DENVER – There is no doubt Tim Neville, the Republican Senator who represents parts of Boulder, Denver, Gilpin and Jefferson counties, is considered one of the most conservative members of the Colorado General Assembly; his passion comes through on every civil liberties or free market bill he either sponsors or supports.
Neville says, however, that is first and foremost passions are God and Family, and it was family that pushed him recently to put his signature on something other than legislation. Thursday Neville Tweeted out an urging to his followers to sign a petition to save Capone the dog.
Colorado Senate Republicans put the petition up on their website and Neville was quick to Tweet it out.
“Sometimes it’s local government which goes out of control,” Neville’s Tweet said in part.
Capone is the German Shepard mix an Aurora family rescued from the Adams County Animal Shelter a decade ago. Capone jumped his fence and was picked up by animal control who is now holding the dog pending blood work and court hearings because officers think the dog is a part wolf.
The family has vowed to fight the charges that could send the dog to a sanctuary or force euthanasia.
As of Saturday afternoon, there were 369 signatures on the petition.
“Didn’t all dogs start from wolf at some point?” Neville said Friday from his office on Sherman Street in Denver. “Free Capone! Save Capone! Some people may think it’s kind of a fun thing, but when government tears apart a family — I mean, that’s these people’s family. It’s so unnecessary. There are only a few things I don’t like. I don’t like bullies. I don’t like cronyism. And I don’t like government when it does things that probably, if it were pragmatic, I think it would never do.”
