Investigator shoots pit bull in Pasadena | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

The Pasadena man came home on his lunch break to let his 7 month-old pit bull, Hershey, outside. Within a few moments, the dog would be shot by a man identified as a Social Security investigator after the animal got loose.

"I picked him up and I knew he was going to die," Mr. Scott said.

Cpl. Mark Shawkey, county police spokesman, said officers who arrived at Mr. Scott's home on Colony Road at just after 11 a.m. found a official from the Office of the Inspector General.

He told them he was investigating a Social Security case. They did not release his name last night.

The investigator told police he warned the person who answered the door several times to call the dog and that the animal chased after him.

Police said the animal, which weighed 50 to 60 pounds, was shot at very close range, with the shot fired almost straight down. No charges have been filed.

Dorothy Clark, spokesman for the Social Security Administration, said yesterday afternoon that her office had not been informed of the incident. She was unable to say if anyone from the Office of Inspector General was in Pasadena yesterday. The office investigates cases where a Social Security number is fraudulently used to obtain benefits.

Mr. Scott said he wasn't outside when the dog was shot. Hershey, seeing company coming to call, was excited and jumped up on the inspector playfully, he said.

He and his girlfriend, Christina Ballard, raised Hershey after keeping him from a litter. They found homes for all the other dogs, but kept Hershey because of his chocolate brown fur.

Despite the reputation of pit bulls as aggressive dogs, Mr. Scott and his brother-in-law, Josh Preissler, said Hershey has never gone after anyone.

"He didn't really bark at strangers. He's never bitten anyone or anything," said Mr. Preissler. "He's a very well-behaved dog and he usually listens."

Mr. Scott agreed.

"Everybody would probably say he's a lover... He always wants to jump and play and kiss," Mr. Scott said.

Mr. Scott took his dog to Huffard Animal Hospital in Pasadena, where veterinarians told him the shot was fired from a distance. The gunshot shattered Hershey's spine and punctured his lung, Mr. Scott said.

Although Hershey was alive when he Scott arrived at the hospital, veterinarians told Mr. Scott that his dog was in a lot of pain.

"There was no sense in keeping him alive. It was just torturing him," he said.

Both Mr. Preissler and Mr. Scott argue that if the inspector had time to call off the dog, there was no need to shoot him.

"Obviously he wasn't in imminent danger," Mr. Preissler said.

Mr. Scott's sister had called the dog, who was running back toward the house with his back to the inspector, Mr. Scott said.

"He definitely made the wrong call. The dog wasn't even doing nothing," he said.

Mr. Scott said that he thought pit bulls get a bad reputation, but he has two others and doesn't worry about the baby his girlfriend is carrying being around the dogs.

"I believe because he was a pit, they shot him," Mr. Scott said.