Where's Ato? Chow at center of controversy is stolen from doggy death row

BY KIM NORTH SHINE
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Save Ato movement has become a Where's Ato mystery.

The 7-year-old chow chow, on death row at the Humane Society of Huron Valley for nearly two years, was spirited away late Sunday or early Monday.

His owners have been fighting to stop the legal system from killing Ato for biting a 13-year-old newspaper boy in August 1998.

On Sunday, the owners, Hiroshi and Seiko Ikuma of Ann Arbor, saw Ato (pronounced Otto).

They took him a dinner of beef livers and sat with him in his 3-by-5-foot pen as they had daily for 23 months. He had cookies and doughnuts for dessert and was left a lamb bone and beef bone for later.

Who knows whether he ever got to gnawing.

During the next several hours, Ann Arbor assistant city attorney Robert West said, a hole was cut in the fence surrounding the Superior Township shelter. The padlock on Ato's cage was removed, opening the door to his freedom -- or death. No one seems to know.

"They had an obligation to safeguard that dog," the Ikumas' lawyer, Ray Mullins, said Tuesday. "My clients are devastated. They don't know who did this."

West said he suspects Ato is in friendly hands in another state. The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department is investigating.

There are as many guesses as to who-done-it as there are court actions in this tale, which has sparked a debate: Is Ato a dangerous dog that will bite again or a rightful protector of his property?

Was it Save Ato supporters, whose numbers are large, judging by the Save Ato Web site? (www.angelfire.com/pe/otto/) Was it friends of the Humane Society who are angry that a homeless dog could die each day that Ato takes up a cage? Was it a person tired of the case taking up court and city time?

No other animals were taken during the break-in.

"It could be anyone, but it had to be someone the dog was very familiar with or someone who had a tranquilizer," West said, referring to Ato's aggressive history.

On Tuesday, 15th District Judge Julie Creal Goodridge, who has ordered Ato be put to death, denied another stay of execution. Mullins asked for the delay while awaiting word on whether the Michigan Court of Appeals will take the case.

Seiko Ikuma, 63, is scheduled to appear Monday at a contempt of court hearing for failing to hire a veterinarian to euthanatize Ato.

Mullins has sued the city, the Humane Society and others, saying his clients have been defamed, mistreated and denied their civil rights.

Ato is in the doghouse for biting Alex Newton, a delivery boy for the Ann Arbor News. According to court records, Alex opened the front door to the Ikumas' home in northeast Ann Arbor and dropped a heavy Sunday newspaper on the floor.

That startled a sleeping Ato, who then attacked the boy as he was walking away.

Alex's father pulled Ato off. Alex received 13 stitches.

A six-person jury found Seiko Ikuma not guilty of owning a vicious dog. Hiroshi Ikuma, 68, hasn't been charged.

The City of Ann Arbor pursued further charges.

Ato's case has sparked an international furor in cyberspace at the Save Ato Web site, where the creator, a resident of the Netherlands, is publicizing the plight of a dog "who only defended his owner's property."

Alex wasn't Ato's first bite.

One woman was bitten when she stuck her hand through the Ikumas' car window. He also bit a trainer, who testified the dog reacted naturally.

The Ikumas' two Australian shepherds bit three people in 1993. The dogs were euthanatized.

"We're not going to drop this case," West said. "We're winning. We just lost the prize."

Contact KIM NORTH SHINE at 810-469-8085 or kshine@freepress.com.

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

To the newsreporter of ABPnews Robert West stated:
"This wasn't some amateur job".
Isn't it funny someone could just walk in and take this incredible vicious dog ? Have you ever tried to lift 90 lbs of dead weight ? What is Robert West meaning here exactly ?

"We're not going to drop this case," West said. "We're winning. We just lost the prize."

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