Two sides to a story don’t quite match and the only definite is that a Versailles family’s pet was shot to death last week.

Sometime after 8 a.m. last Wednesday, June 18 the Oney family at 126 North Adams Street, Versailles, were awakened by a commotion outside. “The dogs were going crazy,” remembers Glenda Oney, who said it was one of the worst days of her life. She continued by telling that when she went outside she found one of their pets, a golden retriever/yellow lab mix, had been shot in their yard by an officer.

“I know I was screaming,” Glenda said as she remembered seeing the dog, Bruce, bleeding. The Oneys had raised this dog from a pup and have chronicled his birthday each year in a scrapbook. “He was so smart,” Glenda shared. She said he was trained to get a coke out of a closed cooler without breaking the can with his teeth, could do the “army” crawl, the high five and low five with his paws and was over all a well-disciplined, smart dog. Glenda was raised with the idea of loving animals, her mother was a veterinarian technician. “We always had pets at home,” she noted.

The Oneys’ story is this. They came out of their house to find the dog had been shot. David Oney talked with Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Dickerson, who said he had shot the dog. He told them he was responding to their home on a complaint that their dogs were running loose when the incident occurred. David said he wasn’t shocked about that, they’d had trouble keeping the dogs in, but were working on the situation. “We have a four foot chain link fence that is secured at the top and bottom, and they still found a way to get out,” he told The Versailles Republican.

Both Glenda and David Oney admitted they’ve had trouble keeping their five dogs restrained, but say they weren’t vicious and the dogs had never bitten anyone. They took full responsibility for their pets running loose, and while they noted they should have kept them secured, they didn’t feel what happened was merited. The front steps of the home reflects the bullet the Oneys say the officer shot that first went through their pet and then went on to graze the shutter on the front of their home and come to rest in a flower bed. “The kids were sleeping right there on that couch where the bullet hit the shutter,” said Glenda. “We felt the officer should have never shot toward the house,” they agreed.

Deputy Jason Dickerson tells somewhat of a different story about the situation particularly concerning the disposition of the dog. He told The Versailles Republican that the sheriff’s office received a complaint that the dogs were loose and he responded. He said the Oneys were called twice on the phone but didn’t answer. He arrived at the house and blew the air horn on his cruiser with still no response. He then got out and approached the porch where he saw the dog and called out to him. “I was trying to relate, letting him know I’m not going to hurt him,” he said. He said the dog growled at him. He then pulled out his tazer and ‘cracked it’ not actually tazing the animal just trying to get him to back off. He said the dog growled at him and became even more aggressive. The deputy had used the method of the tazer before but this time it didn’t work. He said the dog kept coming toward him and he felt he had no recourse except to stop him. “I did feel my life could be in danger, at the very least I knew I was going to be bit by this dog,” he said.

About shooting at the house, Dickerson said he absolutely did not aim at the house. He’s not sure the crack in the shutter is from the bullet used on the dog and told the newspaper, “It was never my intentions to kill a dog that day and I would never shoot into someone’s house.” He said he has pets of his own and agreed with the Oneys that it was a bad day. “I gave them my condolences, I felt bad for them,” he noted.

“Nobody in my office wants this sort of thing to happen,” Sheriff Tom Grills told The Versailles Republican. He continued by saying the officer followed proper procedure in a situation such as this and “he’d (Dickerson) done nothing wrong.” He explained that officers do not taze animals because the jolt they would receive only lasts for five seconds and that’s not enough time to ensure officer safety. The sheriff noted that there had been multiple complaints about these particular dogs running loose throughout the town that his department had responded other times, along with the town police. One Versailles resident said as she walked by the house the very dog that was killed had actually “lunged” at her.

One part of the story that is agreed on by both parties is that the dog wasn’t dead after the first shot and the family asked that he be “put out of his misery” by having him shot again. Another officer arrived on the scene and put the dog down.

The Oneys have buried their pet under the cherry trees in the back yard that he (Bruce) loved to pick cherries from. “He would get the cherries and then spit out the seeds,” Glenda smiled through her tears. Others had come by the grave and placed flowers and remembrances on it. A pair of doves came to rest on the grave on Sunday bringing some sense of peace to the situation.

The Oneys maintain their pet was not vicious and do not believe the officer’s life was ever in danger. “Bruce just wasn’t like that,” Glenda concluded.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Bruce often smiled for the camera according to family members who are questioning why he was shot last week.

WANDA ENGLISH BURNETT PHOTO Glenda Oney points to the hole she says was made by a bullet that killed the family's pet last Wednesday by an officer from the Ripley County Sheriff's Department. The shutter is on the front of the Oney's home where the dog had been on the front porch when the officer arrived.