Pit bull Tased by police later dies

October 21, 2010
Gazette Times

The complaint of a vicious dog at large Monday ended with a pit bull biting one police officer, that officer Tasing the pit bull, and with the dog dying somewhere between its owner’s backyard and the animal shelter.

...Mable Akina said she arrived home Monday to find officers at her door. They told her the dogs were out loose and that they had been alarmed about the aggressive behavior of the big one (Deuce). It was after Akina went to the backyard to check on the dogs that the officers told her that they’d used a Taser (a device that shoots out a temporarily disabling electric shock) — on Deuce. The device is meant to be an alternative to lethal force.

Mable Akina said that both Deuce and the puppy looked fine, however, and she agreed to bring Deuce to the front and put a muzzle on him so that the officers could take him to Heartland Humane Society. That is the normal procedure after an owner is cited in connection with a dog attack.

“When he went into the truck he was fine,” she said. “Just scared.”

An officer later returned to the Akina house to tell them that when the doors to the animal control transport were opened at Heartland’s shelter in south Corvallis, Deuce was dead.

Mable Akina said that the officer suspected that the Tasing might be to blame, but Deuce’s body was transported to Oregon State University for testing to determine a cause of death.

As of Thursday, the pit bull’s body remained at OSU.

“We’re still waiting” to learn the official cause of death, she said