 Dog(s) shot, killed by owner of trailer park
Devine, TX (US)Date: Dec 1999
County: Medina
Local Map: available
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Gus Breiden
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The owner of a trailer park here may face cruelty to animal charges for shooting to death a tenant's dog.
However, Gus Breiden says he's not a criminal. Breiden says he's just trying to deal with the problem of unvaccinated and abandoned dogs the only way he can.
Medina County has no animal control officers, and the shelter in Devine does not accept animals from outside the city limits.
So, Breiden said, he faced an unenviable choice.
He either can let his trailer park become over run with stray dogs tearing up trash, defecating on lawns, breeding and possibly spreading disease, or he can take matters into his own hands, he said.
Breiden and his wife, Pam, acknowledged he shot two dogs at the trailer park Tuesday. The Breidens mistakenly believed the owners of one of the dogs had moved and abandoned an animal, and he didn't recognize the other dog as belonging to tenants Howard and Claudia Chamberlain.
"I apologized to Claudia's daughter," Pam Breiden said. "I'm sorry Gus did not recognize the dog. It was in the trash by the Dumspter."
Buck, a 2-year old Chihuahua mix, escaped the fenced back yard Tuesday morning, Claudia Chamberlain said.
"We had eight dogs, and we bathe them every week and brush their teeth," she said. "They are as much our kids as if I gave birth to them myself. I want him to learn a lesson that he can't do this to other people's animals."
"I'm kind of caught in the middle here with this situation," Breiden said. "I've called the county in the past, and their answer was just to deal with it as best as I can."
Medina County sheriff's Investigator Robert West said it is legal to shoot a dog on your property if it is attacking livestock or a person, but not if it is getting into trash.
"I called the deputy at home, and he said he will file cruelty to animal charges," West said. "The charges are not filed yet, but they will be filed, and he will be arrested. He can't just indiscriminately kill dogs. It's going to be a mess down there by the time this is over with."
Breiden predicted the cruelty charge "won't stick."
On the other side of the trailer park, Breiden shot and killed Kelly Braly's German shepherd mix "Dusty" early Tuesday afternoon.
"He was a good dog," Braly said. "He always stayed near our home. I didn't think Gus would do that. He's a sweet guy."
Tenant Mike Rosenbaum said he heard three shots outside his trailer.
"I opened the door on the third shot, and I saw Gus with a rifle in his hand, reaching down to pick up the dog and he dragged it across the street and threw it in his truck," he said. "He just called it over to him and shot it. That's not right."
Gusville is a large trailer park alongside Interstate 35 in rural Medina County, near Devine. It's covered with live oak trees and children playing. There also are many dogs running loose on any given day. Seven loose dogs were roaming the park Wednesday afternoon.
Funding is in place to hire and and equip two animal control officers, Medina County Judge David Montgomery said.
Pam Breiden said she was told by Braly's mortgage company that the Bralys had moved out of the home two days earlier, and she thought the dog had been abandoned, a common problem at Gusville. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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