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Vail Daily letter: Complaint mishandled

Dear Robert Ticer, chief of the Avon Police Department,

First, I would like to say that I have always been and still am a supporter of police officers. I truly appreciate the men and women who put their lives on the line every day for me and others.

With that said, I have to say I am very saddened with how my call for assistance/help was handled and/or dropped.



I called 911 on April 24 reporting a case of animal neglect and cruelty. When I made the first call, I received Summit County 911.

I told both Summit County 911 and Eagle County 911 exactly what the situation was. I told them that there was a makeshift open cage on the back of a truck hauling 16 extremely neglected dogs.

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Both my friend and I saw first-hand the horrible condition these dogs were in when we talked to the driver at a gas station. I asked him how many dogs he had crammed in the cage. He told me he had 16 dogs. Several dogs were severely malnourished as you could see their backbones and ribs. One dog had a horrible eye infection, and there was a dog tied to the back right side of the truck with about an 8-inch rope so he could not move. The dogs odor was horrible. They were traveling through cold and wet weather. We could hear them barking and howling from within our car behind the truck with our windows closed.

Finally, we saw an officer enter Interstate 70 from the Avon ramp. He drove along the driver’s side of the truck for a couple of minutes. He then pulled ahead of the truck and got off on the next exit. When I saw this, my heart absolutely sank and I started to cry.

I was told that the officer ran the plate and it came back with current tabs, even though the sticker on the plate was expired. The officer called Animal Control and inquired about the legality of transferring animals. The concern was not about the transport, but the neglected condition of the animals.

What makes me so angry is that I am the citizen who made the call/complaint after viewing the dogs and their horrible condition and had a picture of the license plate with the expired tabs. So, I provided two legal reasons to pull this truck over.

Now, these dogs will continue to be abused and neglected because my call for help for their wellbeing and protection was handled inappropriately.

We all are their only voices. If we continue to ignore or turn our backs, as your police officer did, then these dogs will continue to be neglected and abused.

Stephanie Otte


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