Save Heidi, A Nice Dog May Pay With Her Life

I usually don’t post these sort of petition stories form Facebook, this one called Save Heidi.

How do I know what’s true in these stories or not…Sure, most of the time, maybe even 99 percent of the time, it’s all true – but this story doesn’t even seem to have two sides…so I am going ahead and posting….

A dog named Heidi, jumps up excitedly to greet a stranger who reportedly suffered a broken nose as a result. Complaining to officials in Royal Oak, MI – the response either give up the dog or have the dog euthanized. By all accounts the dog is well-behaved and no one previously complained about this dog. Oh, did I mention the dog is Doberman? Of course, likely, here’s another example of the breed playing into response by public officials.

Why should Heidi’s story matter to you? Along these lines you can be walking your Chihuahua on-leash, but someone trips over the dog and makes the same allegation; or any nice dog might (admittedly rudely) intersect with a person’s nose. This is an absolute over-response.

following is copied from the Save Heidi Facebook page:

Her Story:

We adopted Heidi almost 4 years ago from a well-established and reputable rescue organization specializing in the Doberman breed. Like most Doberman, Heidi is a very intelligent and energetic dog. She is a loving & loyal member of our family.

In October, while out for a leashed walk to a local market, a stranger approached suddenly wanting to pet her. Startled and in her excitement, Heidi popped up at the same time that the stranger bent over to pet her. She collided with his face. He has claimed this resulted in a broken nose and reported the accident to Royal Oak Police.

Royal Oak is now prosecuting this as a dog bite/attack! The Assistant Deputy City Attorney has offered to dismiss the criminal charges only if Heidi is destroyed or removed from her loving family in Royal Oak. This is happening to our family with a 30+ year history as law abiding Royal Oak residents. Heidi has no previous incidents of aggressive behavior and is a well trained, obedient, loving success story of a Doberman rescue.

All dog owners must be aware of the risks of criminal prosecution under the antiquated Michigan statutes written in 1919 and the paranoid overreaction by local city officials who are prosecuting dog breeds, not dog attack cases.

I signed the petition, hope you do also. I thank Mare Potts for telling me about this story.