A Coronado dog owner says she’s devastated over the death of her 105-pound Shiloh Shepherd, who died a day after police used a Taser on the animal twice.
“Smokey is not the type of dog that would bite anybody,” owner Roclynn Nosek told NBC7. “He was the sweetest, most loving animal ever. He would lick your face before he would bite you.”
Smokey somehow escaped from Nosek’s second-story condo on Orange Avenue Saturday, and after wandering onto First Street, police say they got reports of an aggressive dog.
“Our officers witnessed the dog lunge at a citizen and try to take a bite, and the dog ultimately charged an officer,” Coronado Police Department Captain Laszlo Waczek told NBC7. “So at this point, the officer had no other choice but to defend himself and defend the public.”
Police said they tried to subdue the dog at two locations and used the Taser on the dog at both locations.
Officers secured the dog and transported Smokey to an animal hospital, but the dog died hours later from internal bleeding.
Waczek said it was a matter of public safety to use a Taser on the dog, and said the department would conduct an internal review of what happened and the protocol used when a Taser is deployed.
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Nosek says she doesn't blame Coronado police, but thinks there could have been other options to subdue her dog. She said she would like to see a policy change.
“When we opened up the back seat of the car, he knew it was us,” she said. “He heard our voice and he started to wriggle his body the best he could to let us know he was really happy to see us there. It was so difficult.”
Nosek plans to hold a memorial for Smokey to raise awareness about what happened in hopes something similar does not happen to anyone else.
