Elk Grove officials kill Zeus, the German shepherd who bit two, was confiscated from owner
Elk Grove officials announced Friday that they had killed Zeus, the German shepherd, whom they had designated as a “dangerous animal,” adding that the dog posed too great a risk to public safety to be allowed to live.
[UPDATE: Zeus’ owner taken into custody as suicide threat]
“This has been a difficult situation for all involved in this matter, and the city does not take this action lightly,” the city said in an announcement emailed to media at 5:35 p.m. Friday. “The city takes its duty to preserve public safety and protect the community very seriously.”
The euthanasia by the city’s animal services department came after a flurry of lawsuits and pleas by animal rights activists imploring the city to allow the dog to be handed over to rescue groups that had offered to take Zeus and train him after he had bitten two people — a bystander walking by his owner’s home and an Elk Grove police officer standing by as his owner was being told to escort the dog into an animal services van as it was being seized in July.
The dispute over the dog’s fate had caused widespread alarm among some, most notably its co-owner, Faryal Kabir, who was taken into custody as a suicide threat because of her despair over the possibility that the city would kill the dog.
“Counsel, did you kill Zeus?” Kabir’s attorney, Andrew Shalaby, wrote in a late Friday email to Elk Grove legal officials. “I am told you killed the dog.
“If you did, you better send somebody to Faryal home immediately on a suicide watch before she is told. She will commit suicide.”
So they killed Zeus — the city said in its statement that the dog was “humanely euthanized” earlier Friday.
“The city delayed euthanasia of the animal for almost two months to allow time for the owner to pursue judicial remedies with the courts, but efforts by the owner in both state and federal court for a stay of the euthanasia or other related relief have been unsuccessful,” the city statement said. “Continued housing of the dangerous animal was not in the public or the animal’s interest.”
The city in its 5:24 p.m. social media post did not specify if they would release the remains to the Faryal family.
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 6:24 PM.