Thursday, July 5, 2012

Lawsuit Filed Over Montrose Dog Beach Mauling

Remember earlier this year, when Willy the Pomeranian was mauled by a larger dog at Montrose Dog Beach and eventually died from injuries received?  UU and other social media, as well as the police, were posting photos to find the larger dog's owner, who walked away from the scene after promising to show up at the emergency vet, but never did.

It later turned out that the larger dog's owner was Matthew Bracken, an off-duty Chicago police officer, who was then put on a leave of absence by the department and became subject to an internal investigation.

Now Willy's owners have filed a lawsuit, asking for a ton of damages, including the vet bill, fees incurred conducting the search, and punitive damages.  You can read about it in the Sun-Times and Tribune.

We're not normally litigious, but Mr. Bracken's callous behavior, his failure to identify himself or turn himself in, and the pain that the family felt in seeing their pet destroyed in front of them make us side squarely with Willy's owners.  We don't expect to see an award anywhere close to what they're asking for, but it seems to us they are owed greatly for what they went through, solely because Mr. Bracken didn't care enough to control his dog or take responsibility for what happened.

3 comments:

  1. his failure to identify himself or turn himself in

    Picking nits: Even though he took his sweet-a**ed time in doing so, Bracken did turn himself in.

    Does anyone know what happened to his dog?

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  2. Not at all a nit. How much time and how many police resources were used trying to find the dog's owner while he went to work for weeks and didn't say a word to his colleagues? Working against his own department.

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  3. They won't get punitive damages, but they will get the rest most likely. It was an off leash area and you can't sue for punitive damages/distress/basically anything you can't provide receipts for. It's unfortunate in this case, and I'm by no means condoning the owners behavior, but its the risk you take when you enter into an off leash area in Chicago. And the law should stay that way.

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