LACON — About 10 people braved bitter cold outside the Marshall County Courthouse on Friday to rally for "Justice for Hades," a cause stemming from the fatal shooting of a pet pit bull last summer by the Toluca police chief.



Supporters from Lacon, Peoria and Streator joined Heather Graham of Toluca in protesting what they claim was the unjustified killing of her family dog on Aug. 22 by Chief Terry Ryan.



"It is no different from killing one of your kids," said Karen McCumsey of Streator, who heads a not-for-profit organization called For the Love of Pets. "Maybe not to the general public, but to animal lovers."



Ryan, who had killed another pit bull earlier in the year, shot 3-year-old Hades in a streetside parking area adjoining the yard of the home that Graham shares with two small sons after responding to a 911 call from a neighbor across the street, Graham said.



"He was only 27 feet from our back door. I measured it," said Graham, who arrived home just a few minutes later to find the 3-year-old dog dead. Her sons were due home from school.



Ryan could not be reached Friday and did not immediately return a message left with a dispatcher. But he wrote in a report that two neighbors had called about being "threatened" by Hades, and that the dog was "growling and barking" near his police truck when he fired the shot.



Graham said Hades had never bitten or threatened anyone, although he had once before gotten out of the house through a window, as he did that day. But on that earlier occasion, Ryan had responded by calling her at work so she could come and call him home, Graham added.



"I don't know why they didn't call me that day. I don't know why they didn't call animal control," Graham said. "I don't know why he just shot him."



Graham said a neighbor who had reported Hades loose rushed across the street in tears later, saying that she had only wanted the dog to be taken home, not shot. Ryan's report echoed that.



"(The neighbor) did not express the same fears she had claimed before H. Graham's arrival," Ryan wrote.



One purpose of the rally was to urge State's Attorney Paul Bauer to prosecute Ryan for animal cruelty. Bauer met with Graham and event organizer Marsha Soto, a pit bull owner and activist from Peoria, but repeated that he didn't see grounds for that from an incident that apparently had no direct witnesses.



"The only thing I can look at is the situation itself," Bauer told them in an impromptu meeting in a courthouse hallway. "I wasn't there, so I have to go on what I know, and there's not sufficient information for criminal charges."



Bauer emphasized that Graham could file a civil suit, which would proceed under different laws. She and Soto said that possibility was being investigated.



"There's a lawyer from Chicago who's going to be working with us on that," Soto said.



Separately, Bauer confirmed that Ryan had killed another pit bull earlier last year, when he went to an apparently unoccupied house to check reports that tenants had abandoned dogs there when they left. He found a pit bull and another dog in a house full of excrement, and shot the pit bull because it seemed threatening, Bauer said.



"I filed charges against the owner for abandoning the dogs in that case," Bauer added.



The protesters also called attention to a new state law that will require police officers to get special training in dealing with dogs in nonlethal ways. They believe pit bulls are unfairly stereotyped as aggressive. Soto said signatures are being gathered for a petition to send to Gov. Pat Quinn.



"We want him to enforce the law that he signed," Soto said.



More information on the Justice for Hades cause can be found on the Facebook page of that name.







Gary L. Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Read his Northern Circuit blog at pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Glsmithx.