Update by Stacey Palacios on Facebook:
Today, I went downtown to CCPD and spoke with Commander Houston with my two kids in tow. We spoke about the dog named Geralt. He played for me the call to police that was made on July 4th. The caller explained that a gray pitbull that had been chasing children earlier was attacking another dog, you could hear another person come up and say it was their dog being attacked by the gray one. You could hear the dogs fighting on the tape and the location of the call matched the location were Geralt was picked up. He also showed me the report of investigation of Geralt running loose in his neighborhood were neighbors stated he was constantly loose and aggressively chasing neighbors to where they couldn’t leave their houses at times. He stated the owners were cited at that time and the owner was cited again when surrendering Geralt before he was EU.
Commander Houston told me he wondered why Geralt had been photographed and advertised and I told him that if I had been told any of that information, I would have never photographed or posted him.
I’m grateful the owners were cited multiple times and had I known any of this information at anytime leading up until this point, several things would have played out differently.
I hope in the future the communication between employees and volunteers that give their valuable time freely becomes clearer to avoid frustrating situations like this one.
Geralt never showed any signs of aggression with me the several times I was with him, so reading CCACS statement appeared very contradictory to me and at no time did any employee take the time to speak to me about this issue until today with Commander Houston. Geralt had always clearly been dog aggressive and now hearing the call and knowing there had been an investigation into him and his owners before ending up at CCACS again assured me that this dog sadly did not belong in general population.
Additionally, Commander Houston said that CCACS is currently working on an ordinance similar to Austin’s that would allow rescues to immediately take possession of dogs and become theirs after the three day hold period.
A dog arrived at the Corpus Christi shelter on July 4th with clear signs of having been in dog fights. This poor dog’s nose had been torn and a piece was hanging down. One eye was injured and swollen shut. He was covered in scars from old wounds and bloody new wounds on his legs. His back was missing huge patches of fur. And this dog, Geralt, was microchipped. He had been adopted from the shelter almost exactly one year ago. A picture shows the difference in Geralt’s condition in just over 12 months.
When Geralt arrived at the shelter on the 4th, it was closed. Because he was a stray, his kennel card stated that his “review date” would be July 11. That is the date on which dogs who are not reclaimed by owners can be killed. When volunteers went to the shelter the next day on the 5th and saw him, they immediately recognized him as the dog they had fallen in love with the previous summer.
In 2015, Geralt had arrived at the shelter with a female pit bull. While Geralt was extremely dog aggressive, he got along with the female, leading those at the shelter to believe they were either a breeding pair or they lived together. When the dogs were adopted together last summer, volunteers questioned whether the adopters were really the owners of the pair. Often, rather than reclaiming stray or lost dogs, it’s cheaper to just adopt them for $25 instead of paying fines and other costs to get one’s dog back. The fact that this very dog-aggressive dog was adopted with another dog raised some suspicions, and all those suspicions came flooding back when Geralt showed up at the shelter in terrible shape.
When people recognized him as the dog they had loved last summer, they asked shelter management why an investigation hadn’t begun into Geralt’s obvious abuse. Calls flooded the shelter asking questions about Geralt and his treatment.
That’s when something strange happened. Animal rescuers in the Corpus Christi area call it a “cover-up.” Geralt had arrived at the shelter on the 4th of July, and his kennel card clearly states he was a stray. Yet a few days later, the shelter’s story changed, and they were now claiming that he was an owner surrender. That is impossible since the owner could not possibly have surrendered Geralt on the 4th. The shelter is also claiming that Geralt was not only animal aggressive, but aggressive to humans.
And that statement, according to those who spent time with him, is a lie. “They are lying; he’s not human aggressive at all,” said a volunteer who interacted with him last year and again for over an hour this year, “it’s a flat-out lie.” She went on to state, “His personality had not changed.” She had fallen in love with him last year when he was at the shelter. In fact, this volunteer described her interaction with Geralt just a few days ago.
She arrived at the shelter on July 6 with her morning coffee. When she went into Geralt’s kennel to spend some time with him, she said, “he was all over me, standing on me, kissing me, trying to drink my coffee, loving on me.” When they put him on a table and started taking pictures of him to network him, she commented that every time she asked him to sit, he’d sit and “he’d give me a big fat paw. He was such a sweet boy.” In tears, she remembered that when she put him back in the kennel, “he had himself a little hissy fit. He was crying, whining, dancing, wagging, begging with his eyes — come back!” She returned once more to see him before she left, and he was excited to see her and get some more “loving.” It was to be the last loving he would ever know. Sometime the next day the shelter killed him.
