Accused of Killing Owner’s Mother, Dog Must Lose Bite
King Boots, a championship English sheep dog who allegedly mauled his owner’s elderly mother to death, must be neutered and defanged within 21 days or be destroyed, District Court Judge Edward Sosnick ruled today.
The city had requested that the 8-year-old dog be destroyed for the Dec. 19 death of Gertrude Monroe, 87.
Monroe’s daughter, Kathryn Schwarb, maintained the woman collapsed from a heart attack or stroke and fell on the sleeping dog, stabbing him on the nose with a fork. But a county medical examiner had testified that “multiple bites and slashes” caused the woman’s death.
Character witnesses in the 5-day trial had described Boots as a warm, loving animal, including a former trainer who said he had prepared him for 303 dog shows between 1981 and 1984 in which the animal won hundreds of honors.
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