There are very few things that can make you feel as bad as hearing about something horrible happening to a dog. They are such an important part of our lives that sometimes, we may feel more connected to them than we do to other humans. One of the many problems that can occur with dogs is for police to shoot them and sometimes, to do so without any real reason. A good example is this story that happened in 2014:
“A police officer in Filer, Idaho, explained the incident to a colleague minutes after it happened: “I get out to talk to the people, two dogs come around me, one of them’s growling and snarling. I kick it. It comes back around, now it’s growling and snarling. I kick it again. Then it lunges at me, I’m like, f— you. So, I just shot it.”
He doesn’t sound broken up.
Yes, Officer Tarek Hassani exited his car on a quiet suburban street, kicked a black labrador twice, shot the dog, and left it to die in a snowy driveway. And then?
He issued its angry, upset owner a $100 ticket for having it off-leash.”
This isn’t the only story but it has been a problem in many different areas. The fact of the matter is, there is no way to know how many pets are killed by police officers because there is not a running total kept in any formal database. The Puppycide Database, however, does try to track the death of pets when it occurs from police officers. It uses information found on social media and tips that are submitted by individual users. Over 3000 of those deaths have been documented.
According to a 2013 documentary, on average, a dog is killed by a police officer once every 98 minutes. That is perhaps what makes this week’s ruling from the Circuit Court in Michigan so shocking. It allows for police officers to kill any dog that does not sit silently when the police officer enters the home.
“A ruling from the 6th Circuit Court serves as a warning to dog owners: Teach your dog to sit still and be quiet or risk police justifiably shooting the dog.
Mark and Cheryl Brown petitioned the court to hold the city and police officers from Battle Creek, Mich., accountable for shooting and killing their dogs while executing a search warrant of their home looking for evidence of drugs. The plaintiffs said the police officers’ actions amounted to the unlawful seizure of property in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
The circuit court on Monday agreed with a lower court ruling siding with the police officers.”
In one particularly disturbing excerpt from the ruling, it described how the dog could be ‘justifiably’ shot by the cop:
“Officer Klein testified that after he shot and killed the first dog, he noticed the second dog standing about halfway across the basement. The second dog was not moving towards the officers when they discovered her in the basement, but rather she was “just standing there,” barking and was turned sideways to the officers. Klein then fired the first two rounds at the second dog.”
The second dog went to hide in a corner and then moved, so she was shot again by another police officer. She then went to hide behind the furnace and a third officer saw “blood coming out of numerous holes in the dog” and killed her with another shot.
These types of behaviors, including hiding, moving and barking are considered to be the “imminent threat to the officer’s safety” according to the judge. The officer was excused for what he did.
Apparently, the first dog ‘lunged’ at the officers, even though the one officer who started shooting admitted that the dog “had only moved a few inches” when the shooting started. That doesn’t sound like an eminent threat to me.
As a dog owner, I am deeply disturbed by what has happened. I firmly believe in the right to bear arms but this is taking things a little bit too far. Any dog, regardless of their training is going to react by at least barking when somebody breaks into the home.
I would say that no dog is safe any longer.