Missy a purebred mastiff being treated for a shotgun wound to her face is shown resting on the shoulders of Todd Jewett, one of her owners, during a fall camping trip. / Courtesy photo
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The rescue puppy Mary Fairbanks acquired five years ago grew up to be 114 pounds of dog she describes as a “petite” mastiff.
It and its companion, a black Labrador retriever, were being taken care of by a house sitter while the Toledo resident and her fiancé were out of town, visiting a new grand-baby when they got the phone call.
Their neighbor had shot Missy the mastiff with a 12-gauge shotgun, Fairbanks said. “The whole left side of her face was blown off.”
As the phone got traded around, through several conversations including with a deputy sheriff who responded to the scene along Herifford Road and Shoreline Drive, Fairbanks learned Missy somehow got out of their fenced yard, went next door and tangled with the neighbor’s German shepherd.
Missy, after she was rushed to a veterinary hospital.
The neighbor Douglas Bramhall told the deputy they’d gotten their pet safely inside and he went outside twice, the second time carrying his gun out his back door.
She learned Bramhall said her dog lunged at him, and he fired once, then her dog ran home bleeding.
Fairbanks, who said veterinarians refer to the large breed dogs as “gentle giants” found the neighbor’s story unbelievable.
Missy is a dog who children could lay on, who greeted numerous contractors over the past couple of months at their new home without a hint of aggression, and got along with other animals, according to Fairbanks.
“We lived for two and a half years on five acres in Tenino, with no fences and no issues,” she said. “Our dogs visited our neighbor’s dogs.
“There’s just so much more to this, we just don’t understand.”
Most upsetting, was trying to figure out why the neighbor went back outside if he thought he was putting himself in harm’s way.
“He’s in his house with his door shut,” Fairbanks said. “If she’s this horrible mean dog, why’d he go back out?”
That was last Sunday morning. By Thursday, Missy had undergone surgery at a veterinary hospital in Tacoma, and had a surprisingly good prognosis.
“What saved her is she’s young, she’s healthy, and strong,” Fairbanks said.
The vet picked what Fairbanks called pellets out of her face, leaving in the ones they couldn’t get to, she said. A feeding tube is getting installed, that Missy will have for at least six weeks.
“As long as no infection sets in, she’ll make it,” she said.
Fairbanks had endless questions, such as did the Bramhall’s dog, whose customary bathroom spot is property now inhabited by strangers, antagonize Missy.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office investigated and a spokesperson said they didn’t expect any charges on either side.
Both parties were talking about suing each other, however.
“The law is, you have a right to protect your life and property,” Chief Deputy Stacy Brown said on Friday. “People can armchair quarterback it, but the investigation shows it was a justifiable shooting at this point.”
As for Missy’s owner, Lewis County has an ordinance that addresses “prohibited activities of animals”, such as biting or threatening others as well as “animals at large” that prohibits dogs from roaming off their own property. Civil infractions can be issued, but in this case it seemed clear it was an accident when Missy got out of her fenced yard, according to Brown.
The deputy’s report indicates the house sitter inadvertently left the gate to the backyard open while watering plants.
“I think this is an unfortunate situation for everyone involved,” Brown said. “The learning point is, even if you live in the country, you have to keep your dogs on your property. Because if they get out, unfortunate things can happen.”
Further, Brown said, dog owners often will say their animal never behaved badly before, but dogs act differently when they are under the control of their owner.
Fairbanks and her fiancé Todd Jewett moved to Lewis County in early April. The property was vacant before they constructed the shop building where they reside until they can get a house built.
Bramhall meanwhile, is upset too.
The 56-year-old said he knew the new neighbors had dogs and was surprised to come home late one night and learn that while he was out, his 14-year-old son had opened their front door because the mastiff and their German shepherd were fighting on his porch.
“My dog had some bite marks and came in and laid down,” he said. “My son got the door shut before the mastiff got in here.”
He thought it was odd, because the neighbor’s dogs were always penned up, he said. Jewett had cautioned him though, he said, that he needed to watch out for the big one, Missy.
Bramhall said he and his wife talked, and thought maybe the next day, he needed to talk with Jewett.
“We wake up on Sunday morning, about 8:30, and all of the sudden on the front porch, there’s a commotion again,” he said.
He said the mastiff was out there, fighting with his dog and when his wife opened the door, their dog came in and the mastiff tried to follow it.
He tried to open the door to holler at the dog and it continued trying to get inside, he said.
“I went out the back door, yelling, ‘Todd, Todd, get over here’,” he said.
The mastiff heard him and came around the house, barking and snarling, he said. He slammed the door.
Bramhall said he grabbed his mole gun for protection, and went out the back again, because he wanted to get a hold of Jewett.
“(She) makes a lunge, I pull the trigger,” he said. “I was point blank when I shot the thing.”
Bramhall said he told his wife to call the sheriff.
He still sees the glazed eyes, and the snapping jaws on a head the size of a pumpkin, he said.
“One of us was gonna wind up hurt, me or the dog,” he said.
Bramhall said the deputy came and he gave his statement.
“He calls the people, tells them the story, I’m feeling bad,” he said. “I have animals. I’m an animal person. I go out of my way for animals.”
