A Siskiyou County Sheriff’s dog was shot and killed early Tuesday after escaping from his pen to romp in a neighbor’s yard.
Gotto, a 12-year-old 80-pound Belgian Malinois shepherd, had worked eight years as a sheriff’s dog. He was a month from retirement, a department spokesman said.
Gotto, who lived and worked with sheriff’s Sgt. Behr Tharsing, helped deputies find missing persons and track down suspected criminals. He also specialized in sniffing out drugs, once finding 3½ pounds of crystal meth, the spokesman said.
An unidentified Montague man arriving home early Tuesday morning found Gotto in his yard. The neighbor’s own dog was in heat and he had sheep on his property, sheriff’s Capt. Jim Betts said.
The neighbor, who did not recognize Gotto as a police dog, tried to get him to leave. But the dog would not obey and became confrontational, Betts said.
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The neighbor, whose name was not released, will not be criminally charged, Betts said.
http://www.redding.com/news/2010/jul/15/sheriffs-dog-shot-in-escape/.
R.I.P. Gotto