The following article appeared in the Auburn Journal newspaper, Auburn, CA, on November 20, 2007:
Neighbor says he killed dog for harassing livestock
Labrador's owner offers $1,000 for conviction
By: Loryll Nicolaisen, Auburn Journal Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Two Auburn-area neighbors have learned the hard way that dogs and livestock don't always mesh well on rural property.
Dr. Robert Hook posted an advertisement in the Auburn Journal late last week offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person who shot and killed his yellow Labrador, Sierra Sue, near Bear River Lane and Highway 49 in North Auburn. A lawyer for a neighbor who later admitted shooting the dog, said he did so to defend cattle on his property.
The shooting occurred around 1:30 p.m. Nov. 14, Hook said, as he, his wife and daughter were eating lunch at home on the patio.
"We heard two shots and we heard a dog yelp and we thought, 'That could be our dogs,'" Hook said.
Hook discovered that two of his dogs had escaped from their pen, and family members began searching the neighborhood for the dogs, spending Wednesday afternoon and some of Thursday keeping an eye out for Sierra Sue. Neighbor Skip Outman called the Hooks Friday to say he'd found the dog dead near a fence line, Hook said.
"I had been up and down that road numerous times and didn't see the dog," Hook said. "It's really fishy when a dead dog all of a sudden appears."
Hook said Outman did not initially admit to shooting the dog, but that Outman's attorney, Patrick Little, later told Hook his client admitted to shooting the dog.
Little said Outman, who is his longtime friend, had every right to shoot at Sierra Sue and her companion because they were harassing cattle on the neighbor's property.
Seven pair of cattle had been examined by a veterinarian earlier Wednesday and diagnosed with a contagious, life-threatening illness, Little said. The animals were to be kept calm, Outman was told.
Little said Outman discovered two dogs - "He didn't know whose dogs they were," he said - on his property. Outman said he threw rocks and other items at the dogs to get them to go away, which they did at first. Outman went back into his house but soon heard barking.
"One of the dogs had a calf by the leg and the mother was frantic and crashing into the fence," he said. "I fired a shot to try to get them to go away. It held on to this calf's leg and I had no choice. Bob (Hook) doesn't know how bad I feel. It's one of the worst things that has happened to me."
Outman admits he should have told Hook about the dog right away.
"I could have handled it better at the time," he said.
Outman believes a lesson can be learned from an experience such as this, that dogs living in rural areas need to be well contained.
"I just think that's the responsibility of the dog owners, especially in the country. You can't let them roam and you can't let them get onto other people's property."
Lt. Jeff Ausnow of the Placer County Sheriff's Office said that property owners, by law, could shoot animals interfering with livestock such as cattle or horses, as written in the California penal code.
"Any dogs harassing livestock, the potential for the dogs to be shot is there," he said. "The spirit of that law is to protect animals and for owners to keep their dogs under control."
The animal or animals do have to harass livestock under the boundaries of this law, Ausnow said.
"It's not a blanket policy that a dog wandering on your property can be shot," he said.
That doesn't make the death of Sierra Sue any less upsetting for Hook, or for his neighbor.
"She was a good hunting dog," Hook said. "It's senseless. It was a nice dog and a good pet."
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