Sunday, May 13, 2012

Texas Justice? Man machetes his neighbor's dog.


I guess it's important to foster good relations with your neighbors. Or know whether your neighbors are horribly unbalanced people with machetes. I cannot imagine how both miserable and angry I would be if Elka slipped her leash, ran across the street, and was hacked with a large blade. Which is exactly what happened to a dog, Mijo, in Texas, or so his owner claims.

From: Justice for Mijo :

On May 10, 2012, my dog Mijo was killed by a minister in a public street using a machete. Mijo had gotten out of his leash to be with a female dog when one of my neighbors of a couple houses down crossed the street with a machete and struck him 4 times. 
He was struck 2 in the face, 1 splitting his nose in half, the other one on his mouth, and 2 on his thigh. Mijo limped his way back but could only make it to the front porch where he died.

When I found his body, I knew he was dead but I kept petting him asking him to wake up and please come home with me. I confronted the neighbor and he said he killed the dog with the machete. When asked why he did not respond.

The Sheriff was notified but didn't even look remotely interested in the report. I have called the office several times and they told me that they haven't even gotten an investigator to look over the case. I can't press charges until that is done.

2 news stations were contacted but told me that they cant do too much because it's still under investigation. Mijo did not deserve to die this way. I will try my best to get something done about this.




There is a petition on Change.org, because, as stated above, the police have not yet investigated into this. It would be nice if they would, to say the least. Frankly, I feel if a man is willing to casually kill his neighbor's dog, he probably isn't too balanced in other areas. Willingness to hurt animals is one of the three criteria that tend to crop up if somebody is a serial killer. However, there are people who look at a situation like this and think "well, it's just a dog". If nothing else, here is where "dog as property" may be a useful tool. This man's neighbor destroyed his property and should have to make up for it in some significant way. It's a horrible situation, and I feel so very badly for Mijo, and his family.

Edited to add: as several commenters pointed out, this story is rather one sided. And also anonymous, which I ought to have noticed. So, if I've got egg on my face, that's the way it is.


From Change.org:
This man, a Minister residing in Alamo, TX, had no problem going into this house, grabbing a Machete, and striking the Yellow Labrador Retriever belonging to an Iraqi Veteran not once, not even twice, but FOUR times. His actions were thoughtless, careless, and inhumane. If he can snap at a harmless animal that was NOT attacking a human being, what could this man do to another person, or child?


13 comments:

  1. If true that is a horrible thing. But it seems like there might be more to the story here.

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    1. It does seem like there should be, yeah. I'd hate to find out this was a hoax...that's a pretty pernicious thing to lie about.

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  2. I agree with 2 Brown Dawgs! If it's true, it's absolutely horrific, but something tells me there might be more to this than we've heard.

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    1. Yeah, I'm interested in finding out if there will be any more development to the story at all.

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  3. I'd find more validity to the story if the owner would release his name. How can one go about proving that this is true if everything is anonymous? There's no way a good journalist would be able to report this story or get the word out without that kind of information. At this point, without facts, it's not something even I would feel comfortable writing about.

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    1. That's a good point. Anonymous "this guy did a bad thing to me" is certainly not the way to go. At least he isn't asking for money.

      Maybe I....uh...posted it as a social experiment.

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    2. Hi I'm not a normal here just looking for info on this case. But thought you guys would want to see.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iqujmo0re4

      It has the owners first and last name. It's the news report on it. He isn't hiding who he is.

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    3. Mijo's owner is Luis Ortiz. And the alleged perpetrator is Jose Salazar-who is also a minister.

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  4. What a horrible thing to have happened. Regardless of the circumstances (unless the dog was attacking the man outright) No dog deserves to die by machete. I hope more information comes to light about the incident.

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    1. In my mind, it's impossible to justify. If a dog is attacking, okay fine, but that's not how I see this situation as having gone down.

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  5. @Lisa Thanks very much for commenting and sharing the link to the video!

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  6. I have read that the police report says the female dog Mijo had gone to be with (whatever that means) belonged to the neighbor. It doesn't seem that anyone really knows what really went down. I don't think I could use a machete on a dog, but I would certainly defend my dog against another dog if it came down to it.

    That jerk who killed those zebras that escaped from Hearst Castle also claimed defense of his livestock and got away with it AND had a zebra rug made!

    We don't usually have to worry about people intentionally killing our pets but they could easily die by a much more common method - car traffic!

    I think this highlights the need to keep your dogs secure and to spay and neuter our pets.

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  7. There's no way a good journalist would be able to report this story or get the word out without that kind of information. At this point, without facts, it's not something even I would feel comfortable writing about.

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