This guy leaves his dog for dead and after a caring couple rescues the dog the POS wants his dog back, how about NFW.


http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/31364935/detail.html

I saw that this morning!! Unbelievable! The guy's a total creep!

Let's see if Colorado's strict animal cruelty laws step up to the plate!

Edited by Carol Blumlein (08/19/2012 01:19 AM)
Edit reason: sp

I saw that last night. I can't believe the gall of that idiot.

Who would take their dog on mountain without booties and hike until its paws were all cut up? Who would LEAVE their dog on a mountain? If my dog couldn't walk I'd brake my back carrying him or die trying...or at least go right back!!! What an asshole. I hope that couple gets the dog, no judge in their right mind would award custody back to that guy. Wouldn't we all like to have a minute to speak to him?

 Quote: Tresa Hendrix

Wouldn't we all like to have a minute to speak to him?

Yes. And I would like, say, Will or Ed along with me.

Make it both.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

 Quote: Tresa Hendrix

Wouldn't we all like to have a minute to speak to him?

Yes. And I would like, say, Will or Ed along with me.

Make it both.

Big ditto!

This story is just appalling. I mean, of course, the owner abandoning the dog up there (and taking the dog on such a hike to begin with and not making provisions for protecting her feet, etc.), just leaving her to die, making no effort to go back and rescue her. I would have moved Heaven and Earth if that was my dog.

I live in Michigan, a long way from Colorado, but I would like to say a huge thank you to the couple who found her, the 14ers.com discussion board, and the volunteers who carried out the rescue of Missy.

I sincerely hope the judge in this case will allow her to be adopted by the couple who found her. What a tragedy it would be to return her to the original owner.

"I sincerely hope the judge in this case will allow her to be adopted by the couple who found her. What a tragedy it would be to return her to the original owner."

Maybe someone should take the owner up there barefoot, and abandon him with no food or water when he could not walk!

And the rest of the story - The thread on the mountain climbing forum that sparked the rescue. This link takes you to the owners response after the dog was rescued.

http://14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=36893&start=252#p440312

While I personally think it was kind of a foolish choice to take the dog, apparently she'd gone along with him before without issue and then a series of unfortunate events caused him to leave her there after he had worked to get her down for a few hours. Just what do you do when you have to make a choice between getting a person or your dog off the mountain safely? I would hate to do it, but if the absolute choice boiled down to a person or my dog I would choose the person. And then he was told by a few different people that she was probably dead.

But on the flip side, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night not knowing if my dog was alive and suffering or dead. In this day and age of online social networking there was much more he could have done. You didn't know about the forum? okay, make a plea through Facebook or local news agencies. Make lost dog posters, do something

In light of reading his side of the story, I not sure an animal cruelty charge will stick (and not convinced that it should). But I think he relinquished all rights to her when he left here there with no real attempts made to get her out. He should be nothing but grateful and relieved that someone else cared enough to go through the massive effort to rescue the dog, offer to pay her medical expenses, then bow out. JMO

Charges were filed a few days ago in Clear Creek county. I thnk they are going after this pretty aggressively as in 'making an example of'.
Charges File -- Clear Creek Prosecutor
Probably the best set of photos are on the NY Daily News site,
NY Daily News Story Their article generally follows what everyone else posted from Denver's http://www.9news.com website.

Mt Bierstadt, at over 14,000 ft, is one of the highest peaks in North America. Google Map of Bierstadt

Perhaps the best source for real details in on the incident is the http://www.14ers.com website. This is an enthusiast site for people who hike the high mountains in the Rockies. Pretty nice site.

This thread has the rescue saga starting with the post Scott Washburn made after finding the dog. The time stamps on the messages are in Mountain time.

Start with
'Dog Found (and saved): Mt. Bierstadt!
http://14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=36893&start=24

Scott reported the dog found at about 8pm after he and his wife were unable to get the dog down off the mountain. They pinged the 14er's group for assistance. At this point the dog had been on the rocks at over 13,000 feet for about a week. Ortolani abandoned her on the 5th.

Scott and his wife were able to bandage the dog's paws and they gave her their food and water. At that altitude, water is pretty important -- the thin, arid air sucks you dry.

At about 1130pm that night, the first search party launched for a high-risk midnight search. OK, looking for a black dog who wants to stay hidden while under a waning cresent moon is a bit of lunacy. I admire that that.
http://lunaf.com/english/moon-phases/lunar-calendar-2012/08/12/

A report from Erik2 on the results of his fruitless Sunday search. The following post is from someone who saw Ortolani, his companion and the dog the previous Sunday (8/5) -- the dog appeared to be struggling alot at that point. Note that many people call this companion a 'child'. It was reported elsewhere this companion was a 19 year old male -- about same age as many of our troops who hump 100# field packs up the Afghan 'teeners while wearing full battle armor.

A better provisioned daylight search team launched on Monday the 13th in crappy weather. They met at the trailhead at 5am. (pg 9). That is about and hour and a half to two hours out of Denver. You do the math on when you have to roll out of bed.

One 14er reported seeing the search team with the dog at about 1:30 that afternoon making their way off the mountain as it was snowing. He was uncertain if it was a rescue or a recovery.

At 3pm, the dog and the rescue team are reported safely off the mountain and Scott was taking her to the vet for treatment. (p 14).

For much of the hike off the mountain, they carried her in a backpack. She weighed over a 110# at that point.

As SolarAlex said,

 Quote:

we took turns carrying her in a backpack from the low point on the sawtooth over bierstadt, and down to id guess about 12500 feet. she started squirming in the pack so we let her out and she walked like a champ the rest of the way. she also ate and drank, and went to the bathroom. considering what she had been through, she was in remarkably good health/spirits. hopefully nothing that some love in the form of lots of food and a couch cant fix.

i cant even begin to say how glad i am that this was the outcome, and how glad i was to be a part of it. to think that such a gentle, sweet dog was abandoned and left to die in the mountains breaks my heart.

At 11pm Denver Channel 9 runs the story.

BTW, nice set of photos with a guy and his sable Shepherd on this page, pg 22. Note the hiking booties on the dog.

Mr Anthony Ortolani pipes up around 2:30am claiming the dog and offers his first version why he abandoned the dog to her death from cut paws. Over the next few days, the story that he presents and by way of various surrogates who seem to pop out of the woodwork seems to shift and evolve. BTW, according to his Linked-in listing (pg 29) his business is some kind of PR operation. It smells a lot like spinning.

The rest of that thread is mostly the interaction of a large fan and big pile of ....

Continue with:
http://14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=37001

Mostly more stuff exiting the fan and people thanking the heroic rescue teams.

Of interest on p 9 is a post from hvolmer that the weather on day Ortolani abandoned his dog ... it was cloudy but no storm or any such thing.

If you do visit their site, remember to click on the sponsor's links. That is how they support their site -- and the sponsors have a lot pretty cool outdoor gear.

Ortolani did have a Facebook page and a Linked-In page (see pg 29 on the 'Lost Dog' thread on the 14er.com forum. The FB page is gone.

BTW, here is a nice thread about the 14er's and their dogs,
http://14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=36941

Closing with that memorable quote from Billy Madson (**strong language advisory **)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yV3a4KlL7c

Loved those photos of the 14er's and their dogs!