Why was Geralt killed? That’s the question hundreds of people are asking of Christopher White, the director of Corpus Christi Animal Care Services, and Chief of Police Michael Markel. Why wasn’t an investigation started? Why rush to kill a dog that was needed to serve as evidence of the abuse?
One volunteer ventured to suggest that perhaps those in charge stupidly thought that by killing him the furor would die down and disappear. Maybe they thought that without a terribly injured dog, people would stop asking questions about why there wasn’t an investigation into his abused past.
July, 2016
One year ago
Corpus Christi Animal Care Services posted on their Facebook page the following:
“You may see a post about a canine named Geralt on other social media pages. Geralt had a well documented history of being extremely animal aggressive and showed signs of human aggression on his last impound. Geralt was owner surrendered and found not to be a good candidate for live release due to his previous history and therefore was humanely euthanised at our facility.”
The commenters on the Facebook post do not believe that statement. Some of the comments are shown below.
- “I never saw any signs of human aggression. And I have interacted with him last summer and on two different days this week. I can cut up my badge if needed.”
- “He was not aggressive ONE TINY BIT in studio yesterday. Why didn’t ccacs consult with ccacs volunteers? We interact with animals more than employees at times and should be used as a resource and valued, not shunned.”
- “There are pictures and video with the volunteers showing that he WAS NOT aggressive towards people unless you now consider kisses and cuddling aggressive. And he was owner surrendered? His intake card says stray. So if he was an owner surrender then an owner must’ve come forward and released him. If that was the case why weren’t they questioned on his condition? Most of us are a where (aware) there are many dog fighting rings here. Didn’t you think that would be pertinent information? This dog died from the lack of control, honesty, and justice in this department. I can’t think of anything else other than that.”
- “We had several rescues lined up for him who had experience in caring for dog aggressive animals.”
- “Geralt is described as an affectionate dog who prefers the company of people to other dogs. On Wednesday, the Facebook page, Focus on Furever, wrote, “While I may not be great with other dogs, I do love my people. I love treats and I always give paw. I like to carry my leash in my mouth and play with toys. I’m a sweet soul in desperate need of a good home.” … Exactly what part of that screams “signs of human aggression”? (P.S.: this dog had adoption interest but was KILLED prior to his eval date)”
Below is a close-up of Geralt’s nose when he arrived at the shelter. Somehow, his nose was torn up. Yet in spite of his horrific injuries, in the picture above he allows the volunteer to hug and kiss him. This is NOT a dog who appears to be aggressive to humans at all. Even in excruciating pain. Not aggressive at all.
If you live in the Corpus Christi area and you want answers, attend the city council meeting this Tuesday morning, July 12. Public comments begin at noon and you can sign up to speak for three minutes.
If you are not local, feel free to email the City Council members: neldam@cctexas.com, michael.hunter@cctexas.com, Chad.Magill@cctexas.com, markscott338@gmail.com, carolyn.vaughn@cctexas.com, Rudy.Garza@cctexas.com. You can also call (361) 826-3105 or (361) 826-3100 and share your thoughts.
The director of the Corpus Christi Animal Care Services is Christopher White. His email is: christopherw@cctexas.com. The Chief of Police is Michael Markel and his email is: Mikema@cctexas.com. The animal control is run by the police department, so the Chief of Police is directly responsible for what happens at the shelter.
What is especially heartbreaking about Geralt’s death is that on the day he was killed, July 7, sources say an adopter went to AC to adopt Geralt but was told he was no longer available. In addition, there was a backup adopter and an evaluator from Tyler Dexter Strong, a rescue, who was coming to evaluate him so he could be pulled by that rescue. The source said, “He had options……they didn’t have to kill him!”
Below is video taken while the volunteers were interacting with Geralt, the “human-aggressive” dog. Watch the video and see if you agree.
Those who have seen these heartbreaking pictures and the video are demanding answers. Those in charge at Corpus Christi should be prepared to give some answers.
More pictures can be seen at this Facebook thread. (Please note: all pictures were taken by Stacey Palacios, dogs handled by Barbara Brinkman, assistance by Nicola Schultz.) There is also a video of him taken on the 5th, the day after arriving at the shelter.
Please note: Only comments that are respectful and profanity-free will be published.
BS! Someone dropped the ball and someone is responsible! The director need to be replaced immediately and the chief police need to get some answers and get responsible individuals in there!!! They did nothing but support the real animals out there doing this to these poor defenseless creatures !!
dropped the ball? sounds a lot more like this is just how this facility plays ball, day in & day out…like they just decided, hey, for pit bulls, why incur all the extra expenses & paperwork when we can just save ourselves the trouble? Let’s just euthanize, euthanize, euthanize….yeah, work smart, not hard, right?
