Tuesday, July 25, 2000

By LIZ COBBS
NEWS STAFF REPORTER 

Local court proceedings are over for Ato's owners but the search continues for the chow that was stolen while waiting to be euthanized.

Police are continuing to search for the person who took the 7-year-old, 90-pound dog from his kennel at the Humane Society of Huron Valley sometime between July 16-17. 

"We're on top of it," said Washtenaw County Sheriff's Lt. Brian Miller. "We're making it a priority investigation."

A court hearing for Ato's owner, Seiko Ikuma of Ann Arbor, was canceled Monday after Ikuma signed a form Friday authorizing her dog to be euthanized and gave it to the Ann Arbor City Attorney's Office.

Assistant City Attorney Robert West, who handled the case, said now that Ikuma has signed the form, he believed the case is over.

"From our standpoint, I don't see where we can go with it," West said.

Ikuma's attorney, Raymond G. Mullins, claims the form is not legally binding because Ikuma signed under duress and protest. Mullins said they will file an appeal with the Michigan Supreme Court.

Ikuma was to appear before 15th District Judge Julie Creal Goodridge Monday to explain why she had not yet destroyed the dog. The judge ordered the dog euthanized after a court hearing in October showed Ato had attacked 13-year-old Alex Newton, who had delivered a copy of The Ann Arbor News to the home of Seiko Ikuma and her husband, Hiroshi Ikuma. Alex Newton's injuries required 13 stitches. The dog had also bitten at least two other people.

Ikuma and her husband had visited their dog daily while Ato was at the Humane Society, 3100 Cherry Hill Road in Superior Township. The dog had been confined there under court order since November 1999.

Ato has now been missing for more than a week but animal rights advocate Gary Yourofsky, of Royal Oak, has said during media interviews that the dog was safe.

"All I can say is I know he's been liberated by animal activists," Yourofsky, founder of Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow, said Monday. "I know from what I've heard that Ato is safe. The case is closed. Justice has been served."

Yourofsky denied taken the dog, although he said he has been jailed 11 times for liberating animals, including 1997 after setting 1,500 minks free from a Canadian farm.

Ato had been confined under court order to the Humane Society until he was euthanized.

Someone cut a hole in the chain-link fence surrounding the humane society's grounds, went to Ato's cage, cut a padlock off the cage and took the dog.

Yourofsky said the theft has "the markings" of animal liberationists. He also said that while attending a national conference in Washington, recently, he heard "rumblings" from people there about Ato's plight. Two weeks later, Ato was stolen.

Miller said the sheriff's department plans to question Yourofsky. Yourofsky, however, said he will not cooperate with the investigation if he's contacted.

"I've been waiting for a phone call," he said. "I would never comply or help them out with anything. I will not cooperate with an unjust system as long as animals are denied their inherent right to be free."