New legal fight over Elk Grove’s killing of Zeus, the German shepherd labeled ‘dangerous’
One year after Elk Grove officials killed Zeus, a German shepherd that was labeled a “dangerous animal” after biting two people, the dog’s owner has filed a personal injury complaint against the city alleging “severe lifelong emotional distress” and seeking $10 million.
The complaint, filed in Sacramento Superior Court on behalf of Faryal Kabir, cites “wrongful death” in the “killing of plaintiffs’ beloved one year old German Shepherd dog named Zeus on 10/28/22.”
“Zeus is presented as a German shepherd who was like a ‘son or ‘issue’ to the plaintiffs,” according to the complaint filed by El Cerrito attorney Andrew Shalaby, who fought in state and federal courts last year to save the dog from being euthanized.
Shalaby said Tuesday that Kabir still is grieving the loss of her dog and was inconsolable on the one-year anniversary of him being euthanized.
“On the anniversary on Oct. 28 she was in a very bad way,” he said. “She fell apart.”
Elk Grove officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday, but issued a statement following the euthanizing of the dog last year saying “this has been a difficult situation for all involved in this matter, and the city does not take this action lightly.”
The city contends the dog bit a passerby in Kabir’s neighborhood on May 16, 2022, and bit a police officer later as animal control officers took the animal from Kabir’s home.
Two hearing officers determined the dog was a dangerous animal, the city said, “and ordered the dangerous animal to be humanely euthanized.”
“The courts have consistently ruled in favor of the city in a number of legal challenges on this issue,” Elk Grove said at the time. “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.
“Continued housing of the dangerous animal was not in the public or the animal’s interest. The humane euthanasia of the dangerous animal was necessary and appropriate in this instance.”
Kabir, who was so distraught over the seizure of her dog that she was hospitalized after threatening suicide, has maintained that the first bite occurred as Zeus was startled when a man walked by as she was getting the dog out of her SUV after a trip to a dog park.
She also maintained the dog was provoked when officers arrived at her home to seize the dog.
Lawsuits over the controversy still are pending in Sacramento federal court, but have been dormant since April.
The latest complaint contends the hearing officers’ findings that Zeus was dangerous were not lawful and that Elk Grove kept Zeus in the city dog pound for 105 days from July 15, 2022, “where they unlawfully held him and made him suffer terribly until they unlawfully and unconscionably killed him on Oct. 28, 2022.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2023 at 8:50 AM.