It started when they adopted him out for $25, a good investment for a dog fighter. They can’t expect to practically give dogs away free and get them into good homes!
I agree. There are no easy answers to this question. But making people understand that a dog is an investment and needs to be cared for is a good start in getting animals (cats and dogs) a good home. Those of us who love animals know that a free dog or cat is NOT that. My two “free” ferals costs me much more than adoption fees in neutering/vaccination and subsequent emergency room visits. Needless to say, they are not feral anymore!!
Why did you have to kill this dog?!?!?
He was friendly and not human aggressive clearly you people need to get your terms right or not work with animals at all . Just because you didn’t want to answer all the questions people had for Geralt you killed him?!?! How about I kill you because your “human aggressive” this dog had many people who wanted to adopt him but no you don’t care do you. Answer me this one question why did you have to kill him?!?! I want an answer.
This is absolutely disgusting. The dog is murdered and nobody answered. Where is the justice, why are those people still having their jobs?
I think this shelter should be thoroughly investigated and those responsible brought to book ..bless this little baby may He R. I.P. and run with the angels xx
I smell a cover up.
Me too. The whole affair stinks.
RIP Gerault.
Someone definitely needs to b held accountable. This is absolutely horrible!
This Is Pure Crap And Someone Needs To Be Held Accountable. I live in florida but I will be sending email’s. Probly won’t matter just like that poor dog. Hope police department treats other issues just as crappy. Ya’ll truly suck and do not value life. You showed it.
This claim that dogs are either human aggressive always or never is nonsense. I just had to have one put down for this reason. After nine years of caring for her and worrying about when she would unexpectedly try to bite someone for no reason, she went after my year old grandson, who had never touched or even looked at her. It was the last straw. I had seen her go after many adults before, while being perfectly fine at other times, but she was not going after an infant.
She was also extremely dog aggressive. You couldn’t let her out or bring any other animal in. She was never injured, but she had injured other dogs. An aggressive dog is eventually going to be injured when it goes after the wrong opponent, though.
I have another dog aggressive animal now, who is only fine with his bonded pair. This dog doesn’t go after people, so I am not concerned.
Frankly, I have seen far too many shelter volunteers who try to hide human aggression in dogs. I would never adopt a shelter animal these days, because I don’t trust the volunteers to tell the truth. I will never have another human aggressive animal in my home, even if the aggression is only “sometimes”. That you’re willing to risk people’s safety says a lot. Even if the dog doesn’t live with children, dogs get put of houses and yards. Human aggression is a danger to everyone in a community.
I am sorry for the pain this dog suffered, but I also have my doubts about the volunteers.
I’m just curious Clara do you personally know these volunteers? Do you interact with them at this shelter? Are there specific reasons you do not trust what they say or the photos of one volunteer taken with this dog?
Clara, So your “dog aggressive” dog could never possibly get out of your yard & attack another pet?? What if that pets owner tries to defend it? Do you have any idea how concerning that is? Dogs in shelters can smell death, they do feel what happens there, they are scared & sometimes aggressive. …. it takes all the CARING , DEDICATED volunteers to connect with these dogs & get them help….to say video’s & loving pictures of this dog, that’s been used as a bait dog, lie is just asinine….maybe your perception of how dogs feel & need is the reason you’ve had so many “aggressive ” dogs….. try training. …. for YOU & your pets….. it’s all very concerning….
A cover up or gross incompetence. Either way the city needs to have an investigation conducted by a qualified outsider.
I am wondering what happened to the female he was adopted with last summer. This should not have happened.
Agreed. And it doesn’t appear that the shelter cares about her at all. No investigation.
This is disgusting for this shelter to blatantly lie like this! This shelter definitely needs to be under investigation at the very least. A precious dog was murdered and then covered up!
Corruption at it’s finest…I would expect this from my Federal Government. Texas animal care CAN do better than this! Don’t let this happen again!!! Fire who ever dropped the ball on this poor sweet boy!
Yes, strange that there has been no further mention of the white female.
This is total crap. Maybe that is why most police dept. don’t take care of the animals in most counties.why don’t they spend more time figure ing out who is doing the dog fighting?
