What do you think should happen to this dog?

Question

Recently, a judge in Princeton, NJ, ordered that a 2 1/2 year old male German Shepherd named Congo be put to death because he attacked a landscaper. Before you pass judgment, here is the story:

The landscaper was supposed to arrive at the owner's house after 8:00am and showed up there at 7:00am. The owner's wife told the landscaper to stay in the car until her husband was done showering and could put the dogs in the house. The landscaper refused to listen to the woman and when the 3 Shepherd puppies began barking, he hit them on the head with a metal rake, leaving cuts and scratches on their
little heads and snouts. The puppies' mother was also hit on the head with the rake. The owner's young son was outside when all this was happening. When the wife told the landscaper to stop hitting the dogs, he grabbed her from behind and pushed her to the ground prompting the male Shepherd to run out of the house. Congo, the male
Shepherd, sat between the young boy and the wife until he

saw the landscaper attack the wife. At this point, Congo jumped up and the
landscaper started waving the metal rake and hit Congo which caused
Congo to bite the landscaper. This ended up in court down here in
Princeton and the insuarance made a settlement with the landscaper for
$250,000 and found the dog's owner and the dog guilty. He is making
his final judgment on whether or not Congo is to be sentenced to death
on Tues., Nov. 13.

As a follow up to the question of what should happen to Congo, here is some additional information:
There will be a rally on Tuesday from 10:00 to 2:00 at 400 Witherspoon St. in Princeton for ANYONE who can attend. If you can't attend, please send an email showing your support for Congo to:

letters@njtimes. com
Casseyandrossi@ nj1015.com
feedback@pacpub. com
letters@trentonian. com

Please be sure that your letters are under 250 words and include your
name, address, and daytime phone number.

If you want to email the judge, here is his email address:

caroline_sapio@ princeton-township.nj.us

http://www.nj1015.com/personalities/casey-rossi.shtm

Answer 1

Eaach side has a good point. Firstly, the dog saw it's owner grabbed and pushed to the gorund, along with it's young attacked. One cannot blame the dog for attacking. Yet when they tried to call it off, they were not successfull.
They should have trained their dogs so that they can be called off.
But why put the dog to death over what is bad training by the owner? Who will simply do that again with the next dog, then the same thing happens, and so on and so on.
They should put this down as warning, and if something like this happens agaoin, THEN take action. Then the owners have no business having any dogs, if they cannot train them properly.

Don't punish the dog for the owner's mistake, every person gets a second chance, so should the dog.

Answer 2

Indeed if this is the Truth and the facts are as stated, the dog was provoked and therefore innocent. The landscaper needs to pay compensation for all the trouble he caused and Congo's owner has every right to refuse him entry onto his property. Find another landscaper.

I am surprised that the Mother did not protect her pups. The landscaper was in fact lucky she did not. The landscaper appears to have brains the size of a pea and if the Judge does not set aside his judgement against Congo, I would say he is receiving a handsome payment from the landscaper.

There is something very fishy about this entire story. No judge would sentence Congo to death, at least not without an expert team of top dog psychologists. At every corner as the story unfolds the landscaper is at fault, whilst the dogs are all innocent, yet beaten up by the landscaper???? Including the puppies. As for him grabbing the wife from behind and pushing her to the ground????? Doesn't make any sense to me. No one in this family appeared to have challenged the mad landscaper, who evidently is allowed to trespass, abuse, inflict damage to not only the animals, but physically assault the owner or his wife of the premises. Doesn't add up. He furthermore was an hour early. Someone is telling porkies, that's for sure.

Leave the animals out of the equation, that's what I say.

Answer 3

I do not think the dog needs to be put down. The landscaper needs to be arrested for animal Cruelty. Of course since a dog cannot talk a judge is more likely to take the landscapers side because German Shepards have a reputation of being a big mean dog. However I know that if I was an animal that got hit over the head and watched my puppies get hit over the head I would feel threatened and bite the Landscaper. If the dog has never showed signs of aggression before and only suddenly when the landscaper arrived and started beating the animals then the dog has no reason to be put down.

Answer 4

this story makes my heart sad. I believe that the dog was just defending his family. The landscaper should have arrived as close to 8 am as possible or called and checked to see if he could have arrived earlier. The landscaper when told by the wife to wait until her husband was out of the shower should have done exactly that.

this is not the dogs fault and that dog should NOT be put to death. The judge needs to get off the bench if he sentences this dog to death. Maybe he should get off the bench for finding the pet owner responsible for this. the landscaper wasn't soo innocent in this.

Answer 5

OMG....what a horror story. Congo was only protecting it's owners. No way should Congo be put to death. They asked the landscaper to stay in the car. If he couldn't listen, and then began hitting the dogs with a rake, it is, at the very least, his fault!!!

Answer 6

This just showcases ignorance at it's best, Some asshole looking for a quick payday. That dog should NOT have to pay for the actions of some brain dead ignoramus. Who the hell hits puppies with a rake? And shouldn't this dick be jailed for assault for grabbing the wife and throwing her to the ground? I hope the judge has some sense and realizes this dog was only protecting his owners. I would like 10 minutes alone with this landscaper, i guarantee i would mess him up worse than any dog could.

Answer 7

I live in Princeton and think that the landscaper if anyone should be put to death! He was abusive and only provoked a dog that had the potential to attack!

German Shepherds are great dogs and this story is a real blow to the shepherd community!

The dog should be fixed and sent home. This could ensure that the dog would be calmer and less likely to attack someone (even if they needed to be!)

Answer 8

If this guy even remotely did anything like this to my dogs, I would not wait for the male to attack. I would have the shotgun out, he would be fired and the police would be called to remove him from my property. My husband could sit in the house the whole time, for all I would care. My question is, why didn't this woman do any of this? She had to wait for her husband???????
I feel very badly for this dog, as it doesn't seem as if the judgement will go his way, but what kind of person allows someone to do this to their animals while waiting for someone else to step in?

My ACD tried to attack the Com-Ed guy who was stupid enough to enter my yard without ringing the doorbell first. He of course ignored all of the "beware of dog" signs on my gates. He ended up leaping head first over the fence while my dog charged him, with me yelling at him about how stupid he was. By the time I got done with Com-Ed on the phone, I don't think I will ever see this guy in my neighborhood again. My house was already listed on their computer as a home that required the doorbell to be rung first, as I have a doggie door.

I believe dog owners have rights on their own property.

Answer 9

i think that is terrible. they want to put a dog to death for protecting its owner. so should we put police dogs to death because they r protecting the people of America. obviously there is a reason that the dog attacked. the guy was attacking the mother and the pups. honestly i think the guy should be charged with assault and animal cruelty. things like this seriously make me mad at the government. that dog did nothing but protect the family that he loved from being attacked. what was he supposed to do sit back and watch. this just goes to show that even if someone was breaking into ur house and had a gun and ur dog came up and attacked them that nothing would happen to the gunman but the dog would be put to sleep. the system is seriously flawed if the judge is so worried about the dog "attacking" again maybe he should quarantine him for a while and study the behavior of the dog while in quarantine

Answer 10

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!! Congo was doing his job and the landscaper should of listened to the wife.
We believe that dogs are protectors of the family and they are just doing their jobs!!
Good thing the husband didn't have a gun in his hand when he saw his wife getting pushed down.
And GOOD THING Congo WAS THERE to protect his family from further harm. It's an injustice to the out come of this!
And NO CONGO SHOULD STILL LIVE AND BE THERE FOR HIS FAMILY!
And our family will pray for Congo's life!