Mail Bag - Alabama man accused of dog killings

Well, I got the following in my email this week so I thought I'd pass it on. I'll usually blog about a topic if you send it to me, so feel free to do so. The more details you send as well as a blurb about why you would like me to post it, the better. (Otherwise I sit and look at the email and think ... Uh ... what 'dis, George?)

Below is a case regarding a neighbour shooting someones pet dog. From what I can see in the below case, there doesn't seem to be much proof that this was definitely the guy who shot the dog (which may also accord for the lack of movement on the police side of things). There seems to be a lot of finger pointing going on, but no one is bothering to provide any proof that this guy is actually the one killing dogs.

I'm going to blog a little later on this week about this sort of thing because it has brought up some interesting thoughts I'd like to share (but I don't want this to become a ridiculously long post!)

The best thing the common dog owner can do? Two things; one, train your dog not to go off property or get a fence or find some other way to contain the dog; two, recall recall recall! If you don't understand these two things, please review this post I made back in October. If you have neighbours like the below accused, don't let your dog out without supervision even if you do have a fence. Ever.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 7 Court Date for Man Accused of Killing Neighbor's Basset Hound

On Tuesday, April 7, Christopher Dewayne Delawder of Odenville, Alabama will be brought before St. Clair County Civil Court in Ashville, Alabama on the felony animal cruelty charges after being accused of killing "Babyboy," a 14-month-old Basset Hound belonging to his neighbor, Terri L. Davis.

Delawder, 28, initially denied to police that he had shot the dog, only to confess a few hours later after contacting a lawyer. He claims to have shot Babyboy because the dog had wandered onto his property and in his opinion posed a threat to his pet cats.

On June 28, 2008, a neighbor went to Ms. Davis' house to tell her that Babyboy was laying in the road, injured. Babyboy, a docile dog, who was usually kept inside Ms. Davis' house, had gotten loose from the back yard and wandered down the street.

Ms. Davis lives four houses down from Delawder. By the time she reached her dog, he was dead, but he had lived for at least five agonizing minutes after being shot in the spine. The veterinarian who performed the autopsy on Babyboy said that the nature of his injury was such that he would've been unable to walk after being shot. Babyboy was found heading towards Ms. Davis' home, 40 feet away from Mr. Delawder's driveway and off his property.

While no one witnessed the shooting, a large crowd of neighbors, many of them children, witnessed the dog's convulsive dying minutes. Delawder, who at the time claimed not to know what had happened, offered to get his gun from his home and "put the dog out of its misery." Neighbors were struck by Delawder's lack of emotion during the incident.

Ms. Davis was so traumatized by finding her dog shot dead that she went into shock and required care from EMS on the scene. Her daughters, Rebecca, now 13, and Courtney, now 14, were also scarred by the loss of their beloved pet and family member.

The local law enforcement and legal system proved of little help. Police confiscated Delawder's gun but did not arrest him. Davis says that the District Attorney seemed in no hurry to investigate her case. She was not allowed to give her side of the story to the DA until September 4, 2008, over two months after Babyboy's death. The DA declined to pursue a criminal action on the grounds of a lack of witnesses.

Ms. Davis was seriously ill from October through December, but filed a civil suit in December. Officials with St. Clair County briefly lost the paperwork.

As there has never been a jury trial held in Odenville, the case will be heard in the county seat of Ashville.

Several people have reported and are willing to testify in court that at least 12 of their dogs have been stolen, injured, or killed during the seven year period Delawder has lived in their neighborhood. Ms. Davis recently found a stray puppy poisoned and dead on her property.

During a verbal altercation with a neighbor Delawder threatened to kill the man's pets. Some time afterward the man snooped around Delawder's property and found a mixture of dog food and ground-up glass, though he did not at the time report this to the authorities.

On a different occasion another neighbor contacted police after an autopsy proved that their dog died after ingesting a dog food and glass mixture.

Ms. Davis states that she has never had any conflict with Delawder and that their contacts have always been civil.

Ms. Davis can provide the names of witnesses and other parties listed in this report.

Ms. Davis currently does not have an attorney. She and her friends are trying to generate local, national, and international interest in the press about the case.

For more information e-mail Terri L. Williams Davis at justice4babyboy@yahoo.com.

SIGN THE JUSTICE4BABYBOY PETITION: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/bassethound-babyboy-was-shot-killed-by-neighbor

Terri's Facebook page, with pictures of Babyboy before and after the shooting: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1320463665&ref=mf

Watch Terri's YouTube video: http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=66174170804&h=zdGDm&u=4hESj

Terri's Myspace page: www.myspace.com/justice4babyboy

Terri's blog for the Babyboy case: http://justice4babyboy.webs.com/