Owner Of Dogs Gunned Down By Firefighter Tim Conatser For ‘Trespassing’ Speaks Out

A story about a Texas firefighter who shot two dogs who were “trespassing” on his property has gone viral after he posted a gruesome image of the dead dogs to social media. The firefighter, Tim Conatser, says that he warned the dogs’ owner to keep the dogs off his property, but the warnings were not heeded. Therefore, he says he shot the two labrador retrievers when they “attacked” his cattle. The owner of the dogs, Pulido Rodrigo, says he found out about his dogs death via social media and immediately recognized Gordo and Spike from the posting.

According to Fox News, Pulido Rodrigo is the owner of the two labrador retrievers that were gunned down by the voluntary firefighter in Hunt County, Texas. Rodrigo says he found out about the death of his dogs after seeing a photo uploaded by Tim Conatser on Facebook. The image showed his two dogs, Gordo and Spike, lying on the snow covered ground that can be seen stained with blood. Rodrigo says he is “in shock” and “doesn’t understand these people.”

“I’m in shock. I don’t know. I don’t understand these people. Bad people, I don’t know.”

Tim Conatser posted the gruesome image to his personal facebook account with the caption, “Somebody didn’t put any truth my warning. Keep your damn dogs on your property.”

Conatser seemed to be bragging about killing the dogs and notes that he had warned Rodrigo previously to keep the dogs off his property. To back up his story, the NY Daily Times reports that Kevin Forester, a friend of Conatser, claims that the firefighter was simply protecting his livestock. Forester says that the dogs were in Conatser’s barn attacking his cattle; therefore, he shot them to protect his property.

However, not everyone is buying the story told by Conatser or Forester. Many commenting online note that labrador retrievers are known for their friendly personalities and that it wouldn’t be in their nature to attack cattle.

“Labs are not aggressive and would have no reason to ‘attack’ barnyard animals.”

Even if the dogs were not attacking Conatser’s livestock, many feel that he was well within his rights to shoot the dogs for being on his property. Therefore, many are also placing blame on owner Rodrigo for not keeping the dogs on his own property.

“The owners are 100% responsible. I have a dog, I LOVE my dog, but I keep my dog off other peoples property.”

Though commenters seem to feel mixed at who is responsible for the death of the dogs, Conatser or Rodrigo, it seems everyone is in agreement that the posting of the photo to Facebook was over-the-top.

What do you think? Is Conatser solely responsible for the dogs deaths or does Rodrigo bear some responsibility for not keeping the dogs on his property? Did Tim Conatser have a right to shoot the dogs if they were on his property even if they weren’t attacking his livestock? Let us know in the comments.