Gwinnett animal control officer under investigation for actions involving rottweiler | Gwinnett Daily Post

Shane is friendly but timid. Untrusting.

It sometimes takes two, three, four commands for the thoroughbred rottweiler, a one-time show dog, to sit or stay or come. He takes time to warm up to visitors and, even then, it’s different than it used to be. He’s jumpy.

“Look at his tail,” owner Sabahuddin Grbic says, hurt, in a thick Bosnian accent. Whether from fear or shame or intimidation, Shane’s long tail is almost ceaselessly tucked between his legs.

He is not at all like he was prior to that fateful August encounter — the one that triggered what may be the first-ever criminal investigation into the actions of a Gwinnett County animal control officer.

At 1:13 p.m. on Aug. 30, Gwinnett County Animal Control Officer Austin H. Fetner was dispatched to 1343 Pendale Drive, where Shane had been corralled in a yard after escaping from his own about half a mile away. By Fetner’s own official account, he was at the scene for 15 minutes before leaving with the dog.

What happened over that quarter-hour has become the center of controversy, a contentious imbroglio with two very different versions: one describing a justified case of self-defense, the other detailing a bloody, abusive overreaction.

“When the 120 (pound) rott ran towards me showing teeth and growling,” Fetner wrote in his report, “I was in fear for my life and I had to hit the K9 with my pole.”

Said Annabella Flynn-Dempsey, one of several witnesses: “The dog wasn’t chasing him. He was chasing the dog. He chose to stay in there and beat the dog into submission.”

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