Couple files suit against Kettering, county officials after dog was removed from their backyard and euthanized

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

A couple has sued Kettering and Montgomery County officials two years after their dog “Dyson” was taken from their house and killed five days later.

Lindsey and Josh Glowney filed suit in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court, alleging several claims against a neighbor who called police, a city employee who took the 10-year-old dog and Montgomery County Animal Resource Center (ARC) employees who euthanized the dog after five days.

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The complaint said Dyson — taken in October 2016 — was wearing a recent dog tag and was micro-chipped. The Glowneys said they made several efforts to talk to ARC officials about their dog but no one returned messages.

They also were prosecuted for misdemeanor animal cruelty/neglect in Kettering Municipal Court. They pleaded no contest, were found guilty and the criminal case is in an appellate court.

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“I asked the County Commissioners to please investigate Dyson’s killing long before the lawsuit was filed,” said the Glowneys’ attorney, Paul Leonard, a Wright State University professor who was once Dayton’s mayor and Ohio’s lieutenant governor. “I did not even receive the courtesy of a reply. The Board of Trustees, which is supposed to provide oversight, is inept. The administration of ARC is dishonest.”

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The named defendants in Glowney’s lawsuit are the City of Kettering, community service specialist Shelly Davis, Kumpf, Kelly Meyer, Elizabeth Maimon, neighbor Deborah Smith and various Jane and John Does.

“From the information that we have, the Montgomery County Resource Center and its employees acted properly and according to the law with respect to the disposition of the dog, which clearly was of poor health, malnourished, and neglected,” Greg Flannagan, a spokesperson for the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office, said in a statement.

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The Glowneys say in their lawsuit that the dog was not in poor health.

“Dyson was eating all meals, was active and playful, and showed no evidence of pain or suffering,” Leonard wrote, and that although very thin despite nutritious food and special meals, the dog “deserved to continue enjoying life.”

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