TAYLORSVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Spencer County Animal Control Director's job is in jeopardy after a family's dog was shot in the head and left in a dumpster.
Director David Wood said, through an attorney, that he shot the dog to end its suffering. However, the dog's owner, Tommy Lewis, maintains that the dog, a well-loved family pet, could have been saved.
Lewis confronted Wood Thursday at the Spencer County Fiscal Court meeting.
"I've got a little boy that's been crying every day and every night looking for his dog. You don't know what you've caused me," Lewis said, addressing Wood in the audience. "You've caused me a lot of pain because you like killing dogs."
Lewis showed Wood a photo on his phone of his 9-year-old Chihuahua, named Abigail. He said a witness took the photo after the dog was hit by a car over the weekend.
"That dog was alive. You didn't peel that dog up off the road, man," Lewis told Wood.
Now the Fiscal Court is considering whether to fire Wood.
Lawrence Trageser, who said he found the dog's body in the trash behind the courthouse, complained to the fiscal court magistrates Thursday.
"How in God's name did anybody find the dog in a dumpster on a Sunday afternoon?" he asked.
"I can smell s---, and that's what we're being dealt with: a cover up," Trageser said.
But John Coots, Wood's attorney, said his client did not do anything wrong.
"There's a family pet here, and it's upsetting. There's a lot of emotions involved. But as far as Mr. Wood is concerned, he didn't do anything wrong in regard to the law," Coots said.
Spencer County Animal Control Director David Wood, left, with his attorney, John Coots.
According to Wood, the dog couldn't use her back legs or tail, appeared to have a broken back, and wasn't wearing a collar.
"An animal was brought to (Wood's) residence from another animal control officer. That animal was determined to be suffering," said Coots. "Through his duties as an animal control officer in Kentucky, he euthanized the animal by gunshot."
With no county policy dictating what an officer should do in such a situation, some county residents are now calling on county officials to create a new standard.
But the effort provides little consolation for the Lewis family, which is still grieving the loss of Abigail.
"A big part of our family is missing. I don't see how someone can blow something's head off like that," Lewis said.
Spencer County magistrates did not vote on Wood's termination on Thursday, but could call a meeting to discuss the matter sometime on Friday.
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