The Crawford County Sheriff says one of his investigators should not have ordered a man to cut off the head of his dog as a way to check for rabies. This comes after a man says a Crawford County investigator ordered him to either cut his dog's head off or go to jail after the dog bit someone.
Crawford County Sheriff Lewis Walker says Friday afternoon one of his deputies responded to a call about a dog bite. He says the dog charged at the deputy after he arrived on the scene.
“The deputy used his service weapon to put the dog down,” says Walker.
He says Investigator Hollis met the deputy at the scene.
“They did get someone on the phone with the health department that made an attempt to tell the gentleman what he would need to do,” says Walker.
He says it is standard protocol to call the Crawford County Health Department when they think a dog could be rabid, but he says they are investigating what happened next.
“He said you got two options: you can either remove the dog's head or take him to the vet and they can remove it,” says the dog’s owner, Joe Goodwin.
Goodwin says he asked if he could take the dog to the vet, but Investigator Hollis would not let him leave the scene.
“No, we've got to have it right now, and you’re not going anywhere. I’m still conducting my investigation,” says Goodwin explaining what the investigator told him.
Then Goodwin says the investigator told him he could either remove his dog's head or go to jail, so he says he removed the head.
“That shouldn't have been done on the scene, from what I gathered,” says Walker.
Walker says they are still investigating what happened, but he says as he understands it. His officers should not play any role in investigating whether the dog was rabid.
“We would not transfer an animal in that situation. That’s up to the health department. We would respond, and we would notify them,” says Walker.
Walker says the county's health department should have been at the scene and handled any rabies testing.
Walker says this is still under investigation. Investigator James Hollis has been placed on administrative leave.