The Bramhall’s dog, Zena, escaped with nicks on her neck and ears, and some on her leg, according to Bramhall.
It’s sad it went down the way it did, he said, but it wasn’t out of mean spiritedness or anything of the sort.
“If I was vindictive, I’d have grabbed a gun that would have killed it,” he said.
In Lewis County, when an animal kills livestock, or bites or is acting aggressive, deputies forward the case to the code enforcement department for review. Another portion of the county ordinance on animals has provisions for a civil process by which a dog can be labeled dangerous, and then various requirements will kick in, according to Bill Teitzel.
Teitzel, a supervisor at Lewis County Public Health, said he looked over the deputy’s report and concluded Missy’s actions met the definition of a potentially dangerous dog.
“It’s really a warning,” Teitzel said, noting that if something happens again, the animal is flagged.
Before the weekend began, the two couples met and came to agreement it was a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened.
“We exchanged hugs, we exchanged tears,” Fairbanks said in a phone message on Friday. “We exchanged words of what we all did wrong in the situation, and what we could have done better.”
They want to put it behind them, she said, especially in light of Bramhall receiving numerous threats since a graphic photo of the injuries appeared on a Go Fund Me page, and other social media.
“That’s not what we want,” Fairbanks said.
Bramhall echoed her sentiment.
“These people are grieving, and I feel their grief,” Bramhall said. “Nobody’s happy it happened.”
They talked about what they could have done to prevent it, he said.
“They realize they should have taken the time to introduce their pets,” Bramhall said. “I’m thinking about what I could have done different.”
While Fairbanks and Jewett spoke of how much he’ll love Missy when she comes home and they introduce the two properly, Bramhall said he’s not sure he wants to meet the dog.
“I’m just scared,” he confessed.
He said he plans to invest in an electric fence for his property.
•••
Read the Lewis County ordinance regarding animals, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
from what I haveread about these kind of cases in the supreme court this is animal cruelty….plain and simple the man was in no danger inside his home ..you not have the right toKill or cause injury to a animal for trespassing on your property.was he injured in anyway breaking up the dog fight..if not then it was not much of a dog fight..because I have broken up a lot of dog fightsand 1 thing I have learned is you will get bit trying to stop the fight..because the dog you grab does not know it’s not a nother dog grabbing it…so iT bites the hand that grabbed it..the supreme court ruling is that once you are out of danger ucan not kill animals for being on your property and from what I read the danger had passed as soon as the man was inside his home and by law he wasn’t supposed to call animal control not shoot the dog.was the shooter some type of county state or federal worker .because they don’t seem to be charged with a crime as you are i would be..this is 1 more cases of lewis county sheriff’s department and the Lewis county prosecutor not doing their jobs..
So Bramhall’s dog CAN go use Missy’s yard as a potty, but Missy cannot go onto his property? Since when does No Brainhall own Toledo? Seems Dougie’s a bit miffed he has new neighbors and now will have to clean up after HIS dog. Wah. Maybe his scum wife can work on cleaning up after HER pets instead of screaming bloody murder for no reason. Seems to me that Doug just couldnt wait for an opportunity to shoot something or someone. Maybe next time he will shoot a child? Or better yet, turn that gun on himself before he hurts anyone else.
Most people just don’t realize how quickly a family dog can turn into a threat without it’s master there. Add two or more dogs in a pack and all bets are off.
I’ve got a neighbor who lets their “dog who always stays home” run wild once they go to work. I’ve lost track of how many times I have to shoo that dog away from our own animals, seen it running deer, another neighbor’s livestock, etc. but every time they are confronted, it’s always the same story; “My dog would never do that. He’s part of the family and completely trustworthy”.
Keep your dogs and cats at home people!
“He should have killed her though and not left her to suffer.” Never mind that Missy is expected to make a full recovery and could live a long and happy life. Asshole.
That picture is really gruesome and shocking, but you have a right to protect your property from roaming, dangerous dogs (just look at the pit bull article).
I guess that I should have read the story to the end before making my previous statement. If the neighbor’s dog was attacked on two occasions by Missy and did act the way he said, perhaps he was justified in shooting her. He should have killed her though and not left her to suffer.
I still think the person watching the dog was AWOL. It wasn’t a matter of leaving the gate open only once if the dog was attacking the neighbor’s dog on two different occasions.
This probably has a lot more to do with the neighbor’s anger than feeling the dog was a threat. Some people are just bastards. That was a dastardly thing to do an innocent creature. I also feel sorry for the neighbor that is so sick that he wants to murder a dog or a person for that matter for trespassing on his property.
Also I wonder about the “dog sitter”. There are people that you can’t trust your dogs with and we know there are people in Lewis County you can’t leave your kids with.
I have three dogs and they don’t know a leash. They know where their property line is but the one guy is a bit of a wanderer. I’ve got him on a training collar now and he is almost 100% good but has ran through all of the neighbors yards in the past.
My neighbors dogs and cats cross my property from time to time also. I love them all but my cat doesn’t tolerate other cats on her property and gives them a good chase up and down trees and a trashing if she catches them.
This is a common practice of most police departments across the United States to shoot peoples animals. Its rare that a citizen shoots a dog though. Oh on second though if your a Centralia city councilmen and a pastor its ok to shoot cats for deficating in your yard though.