By Brenda Fullick brenda@dmcityview.com

Logan's Law

Dogs' murders inspire groups to campaign for a change in state law

What if someone shot your dog?

What if you found out that your pet had been gunned down for sport with a spotlight and a high-powered rifle?

And what if you found out that, in the state of Iowa, it was perfectly legal?

Darcy Emehiser wants to change the state law that says anyone has a right to kill any dog not wearing a collar with a rabies tag in rural Iowa.

The current law was adopted at a time when rabid animals were a significant threat to Iowa's early residents. The law states, "It shall be lawful for any person and the duty of all peace officers. ... to kill any dog for which a rabies vaccination is required, when the dog is not wearing a collar with rabies vaccination tag attached."

The law also states that even if a dog is wearing proof of rabies vaccination, that dog may be killed on the spot when it is "worrying, chasing, maiming or killing any domestic animal or fowl. ..."

Worrying? Should a dog be killed because it makes another animal "worry"?

Emehiser isn't impractical; she believes that farmers deserve the right to kill feral animals when necessary to protect their livestock, and she believes that all people should have the right to protect themselves from dangerous dogs.

However, Emehiser - who operates an exercise park for dogs and their humans about five minutes east of Des Moines - doesn't think it ought to be legal for Iowans to kill other people's animals for the sheer joy of watching them die.

Lost in the fog

Emehiser's nightmare started on a Tuesday.

It was Dec. 27, 2005. Area fog hung so thick, a woman was killed in the Lowe's parking lot in Altoona because a driver couldn't see her.

Emehiser had been walking back to her house that day after a training session with her four dogs: Sage, Jasmine, Logan and Timber. Suddenly, three of the dogs took off, maybe chasing a rabbit or a squirrel; only the elderly Sage stayed behind.

Emehiser called to her dogs, and Timber returned to the house, but Logan and Jasmine didn't show. This was extremely unusual, because Emehiser is a professional dog trainer who makes sure her dogs have impeccable manners. "They had awesome recall - awesome recall," she says. Beyond that, the dogs had plenty of freedom to romp in the country at their home between Pleasant Hill and Runnells; they weren't like dogs who are cooped up in houses or yards and desperate for the chance to run.

Emehiser soon became convinced that Logan and Jasmine got turned around in the heavy fog and couldn't see to find their way home. Fortunately, she knew that Logan and Jasmine would be polite if they met up with humans: Both had their Canine Good Citizen certifications.
Logan in particular was a solid, levelheaded character: He was so calm, confident and patient that Emehiser had been using him during training to help re-socialize other dogs. "He was such a gentle spirit," Emehiser says.

Emehiser and her partner, Lin Nibblelink, launched an unusually exhaustive, exhausting search: They distributed thousands of flyers, bought two billboards on Iowa Highway 163, commissioned two aerial searches, sought tracking help from the Native American community, and arranged for a horseback search coordinated by the Animal Rescue League.

They also worked with animal communicators. And they bought newspaper advertisements that announced $1,000 rewards for each dog.

False sightings kept Emehiser's phone ringing - she racked up a $1,200 cell phone bill in just three weeks - and she followed up on a dizzying number of dead-end leads.

"We searched no less than 20 hours a day for the next 18 days," Emehiser says.

The searchers followed creek beds. When actual sightings were confirmed by people who knew Logan and Jasmine personally, the searchers would use urine and dog fur to try to leave a trail leading them back home.

But as far as anyone could tell, Jasmine and Logan kept moving, trying to find their way home. They just didn't know what direction home was.

At one point, they found Jasmine's leather collar. Her tags, including her rabies tag, had been removed.

Then, on day 16, they got a phone call: An elderly lady said there was a dog in a roadside ditch near her house. And, in fact, it was Jasmine's body. Apparently she bled to death from two gunshot wounds.

The elderly woman's son came by, Emehiser says, and he knew specific details about who had shot Jasmine.

But it wasn't technically a crime under Iowa law. Jasmine's collar had been removed, along with a bright orange harness designed to protect against accidents during hunting season.

The searchers kept looking for Logan. And two days later they found his body about 150 feet from where Jasmine had died.

He, too, had died, from a gunshot wound to the heart.

Logan's collar, tags and orange harness were also missing.

"They were shot with high-powered rifles and spotlights," Emehiser says. She says the elderly woman's son had a story that matched what animal communicators were telling her about what happened. We had some names, so we confronted some people."

However, the Jasper County Sheriff's Department wouldn't take a report, Emehiser says. After all, it's not illegal to shoot dogs in Iowa - even though the whole community was plastered with billboards, ads and flyers letting people know that these dogs were missing members of Emehiser's family.

"Then to have them just be shot when everybody - everybody - was aware we were looking for them," Emehiser says. "So we decided that the law needed to be changed."

A petition drive

This year just before funnel week, Emehiser and friends worked with Rep. Geri Huser, Animal Rescue League's Tom Colvin and the ARL lobbyist in an attempt to create support in the Legislature to change the law. But they started too late in the process, and certain vocal legislators were against them. Emehiser recalls Rep. Danny Carroll of Grinnell in particular as saying, "I don't want anybody to take away my right to shoot a dog."

Emehiser doesn't want people to lose that right, either. However, she believes most well-intentioned farmers would shoot warning shots into the air if a dog were really bothering their livestock; what she's trying to stop are the people who shoot dogs for amusement or spite. Emehiser says she's not anti-gun, but that her father taught her that you eat what you kill: "You don't just shoot to kill for fun."

Emehiser says she has cried every morning and every night since she lost Logan and Jasmine. "This loss has been harder than losing my mother."

It's illegal for private citizens to shoot guns in Des Moines and many other cities.

However, ARL director Colvin says that rural Iowa is divided between the people who care about animals' welfare and the people who follow the policy of the "three S's" - shoot, shovel and shut up. "That means you do it, and you don't tell anybody about it, and nobody's going to know," Colvin says.

ARL frequently gets calls from people whose dogs have run off their properties, Colvin says. "Before they could even get them back, they've been shot by a neighbor or whatever. And the neighbor may or may not have livestock."

Iowa's current law was designed to protect farmers, he says. However, people who just don't like dogs "can hide behind the same law. That's the frustration."

In many instances, like in the case of Logan and Jasmine, there were no livestock around to be chased, or even "worried."

One hundred years ago, "worrying" had a different meaning, Colvin explains. It meant that an animal was surrounded by potential predators and so fearful that it could harm itself. He argues that the law needs to be updated to reflect the current meaning of the word.

He also thinks the law should no longer decree that it's the "duty of all peace officers" to kill untagged dogs. "I've talked to a lot of law enforcement people that, frankly, don't want to shoot dogs," Colvin says.

A couple of weeks ago, petitions began showing up in coffeehouses and grooming businesses, asking for Iowa citizens to support a change in the law. The petition also will be emailed to veterinary offices throughout the state. "I want thousands" of people to sign, Emehiser says. "I can't see why we can't have 20,000 or 30,000 names, if not more."

More information is available at www.roversranch.com. CV

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