Horse-Chasing Dog Gets to Say Goodbye to Former Master

After a year and a half in the isolation of death row, Nadas the horse-chasing dog did not immediately recognize his old master.

But soon, the collie-malamute mix offered his paw and began frantically licking the tears from Sean Roach’s face in an emotional reunion at the Utah animal sanctuary where the dog has been sent to live out his days.

“It was a heart-wrenching situation,” sanctuary spokesman Raphael de Payer said in a telephone interview. “The fact that these two are not together is just wrong.”

The reunion Monday was arranged by the tabloid TV show “Hard Copy,” which aired a program about the case that unleashed a groundswell of outrage against laws that make it a capital crime for pets to harass livestock.

Deluged with calls and letters, authorities in Medford, Ore., last month lifted the dog’s death sentence and shipped him off to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, with a stipulation that there be no final visit for Roach.

Nadas went on death row in September 1996 after a neighbor complained that the dog was chasing her horse.

Monday’s meeting was the first time Roach had been able to see Nadas since Halloween, 1996, when he dressed as a clown to get into the building where the dog was held.

Roach, 22, spent thousands of dollars to keep Nadas well fed while in captivity and appealed the case all the way to the state Supreme Court, which declined to hear it.

Oregon officials said the Utah shelter apparently made an exception to what they believed was a no-visit policy.

“It was important for him to see him, not just the footage on TV, but to actually see him and pet him and give him a hug,” said Sharon Roach, Sean’s mother. “Just Sean knowing that he is in a good place, a good home, and knows people there are going to take care of Nadas, I think that means a lot.”