In brief: Corgi owners rally around slain dog

BELLINGHAM – Corgi owners around the nation are rallying around a slain Bellingham dog, calling for the harshest penalty for the man charged with killing Molly, a Pembroke Welsh corgi.

A Facebook page called “Justice for Molly the Corgi” has garnered nearly 5,000 followers as of Saturday. The corgi owners are spearheading a letter-writing campaign to the Whatcom County prosecutors’ office, imploring them to seek the harshest penalty against David William Latham, 55.

“When writing letters, push for the harshest penalties for this case but BE RESPECTFUL,” one of the Facebook posts said.

Latham was charged Friday with first-degree animal cruelty and two misdemeanors: brandishing a weapon and second-degree criminal trespassing.

On Sept. 13, Latham was annoyed at a barking dog, so he armed himself with a rifle, walked across the street, aimed over a fence and shot Molly in front of her owners Cary Chunyk and Loyce Andrews. Molly was not the dog barking, charging documents said.

Sexual predators target of stings

EUGENE, Ore. – More than 80 men responded within three hours to an ad on social media that was written by an undercover Eugene police detective pretending to be a teenage girl.

The sting was part of a continuing police effort to stop predatory pedophiles that has yielded eight arrests this summer, the Register-Guard reported.

“We’ve had the opportunity to capture more, it’s just literally a labor-intensive process,” Sgt. Scott McKee said. “The response that we get is pretty shocking.”

The eight men who have been arrested since July range in age from 21 to 46.