A few days ago in Salt Lake City a dog was shot while an officer was looking for a “lost child”. The officer unlatched a gated yard where a dog was penned and when the dog approached him “aggressively” he shot the dog. He did not have a warrant to be on the property.
There is an accompanying video of the owner confronting the police officers that remained on the scene. He berated them for the incident and was understandable shaken. He asked a very simple question: “Why couldn’t you back off?”
Incidents like this make me so upset because some people just don’t understand or care that there are people who value their pets as family. I feel as though in the officer’s mind he shot a malfunctioning lawn mower. He is ignoring all the time this poor man must have spent with this dog. The times he was beaten down, frustrated and out-of-luck and the dog lifted his spirits.
Did the officer care about any of that? And even if he didn’t…why are we giving such trigger-happy people the authority to carry out the law? I know police officers are fallible…I’m not naive. But at what point did the officer consider his options?
I have to give Sean Kendall a hand because I might have lost my temper if I came home to find my dog dead. I hate to get graphic…but just imagine. You put your dog up “safe” for the day inside. You try to be a responsible owner. Then someone goes out of their way to cause you grief, and now you have to clean your dog’s brains off the back lawn. The back lawn the two of you probably used to play on. Ugh
Police officer will get off the hook quickly with, “i considered my life in danger and didn’t hesitate to use the force I felt appropriate.” I would have assumed there’s some protocol in this situation when investigating a house or property when there is a dog on the premise (like calling animal control?) I guess it’s a possibility the dog was hidden away, he walked onto the property and was caught off guard.
I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum as you when it comes to animals. When I see on the news that a highway was shut down for hours as police/animal control try to chase after a dog I get frustrated that they didn’t just shoot the dog and not lose millions of dollars in the economy by things not being delivered, people late for work, etc. I am not a pet owner, and never will be, I just find the whole custom odd.
It seems to me that dogs are friendly to us because they were instrumental in society at some point. We cannot just turn our backs on them now that they aren’t “convenient” or useful. But I can understand why you wouldn’t want them personally.
And from a property standpoint…don’t you feel a little outrage there? The cop went onto this guy’s property without a warrant and then damaged his property.
I really think they should fire the cop over this, and I’d especially like to see that he never works with a gun again. Ideally he wouldn’t even be allowed to carry a lethal weapon anymore.
Even if you’re not an animal lover, taking the story at face value, there’s a number of other ways the officer could have approached the situation. He could have used non-lethal force, he could have called for backup or gotten animal control on the scene. Even if the dog was aggressive, which is reasonably likely given that he was entering the property, it just makes me question that much more why he’d think a kid might have gotten into the yard without letting the dog out and not been attacked by the dog, and why his first response is to discharge a firearm, which runs the risk of collateral damage.
It seems to me that the pet owner has a legitimate gripe, it’s hard to say whether I’d think he should be fired, but certainly he should at least be disciplined and the station should compensate the owner, though I’m sure there will be arguments over what appropriate compensation for the dog is.
I was all ready to back the cops on this. Missing child vs not shooting dog…missing child wins. But if they didn’t…I mean…JESUS!!! How could you not search the house and the grounds FIRST before trotting off the the neighbor’s yard??
I’m generally not litigious, but holy crap would I try to sue the hell out of that police department/officer. That, or maybe get arrested for assaulting him. Doubt I could do both.
Whether or not the officer felt his life was in danger is invalid, he was trespassing. He did not have a warrant, he did not have reasonable cause, so why did he not just go to the door and ask the homeowner if he could search the yard and give the homeowner the chance to contain the dog? And the fact that the kid was at home the entire time … I mean, WTF?! They didn’t even check there first?
Note to the parents: Lock the fucking basement door so your THREE-YEAR OLD CHILD doesn’t have access to all the toxic chemicals and power tools. Just a thought.
Cops shoot and kills dogs all the time. It’s almost SOP for cops to kill the dog (I know not really, but it happens enough to make it seem that way). If you kill a police dog - I think that carries the same penalties as if it were a human police officer. If they kill your dog, tough shit.
The dog’s owner wasn’t home. He got a call at work saying that his dog was dead.
And it didn’t say if anyone else was at home, but I don’t consider a dog left in the yard while his owner is absent to be “safe.” Anything can, and unfortunately did, happen to this dog and his owner. Now, I don’t know the circumstances, but when I leave the house, I leave the dog inside it. But I don’t leave him alone for eight hours, and he’s a pretty well-behaved dog. He’s calm, doesn’t chew things up, and doesn’t go to the bathroom inside. I know that when I come home, I won’t have to clean up after him. But I know that dogs and owners are different. Maybe he didn’t want to leave the dog inside for eight hours, in which case I can see giving the dog access to the yard.
Still, I feel sorry for the owner for the loss of his dog. I can’t say he was negligent. I can’t say if the officer was justified in shooting the dog. I know it’s a sad situation all around and the dog and his owner are the victims.
I would. Initial response would be “Shoot the cop.” Followed by “Assault the cop.” Followed by (after getting bailed out of jail) “Sue the ass off the cop/department/city.”