I sympathize with the dog owner, but he did deserve a citation for speeding or reckless driving or whatever it is at “at nearly 100 miles an hour”.

But the cop was also a jackass. I don’t know if he should have driven the owner and dog to the vet or escorted him in (certainly would have been nice) and then written up the citation, but there’s no way it should have taken that long to write up the citation.

And, the officer’s comments were way out of line.

On that [taped police] video, Officer Paul Stephens can be heard saying, “It’s a dog, okay? You can get another one. Relax.”

Oh, yeah? By that logic, “It’s a traffic citation, okay? You can write another one.” I don’t suppose the officer would have found that reasoning to be especially compelling.

In Ohio it’s a third-degree felony if you assault a police dog or horse and it ends in death. “Serious physical harm” is a fourth-degree felony. No serious harm and it’s a first-degree misdemeanor.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-15-1229365255_x.htm

A cop left his dog in his car in Arizona and it died. He would have faced at the most a misdemeanor–six months of jail or $2,500 fine. He was acquitted.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VALQ4O2&show_article=1

In Miami, two police officers were charged for the deaths of their dogs. One starved one to death and is facing animal cruelty charges. The other kicked the dog to death and is facing felony charges. For some reason, I can’t find anything about the actual trials.

http://kdka.com/local/police.dog.jail.2.375857.html

Kenneth King of Pittsburgh got nine days in jail, bond set at $100000. In the article you’ll see that alleged murderers are set at $20000.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/p/e/peconner/crime.html

Ricardo Culberson of Miami (though guilty of other crimes) bit a police dog, a third-degree felony.

In some states, killing a police dog is the same as killing a police officer and prosecuted as such.

http://dogsinthenews.com/issues/0109/articles/010930b.htm

Why no mention under ethics of canning the corrupt dept head who shielded the bad cop? Oh, yeah — we wanted to get to the important stuff, like Sarah’s workout routine.

That was mentioned on the first page of the article. Somehow this moron figured that out.

‘It’s virtually impossible to believe a word this sheriff says. After all, he’s lying about the legitimacy of the raid in the first place:

“They had a legitimate court order to be there,” he said. “Unfortunately, we had to engage the animals, but that engagement was justified.”

Nice spin. In fact, the police did not have a court order to conduct a no-knock raid on Calvo’s home. While they may have had a legal right to “be there,” the raid itself was illegal — meaning that in any just environment, any harm that was caused from the outset of the raid on would also be illegal.’

http://bothwell.typepad.com/whos_your_nanny/

The mayor’s family adopted another lab and named him ‘Marshall’- hopefully, they’ll soon be able to say, ‘There’s a new sheriff in town!’

Why no mention under ethics of canning the corrupt dept head who shielded the bad cop? Oh, yeah — we wanted to get to the important stuff, like Sarah’s workout routine.

“Pretty useful,” I suppose — if you’re a moron.

In an amazing piece of news that I’m absolutely sure nobody saw coming, a sheriff’s office internal investigation have found that the officers who shot Mayor Cheye Calvo’s dogs did nothing wrong. Who could’ve seen that coming?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090402746.html?hpid=moreheadlines

I don’t know if calling a novel twist on puppycide is completely fair, though the police obviously could have been more sensitive to the issue.

The first officer didn’t even try to help. If the dude was too distraught to drive, put him and the dog in the patrol car and take them to the vet. Then write him a ticket while the dog is getting treatment.

Yeah….. of course…

:(