Dog's death leaves trauma, hard feelings

There's an adage in journalism: "When dog bites man, that's not news. When man bites dog, that's news."

When a report came over that a local man had fatally stabbed a dog in self-defense, that saying came to mind.

Though the adage is a humorous way to describe newsworthiness, this was no laughing matter. The incident left a dog dead, traumatized at least a couple of children and left hard feelings in a northeast Tucumcari neighborhood.

The incident involved Isaac Pacheco Jr. and his 2-year-old dog, Duran, an Alaskan-Siberian husky mix. Pacheco, who is disabled from an accident he suffered as a teenager, said he walks Duran on a leash at least two or three times a day. When he's not walking, Pacheco says he keeps Duran behind a fence at his home.

About dusk May 7, Pacheco said he was walking Duran about two blocks from his home when a large white dog he was familiar with bolted through an open gate of a fenced yard.

"I saw the dog every day. But it was in its yard, always," he recalled. "This was the first time it was out.

"The kids were outside ... when all of a sudden I hear a growling, barking. When I turned my eyesight to the sound, the dog was coming straight toward me."

Duran and the other dog began fighting. Pacheco pulled a 3-inch pocket knife.

"I just bought my knife about two weeks ago because I'm always being attacked by dogs for years," Pacheco said. "We're always getting attacked, and my dog has saved me about five times from pit bulls."

When the white dog began biting at Duran's belly, Pacheco said he stabbed the dog. He said he knifed the dog several times and called on others to stop the animal, but it kept attacking Duran.

"Then I remembered what my dad told me where the heart was when we went deer hunting," Pacheco recalled. "For a split second, I thought, 'The heart's got to be in the same place.' That's where I stabbed it, and that was the end.

"The kids were crying. I wouldn't have done it; they were kids. But I had to. My dog was in danger."

He said he departed for his home. Pacheco said Duran wasn't injured.

He said a woman drove by his house and said, "You killed a dog; now I'm going to kill yours."

He said a Tucumcari police officer investigated. Pacheco said the officer cleared him, saying: "You were protecting yourself and your dog." He said the officer warned the woman not to threaten Pacheco again. The alleged threat at Pacheco's home was noted in the county's emergency call logs that night.

Pacheco said he and Duran were attacked by another dog about week later, though its owner retrieved it before anything bad happened.

In the meantime, Pacheco said he's attracted the ire of neighbors, calling him "dog killer" and pointed questions such as: "You killed a dog in front of kids?"

Jennifer Baca, who lives across the street from where the attack occurred, had a different viewpoint. She said she couldn't recall the family's last name but recalled their dog's name was Benji. She said the family was preparing for a move to Arizona and accidentally left a gate open.

She said Benji was stabbed as the family's teenage boy tried to pull it away.

"The boy was holding the dog and restraining him," she said. "He reached over and stabbed him six times more. He came that close to stabbing that boy."

Baca said the dog's death occurred in front of a screaming 9-year-old boy, in addition to the teen.

Baca said she confronted Pacheco.

"'Isaac, why would you do that?' He looked at me and smiled, wiped the blood off his knife, put it in his pocket and left," Baca said. "He was being sadistic; he was just plumb evil about it. And he went bragging to his neighbors he killed a dog. That's not right."

Pacheco denied smiling after killing the dog and said the crying of the children saddened him.

Pacheco and Baca did agree on one thing - too many stray dogs are in Tucumcari.

"There are dogs on the loose everywhere. I've been attacked by dogs several times. That's why I bought my knife. I had to do something, or I was going to get bit or my dog was going to be hurt," Pacheco said.

He said the city's lone animal control officer, Mike Martinez, gives too many verbal warnings and doesn't confiscate enough loose animals.

"I agree there are dogs that run loose in this town, but I don't agree with what (Pacheco) did," Baca said.

Martinez said Monday he cannot seize animals without a warrant and that he has officer discretion on whether to issue citations.

"I try to give everybody a break," he said. "I try to be fair to everybody."

Animal problems always make up a significant number of 911 calls to law enforcement. A total of 14 such calls were reported to Tucumcari police during the May 3-9 period. Martinez said he typically deals with 12 to 20 calls during an eight-hour shift.

Martinez, who's been the city's animal control officer for 27 years, said loose animals have been a persistent problem for years. He also said the city pound also has been full from time to time.

Several attempts last week to reach the dead dog's family for comment were unsuccessful.

On Saturday, an older man doing work at the house said the family had moved to the Bullhead City, Arizona, area. He said he was aware of the family's dog being killed; he shook his head when recalling what he'd heard.

The man then went back to building a new fence in the front yard.

Ron Warnick is the senior writer at the Quay County Sun. He can be reached by email at:

[email protected]