Former corporal is arrested after allegedly abusing his K9 to the point of death
When a handler takes on a K9 the two develop a level of trust stronger than you would see between a regular partnership. This is because usually in this type of relationship a K9 and their handler come to rely on each other in sometimes life-threatening situations. So, when that trust is betrayed it is that much harder to understand.
K9 Maily falls ill
When Corporal Robert Fain’s K9 Maily died due to illness, few had any idea of the horrific circumstances that resulted in her death. At first, it was thought that the K9 had succumbed to a lengthy illness.
“It’s a sad day to lose such a significant member of the State Fire Marshal family in K-9 Maily,” said State Fire Marshal Chief H. “Butch” Browning, “But we know she gave her all on the job and off despite frequent medical setbacks. We will certainly miss K-9 Maily’s contribution to abating arson across our state and her fun-loving nature that improved the lives of all who came in contact with her.”
The horrifying truth is revealed
Soon though, the feelings of sadness for the loss of Maily turned to outrage as the extent of her handler’s activities were revealed. Fain had been slowly starving Maily to death over several months. He had also deprived her of routine medical treatment, which could have saved her life. Veterinarians and authorities could only describe the neglect as “extremely disturbing and horrific.”
Fain is arrested for his actions
After the neglect was discovered, Fain was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on counts of payroll fraud which were related to his efforts to hide Maily’s condition from his superiors. After being arrested, Fain resigned from the agency. He also faces charges of cruelty to animals.
The crimes involved
The investigation of the incident revealed that Fain had used his state-issued credit card to last purchase food for Maily on July 11, 2019. After that date, the card was no longer used for this purpose. In contrast, as a part of her daily feeding regiment, Maily required at least four cups of food per day. Shortly after Fain stopped buying food for her, Maily died. She was only four years old.
A story of abuse and neglect
It was only after the autopsy of Maily’s body that officials grew suspicious of Fane. The autopsy revealed that Maily’s corpse had “evidence of a severe atrophy of fat and extensive muscle wasting.” This was in addition to sunken eyes which are a big indicator of dehydration.
In addition to his neglect of Maily, Fane stole money from the state by falsifying records which made it seem like he was using state money to care for Maily.
The Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal releases a statement
Fain also lied about using Maily during investigations of various crime scenes. In many cases, he wrote reports where he introduced Maily, an accelerant-detection dog, to a crime scene to detect if accelerants were present. In one case, he would later change the report to say that Maily was not present. After his arrest, the department for which Fain previously worked released a statement:
“Outright neglect and abuse like this will not be tolerated or excused,” Browning continued. “These actions alleged against Robert Fain are the actions of one individual and are not reflective of the dedication our handlers have to their K-9 partners nor of our agency’s commitment to public safety and abating arson.”
Here is a video with more on this horrific story of betrayal and abuse.
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