Councilman Shoots 2 Dogs; Mayor Says She Told Him To

A Parker city councilman shot two dogs last week, killing one, just two weeks before he had been scheduled to go on trial for the shooting of a $20,000 Seeing Eye dog last October.

But Mayor Vickie Frisby said Councilman Corey Statham was only carrying out city business in the eastern Idaho town of about 300 people when he and city employee Phil Platts shot two dogs owned by Leon Rhodehouse.

The dogs “have been a nuisance in the county and had been for a very long time,” Frisby said. Statham “was simply following an assignment given to him by the city.”

Statham declined comment.

In October, he said he felt bad about shooting the specially trained Seeing Eye dog owned by Wayne Edlefsen, 43, after it had roamed into his yard. Statham said he did not realize its value and said he shot it because he was tired of having stray dogs in his yard.

Statham also shot a dog owned by Edlefsen’s son-in-law. It was severely wounded and had to be destroyed.

A few weeks after that shooting, Statham was elected to the City Council. Frisby said she gave him the assignment of killing Rhodehouse’s dogs after the owner had refused to act on numerous complaints from neighbors.

Statham oversees law enforcement as one of his assignments on the council. And unlike Parker’s three other council members, he works in the town and is available for such assignments, Frisby said.