Doomed dog is safe, activist says 

With Ato in hiding, legal actions run on 

BY MARYANNE GEORGE
FREE PRESS ANN ARBOR BUREAU
 

Ato, the dog on death row who disappeared from a humane society shelter last week, is safe, an animal-rights activist said Sunday. 

Gary Yourofsky, founder of Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow, said Ato is living in a home, but declined to say whether the dog has left the state.

"Ato is safe and he is alive," said Yourofsky of Royal Oak, who says ADAPTT has 1,850 local members. "Justice has finally been served. We don't put humans to death for biting. Ato was simply protecting his home and property." 

Last year, 15th District Court Judge Julie Creal Goodridge ordered Ato destroyed as a vicious dog after biting a paperboy in August 1998 and three other people.

Ato had been living at shelters for nearly two years while his fate has been in court.

Hiroshi and Seiko Ikuma of Ann Arbor have denied any role in springing their dog. But Friday, Seiko Ikuma signed a waiver allowing a veterinarian to put the 90-pound chow chow to death, Ann Arbor assistant city attorney Robert West said Sunday.

Seiko Ikuma is scheduled for a contempt of court hearing in 15th District Court in Ann Arbor today. She failed to appear at a hearing Tuesday to explain why she had not yet had the dog destroyed, West said. 

"If she knows the dog is safe, she may not worry about signing the waiver," West said. "I am not willing to accept her denials that she has no knowledge of where the dog is."

Yourofsky said he had no role in Ato's escape, but wished he had. Yourofsky said he has been jailed 11 times for his animal-rights activism, including the release of 1,500 minks from a Canadian farm in 1997.

On Friday, the Michigan Court of Appeals declined to hear an emergency appeal of the 7-year-old dog's death sentence, West said.

The Ikumas have been unsuccessful in their legal attempts to save their dog. Neither the Ikumas nor their attorney, Raymond Mullins, could be reached for comment Sunday.

Mullins has told West that he will ask the Supreme Court to hear the appeal. The high court will likely rule on the Ikumas' request within a month, West said. 

But he said the court likely will decline to hear the appeal, because it usually only reviews cases that are of interest to large numbers of people.

All the legal maneuvering may be moot as long as Ato (pronounced Otto) cannot be found.

Washtenaw County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Miller said Sunday that the investigation continues into Ato's disappearance from the Huron Valley Humane Society in Superior Township July 16 or 17.

Ato's case has sparked international interest at the Save Ato Web site, https://www.angelfire.com/pe/otto/.

Ato was confined after biting 13-year-old Alex Newton, a delivery boy for the Ann Arbor News, in August 1998. Alex opened the door of the Ikumas' home in northeast Ann Arbor and dropped a heavy Sunday newspaper on the floor.

That startled Ato, who attacked the boy as he was walking away. Alex's father pulled Ato off. Alex received 13 stitches to close his wounds.

A six-person jury acquitted Seiko Ikuma in December 1998 of owning a dangerous dog. But the city pursued civil charges under dangerous-dog laws. Last year Goodridge ordered the dog destroyed. The Ikumas have appealed that order to the Washtenaw County Circuit Court, which upheld the district court ruling, and to the Court of Appeals.

Ato has also bitten a trainer hired by the Ikumas to evaluate the dog, a woman who reached through the Ikumas' car window and the daughter of a couple the Ikumas were visiting in 1997, according to West. 

The Ikumas' two Australian shepherds were destroyed in 1993 after biting four people in five separate attacks, West said.

Contact MARYANNE GEORGE at mageorge@freepress.com.

Comments and reactions to Detroit Free Press: http://www.freepress.com/help/letters.htm

This so called assistant City attorney is unbelievable......."He is not willing to accept her denials........". May be he should start a judicial procedure again !!!

"Ato has also bitten a trainer hired by the Ikumas to evaluate the dog, a woman who reached through the Ikumas' car window and the daughter of a couple the Ikumas were visiting in 1997", according to West. 

Dear Mr. West, when do you start reading the facts. This trainer, Ms. Morin, testified for your city and stated that Ato was not vicious ! The other bites were no bites. See the facts at Standby/Summary of this homepage.

Imagine the quality of the City attorney........ethics.....or just obsessed ? One day he will be a loser.......who then might become vicious........