Chester Park, Positive Open Carry encounter with ParkSide and Chester Police

[bigandy1966]

I walk and hike a lot on Delaware County trails with my Yellow lab Ellie Mae, and one of our favorite walks is Chester Park and the Parkside Trails. Every Morning we go down to Ridley Creek and I throw her fetch toy in and she swims around, She really loves it. Its a good 1 1/2 mike walk through the woods and up the hill.
This morning we were down at the bridge throwing the ball, she was swimming and fetching. I look upstream and I see a scruffy looking fox come out of the bushes and start walking up the creek twards me. He gets about 40 yards away and I said in a loud voice, "Your not too bright for a fox are you?" expecting it to beat feet and run away. It crouches down , and looks me in the eyes, and starts stalking up on ME! Just then the dog jumps out of the water and the fox runs about 6 or 7 steps away,turns and attacks the dog. Ellie Runs about 20 yards when the fox grabs her back leg. The dog starts yelping and carrying on, but the fox won't let go of her back leg. I run over and try to pull the dog away from the fox, but he still wont let her loose. I am yelling and the dogs yelping in pain, and the fox still will not let her go. I draw my pistol, thumb off the safety, I pull the dog twards me at the same time aiming between the foxes shoulder blades and fire. The fox goes down. I took the dog over to the creek and rinsed the bite out with water, its a little gnawed on but just puncture wounds mostly.
I don't have a cell phone on me, and I don't want to leave this animal where something else could come along and eat it and wind up sick too. So i walk up to the park yards, but there is no one there.
I walk back down to the bridge and by that time a Parkside police vehicle comes down the hill from Chester side. I wave him over and I said "My dog just got attacked by a fox, I had to shoot it." The police Officer said, "We just got a report of a gunshot in the park and we came to check it out. Wheres the fox?" I said "Its over there by the garbage can." The got out of the vehicle and we all walked over to the fox, it was looking pretty mangy. The Police officer #2 said, Yeah that looks like it was pretty sick, I don't blame you for shooting it." Police Officer #1 agrees and says "I'll call this in to Chester, they have to get their animal control officer out here. I'll need to get your information on the police report, Name, address, phone number, Do you have a LTCF?" I said "Yes", he said "May I see it?, I have to record it for the discharge of a firearm on the report of shots fired." I said "Sure" and gave him my LTCF., He gives it back and says Keep it handy if Chester needs to verify it." I said "Ok".
Just then 3 Chester Police cars pull up, And all the officers get out of their cars, One guy is laughing and says "Ok who's the guy shooting all the animals in our park?" I said, "That would be me" Then we all stand around looking at the dead fox for about 5 minutes, and the dogs leg, who wants to keep on swimming, and whos loving al the attention by the Police. Then the Chester Police officer says, Ok we have Animal control coming, the Parkside Offircer has your information, you can take your dog to the vet and get her checked out, How old is she ?" I said "She's four, Still a puppy" He said "She's such a sweetie aren't you? Your going to go to the vet and get a checkup arent you?" I said "Ok guys, Thanks for coming out and stay safe"
All the while I have the SR9 out in the open, no one asks to run the numbers or to remove the firearm for their protection or anything of that nature. Overall It went pretty smooth.
We went to the vet and got her rabies booster, and some anti biotics. Her leg is a little gnawed on, but that will heal up no problem. She is on quarantine for 10 days, she has to stay in the yard. She'll be bummed.

[streaker69]

Wow! I think this scenario has been tossed around many times, and someone now has finally been through it. Good job.

[knight0334]

I'd make sure to have the fox tested for rabies.

Hopefully your dog makes out just fine.

[ViperGTS19801]

Sounds like it went well - good job for protecting your buddy, rep inbound. Get him tested now!

I don't have a problem with the LTCF check - most parks have a prohibition against the discharge of firearms to prevent people for doing target practice, but that's usually nullified in a self-defense shooting.

[GrumpyBear]

Good job hope everything turns out ok with Ellie Mae.Rep to you and Ellie.I'd make sure to have the fox tested for rabies.

[mollymayhem82]

What kind of gun did you use?

[photoshooter]

Good work protecting Ellie May.
Gotta spread the rep before giving it to you again.

[bigandy1966]

I was carrying my wifes Ruger SR9,in a Blackhawk thumb break OTWB holster. I was wearing a white polo shirt so it stood out pretty obviously. The younger police officer looked at it a couple of times probably trying to see what it was, guns weren't even mentioned discussed or anything.
Ellie is current on her rabies, but they give a booster regardless and she must be quarantined for 10 days. Chester animal control has the fox carcass and they will do the rabies test for statistics, but the dog should be fine, quarantines are just to be safe.

[streaker69]

I was carrying my wifes Ruger SR9,in a Blackhawk thumb break OTWB holster. I was wearing a white polo shirt so it stood out pretty obviously. The younger police officer looked at it a couple of times probably trying to see what it was, guns weren't even mentioned discussed or anything.
Ellie is current on her rabies, but they give a booster regardless and she must be quarantined for 10 days. Chester animal control has the fox carcass and they will do the rabies test for statistics, but the dog should be fine, quarantines are just to be safe.

What were the weather conditions at the time of the shooting?

[Kurt_D]

That is typical behavior for a fox with the furious type of rabies. We had a (confirmed) rabid raccoon in our back yard several years ago and, even though it was over 50' feet away from our dog, it started hissing and screeching, bearing its teeth and stumbled toward the dog. The dog and I were right by the back door and hauled him inside before the critter got anywhere close to him.

Once the dog was out of the raccoon's sight, it started limping around in circles in our driveway, squealing to itself. It kept falling over as well. I called the police and they said they'd had a couple reports of an aggressive raccoon in the area and had been looking for it for several hours. A couple of cruisers and the animal control officer showed up within a very few minutes.

The animal control guy noosed the raccoon and stuffed it into a metal carrier. The animal pissed all over the place when the noose tightened and the animal control officer asked if we had any Clorox and poured it where the raccoon had hosed the drive.

While it is extremely unusual (i.e. rare) to get rabies by other than a direct bite from an infected animal, I would check with your doctor or the ER people to make sure you did all that was necessary to avoid contracting the disease.

I'm glad the LEOs didn't give you a ration of crap about the weapon discharge. That, for sure, was a totally justifiable protection of your dog and you. Good job of keeping your cool in a bad situation.