"Buddy is a gentle boy. He likes to speak and chase balls. He's fully vetted and ready to go. He has an adorable quizzical face and he loves to be nuzzled. He walks into a room and flops to the floor contentedly. He's an easy fellow, everybody loves him."
An online adoption profile -- complete with a photo of Buddy -- was supposed to be a ticket to brighter future for a down-on-his-luck German shepherd.
But less than 48 hours after he was placed with a foster family by a local adoption group, Buddy was dead, the victim of an apparent act of violence that has animal welfare advocates from Greenwich to Hartford demanding justice and investigators from the state searching for answers about how the process could have gone so wrong.
"This poor dog just never had a chance," said Jennifer Gordon, founder of Leader of the Rescue Pack, an adoption network in Rowayton run out of the homes of several local women.
Rescued from the Connecticut Humane Society's Westport shelter on July 22 by the group, the 5-year-old German shepherd was placed with a foster family in the small town of Middlefield just east of Meriden on July 26, said Gordon, who played the role of matchmaker.
The woman who adopted Buddy and her boyfriend had what Gordon characterized as a major change of heart, with the pair making claims that the dog bit its adoptive owner.
"They were saying, `Come get this bleepin' dog. He just bit my girlfriend,'" said Gordon, who would not release the name of the couple.
But by the time Gordon made arrangements for the return of Buddy, whose prior owners put him up for adoption following a divorce and who was suffering from a skin condition that caused him to lose some of his fur, she said it was too late.
"By 3:30 p.m., he called me and said, `Buddy is never going to bite anyone again. I just put a bullet in his head,'" Gordon said the woman's boyfriend told her.
State Rep. Alfred Camillo, R-151st District, tipped off state animal control officers about the incident Tuesday, prompting them to launch a probe into slaying.
"Even if you don't love animals, one look at that dog, and it's hard not to be touched by his picture, his story and his untimely cruel death," said Camillo, who represents eastern Greenwich, Riverside, North Mianus, Cos Cob and part of the downtown.
The owner of a German shepherd himself, Camillo is co-chairman of Legislators for Animal Advocacy in the General Assembly. He frequently posts the profiles of shelter dogs on his Facebook page, including Buddy on July 16.
"He is in a shelter in a holding cell, but not being shown as way back in his records someone wrote (about) his `biting' issue," Camillo wrote. "I met the dog; it's not biting it's the (German shepherd) nip. This dog will be put down if no one comes forward."
Ray Connors, the chief state animal control officer and supervisor of the Animal Control Division at the Department of Agriculture, confirmed the agency's involvement.
"I'm going to assign a state animal control officer to investigate the matter," Connors said. "We're still gathering information, so everything is in its infancy right now."
When a dog bites someone, Connors said that the protocol is to quarantine the animal for a period of 14 days. If the incident occurs on the owner's property, the dog can be quarantined there or taken to the local pound by animal control. A dog must be quarantined at a pound, veterinary hospital or commercial kennel if the bite occurs somewhere else.
"The whole reason for that is for rabies issues," Connors said.
The state also has guidelines for euthanizing dogs under such circumstances, according to Connors, who frowns upon using a gun.
"It's not a recommended way for euthanasia. It's violent," Connors said. "It's just much easier to take an animal to a vet and have it euthanized. If the dog was euthanized during the quarantine period, then the animal should have been tested during the period for rabies."
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