thing she finds is that many people aren’t aware of the rights they have when it comes to situations like these.
A dog is property under the law, and unfortunately nothing can bring the dog back, but if a law enforcement officer or person seizes that animal unjustly, that’s a violation of constitutional rights, so there are absolutely things that people can do when they find themselves in this type of situation,” said Antoon.
For a link to the Facebook page, click HERE.
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