On Nov. 23rd between 4:00 & 5:15 PM, in Burlington, Iowa ...some person went into Chief's fenced back yard and brutally beat and kicked him. He was so swollen his skin began to split open. He was a brave Scottie and tried to hang on, but his heart gave up yesterday and he crossed the rainbow bridge. As you can imagine, his owner's are devistated. There are no suspects and it seems the police are not terribly interested in finding the monster who did this.

We have confirmed another case of a dog in its own back yard kicked in the head severely about a week or so before Chief.  This dog too died from its skull fracture.

Please ... if you are thinking that you don't want to get involved, take one moment and look into the eyes of YOUR beloved dog or cat. Look at the LOVE and TRUST they give you in their gaze. Ask yourself if you would like other dog and cat lovers to help you find justice if it was your baby brutally beaten and killed.

From Chief owners:

We met with the vet and the animal control officer Tim Orth yesterday. The vet arranged this meeting and I thank him for that. The vet explained everything to my wife and I and officer Orth. Chief did suffer from trauma the night of 11-23-11; the vet admitted the wounds from that night were indicative of a dog that had been kicked. This was also reiterated by another vet at the same animal clinic. Although no one can prove it was 100% for sure that he was kicked, Chief did receive some sort of trauma that night. Also that trauma is what started the chain of events that lead to Chiefs death.

From the results of the biopsy that came back Thursday, it was an infection from toxigenic bacteria that killed Chief. No one knows for sure how or where Chief picked up the bacteria. It is not much different than when a human picks up an infection after an injury. I flat out asked the vet if the trauma started everything and the bacteria finished him off and he said "yes". I also asked if Chief would have never had the trauma would he have died and he said no. That is what I wanted the animal control officer to hear.

I then asked the officer if he would now consider this matter a crime. He told me no because there is no proof, I said to him, isn’t that your job? He told me that no one seen Chief get kicked, I said what if it was a human? He said a human could talk and tell the police what happened. I said what if the human had died and couldn’t talk then what? Is it still a crime? He said it is different because it’s a crime against a human. I said we are all living creatures and it should be the same. I also asked why he never came to our home to investigate. He replied why, what for? I said to actually investigate the scene. Then he actually had the nerve to say his excuse for not coming to my house was because our schedules didn’t align with his. I told him that he never once tried to meet with my wife or I and we would have come home at anytime to meet with him. He claims he is only allowed to work only 32 hours a week. It is ridiculous that Burlington Iowa will only allow 32 hours a week to protect our animals and to investigate animal abuse. In our opinion officer Orth was very smug to us and showed no compassion what so ever, very unprofessional for a city paid employee. I am done with the Burlington, Iowa police and the animal control on this issue except for the reward. We are offering a $2,000.00 reward for the arrest and conviction of the person/persons responsible for the trauma inflicted on Chief.

I have learned some things from all of this; First and most important is never to let my dogs out even for a minute without being with them, even in your own fenced yard. Second is if anything ever happens to one of my pets and I have any suspicions it was a deliberate act caused by someone I will call 911 immediately and report, I will demand a real police officer to respond. No more of having to wait for the part time animal control officer. I am very disappointed with the city of Burlington Iowa.

I know some people have speculated that a deer may have caused Chiefs injuries, we asked the vet this in the beginning and he ruled that out because there were no open wounds.

A deer’s hooves have sharp edges and an antler would have left cuts. We have heard other speculations from people that are just plain ridiculous. All we know is we let our perfectly healthy happy seven year old Scottie out to play, less than an hour later he came back scared, shaking uncontrollably, and in pain. Later the next day his lower side had swelled up and six days later he died. People will speculate what they want to; they will judge us as well. We never hesitated in spending any amount of money to save Chief, everything the vet wanted to try we said yes up to the point of Chiefs death. We loved him and would have done anything we could of to save him. We miss him more than words can say.