Truly heartbreaking. I’m so sad to know this. Justice needs to be done for this poor baby
Why is no one concerned with if AC is investigating the adopters? And has anyone asked the shelter when he was surrendered? It’s possible he came in stray and the owners were contacted and surrendered after the fact. I’m not for killing any dog but those seems like obvious questions that should at least be addressed but instead it’s just another social media riot.
Volunteers are concerned with an investigation. But since the dog was killed, there can be no prosecution because there is no “evidence,” in other words the dog.
the issue is not whether the dog is animal or human aggressive, the issue is who abused this dog and apparently adopted him with the purpose in mind for fighting, there is an animal abuser in your area who needs to be caught, and stopped from continuing to do this…….they needed to investigate and the dog should have been given medical care and injuries documented.. ..whether the dog was adoptable in the future is another issue, but putting down at this point in time was not the appropriate response to the issue..
Geralt was apparently betrayed by the shelter. So were all the other animals presumably abused and continuing to be abused by the people who owned him. Shared.
Shame on you all. You let this dog down. Murderers!! That’s all you are. You never gave this poor dog a chance. You make me sick and I hope you All rot!! From Pa and Mad as hell.
I am sitting here in upstate ny reading this No we don’t have the police dept doing dog control but what happened to this dog before coming back here is abuse and that is a Felony in all states now. They probably didn’t want to do the paperwork to investigate a dog fighting ring as that takes time and man power but that is a big problem and illegal and those people that had him and the female need to be put on charges or definitely investigated. They might have used the female for breeding or she is dead, they need to find out, a chip etc in either. Yes this really does stink. He was a pretty dog and showed that the workers had been kind and taken care of him before even with his injuries and pain he showed love. If this boy was aggressive to other male dogs is probably because he was treated the way he was after leaving the first time. You say owner surrendered or dropped him off how if you weren’t open? He might have been a dog that wouldn’t fight thus he was hurt. May I suggest that they make people get them spayed or neutered before leaving the shelter, this will curb a lot of extra dogs and cats but it will show in a year or so. There are low cost sometimes no cost clinics for that and nys does free rabies clinics for all the towns and city dogs free I notice all the lovely dogs in Cali and Az not fixed some no shots. This has to stop. My upstate shelter got shelter of the year 2 years ago, improvement and education can be done. I cannot say much about NYC ACC they are bad also. Their report just came out and again 2 yrs in a row have outdated meds given and on shelf meds missing viles not accounted for, kennel cough , dirty, you name it. And the cover ups or things written as errors like killing dogs that have rescue hold or people coming etc. By so called cover ups you open a can of worms.
Clearly someone didn’t do their job when this little guy was adopted I’m guessing there was no home check or even a check on the people who adopted him because he clearly had been abused and had to fight and I’m betting if the adopters had been checked out there would have been red flags. The Director and Chief of police needs to own up to the the lack of knowledge as to whats going on in a facility run by them if this place is run by the police department the citizens of that county needs to be very concerned by what has happened and the lies that are being told clearly in the pictures and video of this dog something happened to him after he was adopted by someone that this shelter staff felt was a responsible pet owner and clearly the staffs judgment needs to be reevaluated who ever that person or persons are and then knowing there were pictures and video to have the nerve to say that this dog was aggressive to humans I’m sorry but to have the gall to LIE knowing this dog was NOT aggressive to humans needs to be fired and charges against them and I would demand that the Director and Chief of Police be fired how can you trust a government official that would allow this at a shelter makes me wonder just what is allowed and common place with the Police Department. This poor dog was let down when he was allowed to be adopted by someone that was not worthy of him and then let down again when some coward didn’t want people to find out what a sorry employee they are so they think the best way to keep that hidden is to kill this poor baby that just wanted someone to love him. There needs to be an investigation into what happened to the pup and who did it as well as what is going on in this facility that they can lie so freely and think they can get away with it. I truly hope someone will stand up and say no I will not let this dogs abuse and murder go unpunished I will get to the bottom of this and I will get answers.
They need to go back into his files and find out who the previous owners were that adopted him. Check and do an investigation on them. Plus do an investigation on the owner of the shelter. Plus do one on the chief of police as well, all the poor Lil guy wanted was a loving forever home. But he did not even get that. May this beautiful boy R. I. P. Fly high baby…. Get Justice for this poor beautiful boy..
“Shelters” seem to do this often They label the dog as aggressive to keep the adoptable kill rate down. This dog also needed medical care. We really need to stop calling them shelters.
So very true!
Poor dog , whomever treats animals without respect in life will get thiers in the end . Wake up !!!
RIP Geralt , Sweet poor dog !!
What was the update of the meeting????
See article. It’s been updated. Thanks for asking!