Mailman Who Allegedly Hit Yorkie With a Rock Faces Animal Cruelty Charges

By Stephen Young Thu., Jun. 19 2014 at 2:30 PM

Cbalentine

This is a Yorkie (not Maxwell, but still). The mail carrier in question was scared of a Yorkie.

Fort Worth police say an arrest warrant has been issued for the mail carrier accused of hitting a couple's Yorkie with a rock, injuring it badly enough that it had to be put down.

Lawrence and Taiesha Brown told police on May 17 that their dog Maxwell was injured after wandering across the street into a neighbor's yard. Initially, Lawrence wasn't sure what happened or whose dog had been injured, and asked the letter carrier what happened.

"I asked him, 'What did you do to that dog?'" he told NBC 5. "He said 'I got me one,'" Brown says. "I said, 'You got you one? Did you mace him?' He said, 'No, I hit him with a rock.'"

Brown didn't find out the carrier was talking about Maxwell until he walked across the street and found his dog in his neighbor's yard.

The Browns called the police that afternoon and officers completed an animal cruelty investigation.

According to a statement released by the U.S. Postal Service, the carrier maintains that he was defending himself from an attack by the 10-pound dog and has been on paid leave since the incident.

The warrant for the mailman was issued Tuesday. His name will not be released, police say, until he is arrested.

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LovingPerson

good show mail person. Attention Browns; no one likes your dumb yappy toy dog. Especially when it's on someone else's property. Why is it that the fact that people own dogs has to be every else's problem? Maybe i'm just cranky from the lack of sleep i get from countless mornings of "yep, yep yep, yep yep yep" outside my window from various owners who apparently can't hear this.

Myrna.Minkoff-Katz topcommenter

Yorkies are hyper-yappy and hyper-friendly. I can't imagine anyone being afraid for his life around these tiny sweethearts.

Tim.Covington

I don't know the particulars of the incident.

1. The dog owners are at least partially to blame. They did not have the dog either locked up somewhere where it couldn't roam freely or on a leash.

2. I have a hard time believing the mailman. Every letter carrier I have seen has readily available pepper spray. If the dog was actually attacking he should have reached for that, or kicked it away. Having the time to pick up a rock and throw it at the dog means the dog wasn't really an imminent threat, IMO.

primi_timpano topcommenter

Not defending the mail carrier, but from the description of the incident (dog wanders across the street) and the comments below (on a per lb basis the Yorkie is the most dangerous vertebrae on the planet), a leash and muzzle would seem to be in order.

kergo1spaceship

My mother in law has a Yorkie, and that f+cker is a killer. I won't go near the thing; it's evil, and it runs like 45 miles an hour! I once chased said demon through the streets of Galveston, ripping my toe off in hot pursuit-and then that thing SHREDDED my fingers when I caught him.

ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul topcommenter

I guess that this one comes under the heading of mailman bites dog.

ChrisYu

Mail carriers and dogs have been enemies for thousands of years. It is futile to try and resolve their differences. When the postal carrier declared 'I got me one' he also understood that it would be a short lived victory, as there were still millions to go.

TheRuddSki topcommenter

The cutest little Yorkie showed up at my door one day when there were about six kids there. He came in and the kids just adored him. What a cutie!

I only had to get three stitches, the wife got eight in two different bites. It was just the cutest little dog though.

Lakewooder

Remember the harmless rabbit in Holy Grail?

TheCredibleHulk topcommenter

@Myrna.Minkoff-Katz

I've met a few companionable Yorkies, but most of them are little terrorists. I think that most of the folks that have small dogs for pets don't get them nearly enough exercise and that is why they get sort of a bad rap as being 'hyper'.

Little dogs have enormous amounts of energy that needs to be burned off daily. If they aren't stimulated physically and mentally, that energy that gets bottled up can, and often does lead to aggressive behavior.

Mailmen still shouldn't throw rocks at them

JackJett

@ChrisYu The mailman/dog war has been going on as long as the Israeli/Palestine conflict and is about as likely to be resolved.

How is that for going from one extreme to another?

Myrna.Minkoff-Katz topcommenter

@TheRuddSki The Yorkie had to have been mistreated by its owners. But, if I were the Yorkie I'd bite you, too.

ColonelAngus

@Lakewooder RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAY!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcxKIJTb3Hg

scottindallas topcommenter

@JackJett @ChrisYu that's false, the Israel Palestine war is less than a 100 years old. The narrative you describe is propaganda. The Muslims were gracious hosts, such that the Golden Age of Judaism came under Muslim rule in Spain

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@Myrna

It was a happy little dog, and the kids surrounded it, and it was so happy to be surrounded by kids, until it wasn't.

A Yorkie can sink his tooth to the bone as efficiently as any animal, but they're so cute when they do it.

Myrna.Minkoff-Katz topcommenter

@TheRuddSki Dogs can sense meanness. That's why you were bitten.

TheRuddSki topcommenter

@Myrna

The dog lunged at a kids face, I just intercepted it. I should have fed it to my four dogs in the backyard, but instead it had to be quarantined for however long to make sure the poor little thing didn't catch anything from me.