Man Drags His Dogs With Car
author: From The Horegonian
Man drags his dogs with car, police say
The two animals are rescued and a 26-year-old suspect is arrested at a Southwest Portland home after a witness calls 9-1-1
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Police say the 9-1-1 call from Portland's Marshall Park neighborhood Sunday afternoon sounded beyond belief: A guy driving a green Subaru Outback, dragging two bloodied and panting dogs down the street.
It turned out to be true, police say.
Shortly after 5:30 p.m., officers found Sean A. MacComb standing next to his car in a driveway in the 10700 block of Southwest 11th Drive. Two cablelike leashes and dog collars covered with "a copious amount of blood" were still attached to the back bumper, police say.
The two adult dogs, a black Labrador-Rottweiler mix and a brown mastiff-shepherd mix, are expected to survive their injuries. They were being held at the Multnomah County animal shelter in Troutdale.
MacComb faces a felony aggravated animal assault charge, and misdemeanor charges of second-degree animal assault and driving under the influence, police said.
During questioning in the driveway, MacComb, 26, told officers that he leashed his two dogs to the Subaru and took them for a 15-minute "run," according to police reports.
"He said it was something he was thinking about doing for a while," said Officer Greg Pashley, a Portland police spokesman. "He decided to do it that day."
MacComb's speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol, Pashley said.
A neighbor who called 9-1-1 reported seeing the car pass her house with the dogs in tow near Southwest 11th Drive and Arnold Street, police said.
The brown dog, a male named Smokey, was still trying to stay on his feet, but the black dog, a female named Kuma, was being dragged on the pavement, the caller told police.
"The witness saw the black dog covered in blood," Pashley said. "At one point, the guy stopped, got out, walked to the back of the car, looked at his dogs and started yelling at the dog to get up."
When the dog refused to stand up, MacComb scooped up both dogs and put them in the back of the car, the neighbor told police.
By that time, the dogs likely had run and been dragged for several blocks, Pashley said.
The neighbor estimated that MacComb's car was traveling 25 to 30 mph, police said.
The black dog lost sections of fur and skin, and suffered "deep wounds" to its hips, legs and feet, Pashley said. The brown dog's paws were scraped up, he said.
The dogs, both panting heavily, were found in the back yard of MacComb's home. Both animals were taken to Dove Lewis Emergency Animal Hospital in Northwest Portland on Sunday night and treated for their injuries. They remained at the animal shelter Tuesday on a legal hold ordered by police, county officials said.
MacComb was arraigned and released from Multnomah County jail on Monday, police said. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and could be banned from owning pets for several years.
When reached by phone, MacComb declined to discuss the case. "It was one big mistake, a huge mistake by me," he said. "I don't want to talk about it."
Joseph Rose: 503-221-8029;  josephrose@news.oregonian.com
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One warm day last year I saw some idiot girl driving her pickup around the residential streets in SE at high speed while her long haired collie was running as fast as he could to keep up. Looked like he easily couldve been run over at intersections. When I came out of the store she was still drivng around but the poor dog was barely trotting way behind her. She was yelling at him to keep up. People should know that it is cruel to run a dog on warm days as they cant cool themselves off as well as humans or horses because dogs only have panting to cool themselves off no sweat glands. Wolves (dogs) in the wild run and hunt at night so they never needed to evolve sweat glands. I would recommend that people shave their long hair dogs in the summer because I have seen so many dogs heavily panting on hot days.