Please remember Diego - Page 2

Its also possible he tried to kill Diego by hitting him harder,
as he may have thought the other option was badly wounding
a stray and it crawling off to die ?  I have heard some drivers
say they would do this.  Not sure how I feel about it; can see
both sides.

Terribly sorry for Diego - and his owners, and you as witness -
but I feel, like Kim pretty obviously does, that this is probably one
of those accidents which should never have happened, 'cos
the dog shouldn't have been in the road in the first place ....

The dog was not running with them - PMWatch merely stated what they were doing when it happened. Regardless of the details, it was a terrible situation that should have never occurred and a damn horrible thing to have to witness and deal with because the individuals that should have dealt with it failed to step up to the task.

Good Lord, perhaps we need to mandate an IQ test prior to posting. 

The OP simply witnessed this. She wasn't in charge of the dog who got hit. She stepped up to the plate and took care of the poor little dog's burial. Cut her a break. 

I concur with Dawulf...people are so cruel. It's not at all unheard of for some country bumpkin with a mean streak to intentionally run down a small dog. I've heard them brag and laugh about it. We'll never know, but it seems unlikely that driving fast enough that you couldn't stop for a dog would leave no need to gun the engine to kill a tiny terrier. Most accidents should never have happened in the first place...that's why they're called accidents. RIP Diego. 

I believe Kim is trying to point out how important it is to always have your dog on a leash or in a fenced yard. Yes Blaineric details do matter this may have been avoided. I feel bad for the owners but it is a warning to all of us have your dog under control at all times.

Jenni,
Where do you live and who do you hang around with???  I only ask because you know people that were involved in dog fighting and have been around people that brag and laugh about running over a dog.  Funny enough, but the only time I meet people with this "mean streak" to laugh about running over a dog or are dog fighters is on calls.  I can tell you that I have never had an acquaintance, associate, friend, or relative brag to me about dog fighting or killing dogs.  Even before I was a cop I never knew any one to do this, so this fascinates me.     

http://www.naperville.il.us/community_relations_moving_naperville.aspx
 

I grew up in Suffolk County, NY.  Right in the middle of Long Island, 60 or so miles East of "the city" (Manhattan) and about 1 1/2 hrs from the Hamptons and Montauk.  I grew up loving animals and was taught to respect them, my friends were the same way.  No, I never knew anyone that was amused by any sort of cruelty to animals growing up.  I have always enjoyed fishing and grew up near the water.  I always removed the barb from the hook before I went fishing because I was and still am into catch and release.  We were into different sports than the kids / teenagers that you grew up with, like soccer, baseball, Ice Hockey and street hockey.  We considered those sports. 

Where I work we have a large population of "country boys" that like to drive drunk, smoke weed and do stupid stuff.  I guess I'll need to leave the "hot" precincts and head down south more often and see if these "country boys" think it's funny to run over dogs.  Running over dogs hasn't been a big issue here.   We do have a lot of deep drainage ditches running along all of the country roads, that keeps the "country boys" trucks in the shop most of the time after they wreck them in a ditch. 

I feel bad for Diego, because if he was hit intentionally the driver should be prosecuted.  I would hope that if it does happen in my city the witness would call the Police with a vehicle description and hopefully a License plate number.  We'll hunt them down and charge them.  We take animal cruelty calls very seriously and we absolutely do respond.


This post was in response to Jenni's post that she edited with the link and deleted the rest. Reading my response will probably not make a whole lot of sense now.  I will say Naperville looks like a nice place to live from that link too bad the teenagers are so screwed up there.

Slamdunc, consider yourself lucky if you've never met people like that.

Teenagers are bad - in high school I heard a lot of stories about them running over animals intentionally, but I've also heard it from adults who you would think would have sense enough to not do such a thing. But hey, I'm from Nebraska, I suppose we're all just "country folk" here too.

I'm not sure I'd ever want to drive again if I hit a dog or cat... I'd feel like crap. I don't understand why anyone would intentionally do things like this, but they do.

Dawulf,
I consider myself very fortunate that I never had friends, acquaintances, associates or relatives that would be so cruel to an animal growing up.

 I didn't say I have never met anyone that has been to cruel to animals, although we have an animal control division I respond to almost every cruelty call that goes out when I am working.  I responded to a crack head that had stabbed a German Shepherd with a pair of shears.  Boomer tracked right up to the guy who had just been released from jail three hours prior.  I interviewed him and got a full admission then asked him to hand me his crack and crack pipe which he did.  He went straight back to jail with new felony charges.  Three of my good friends responded to a call for a subject that had beaten his neighbor's dog.  They tracked and found the guy resulting in a shoot out with him, the suspect lived and the cops were ok.  I believe cruelty to animals goes hand in hand with domestic assault, violence and other crimes.  Yes, I see and meet plenty.  Generally, people who will abuse their dogs or other animals will abuse people in one way or another.  I feel bad for any defenseless animal or person that is abused, mistreated or killed.  I understand why I see a lot of it, but it surprises me for someone not in my profession to have so many stories about it.

Yes, I agree that teenagers are bad.  The most violent age group is 14 - 17 and I deal with a lot of juvenile and adult gang members and shootings, homicides, robberies, drug dealing are all common place.

Minicus, I stated that regardless of the details, it should not have happened. Nowhere did I state that details do not matter. Please distinguish the difference.

And you're absolutely right - it is absolutely imperative for the internet forum to know every single detail of the gruesome situation. Had the internet forum discussed the importance of obeying leash laws then the owner would have suddenly remembered to put a leash on his dog and the driver of the car would have suddenly avoided hitting the dog and the dog would still be alive. This makes total sense. I'm so glad I come to this forum to remind me to always have my dog on a leash. I mean, otherwise I would've never known!