Comments on: Puppycide

By: SayUncle » Shooting to kill an animal

SayUncle » Shooting to kill an animal — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:52:52 +0000

[...] A necessary skill for police. I agree that it is a necessary skill. I just wish the police would stop defaulting to shooting the dog. [...]

By: It looks like John Barlow was right « No Truce With Kings

It looks like John Barlow was right « No Truce With Kings — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:50:15 +0000

[...] often documents police and prosecutors’ abuses — with a special focus on what he calls puppycide. (That’s one of his many posts on the [...]

By: Sick Puppy: Cop Buries Dog Alive After Beating It | Cop Block

Sick Puppy: Cop Buries Dog Alive After Beating It | Cop Block — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:54:43 +0000

[...] he proceeded to try and put the dog out of its misery, not with a bullet (as is police SOP for just about any contact with a citizen’s loyal canine companion), but by beating it with a garden tool. [...]

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:32:36 +0000

A friend lost his dog when he was a kid, because the cops mixed up the address on a drug bust. The meth lab had the last two digits swapped. The narcotics dept. trashed the house, and shot the dog while no one was home. Not exactly a pleasant experience when you come home from school.

Bad things happen, and it does make me nervous for my dog should the cops screw up, but if there’s ever a problem, the first people I would call are the cops.

By: Rhys Southan

Rhys Southan — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:42:23 +0000

Do you think cops got the idea for this from No Country for Old Men?

By: adele_h

adele_h — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:45:57 +0000

last night (New Years Eve)the police were getting out of their car on a neighborhood street full of ppl, when they seen our neighbors family dog mingling w/ the family & neighbors. The dog instantly started barking but kept it’s distance. One officer pulled his gun out & shot Bucky twice. Everyone was traumatized b/c it was like watching a human die the teens said. There was barely anything left to the dog’s leg yet he painfully & quietly dragged himself across to his home, thru the gate, to the back yard & half way up the long porch stairs when he collapsed. they said there was a huge pool of blood & a bloody trail where he drug himself. Ppl were sceaming & crying & who ever (SPCA?) was called to come help the dog never came. Hours later the dog died. After the cop shot Bucky they just got back in his car & drove off but kept coming around the block looking over at him. They said it was obvious the cop felt bad & looked scared.

By: Amused Observer

Amused Observer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:41:43 +0000

If you recall, the Randy Weaver situation blew up over law enforcement killing dogs. If someone shot a cop after his dog was shot he could only hope and pray I was on the jury.

By: TBoneJones

TBoneJones — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 06:24:03 +0000

If they didn’t charge the guy with ADW that would mean they would have to be accountable for shooting the guys dog. Maybe even apologize. (Or, maybe not because I think they changed the law a while back to where they can shoot dogs if they “feel” threatened even when they’re trespassing. No wait, here’s no such thing as trespassing in Cali when it comes to law enforcement.) Not sure what it’s like in the rest of the country but I’ve never heard of any law enforcement agency in San Diego apologize or accept responsibility for anything (even when they blow it). Way better to just bust the guy. Then, they can make a deal they won’t prosecute if he doesn’t sue

By: richard

richard — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 06:18:26 +0000

You know I know several police officers not one who has ever shot a animal. What is this media outlet your quoting never heard of it, is it credible I would like to know where you get your facts. Several of these comments sound like resentment we as a people resent the people who enforce the laws its human nature. But if alot of the people posting these comments want to change things I know most police departments are hiring.

By: Cynical In CA

Cynical In CA — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:00:05 +0000

From the police perspective, from a tactical point of view, I think the dog is viewed as dangerous in a secondary way, not as a primary method of attack. A suspect could release the dog as a diversion, forcing the officer(s) to deal with the dog first while the suspect targets the officers with a firearm. I think this is the tactical justification for police eliminating the dog from the equation as soon as possible and without prejudice.

Y’all know me, I’m completely unsympathetic to the police, but viewed pragmatically, it is hard to reach any other conclusion.

And as long as there is a super-agency unaccountable down the chain, this situation will persist.

By: John Wilburn

John Wilburn — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:53:05 +0000

What I’m wondering is, are there any incidences on record where a dog attacked and killed, or seriously (as in life-threatening) injured a police officer? It seems to me, in order for this (shooting dogs) to be an acceptable practice (established police department procedure), there must, first of all, be justification, in the form of frequent occurences of police death and/or injuries, from attacking dogs.
The scariest part of all of this, is that police seem to be of the opinion that in order to successfully enforce the law, it is necessary for them to violate it. This goes back to the question, “Do we even need cops?”
I would submit, that since they feel that they are above, therefore, not subject to the law, that we can easily and readily do without them…

By: LRW

LRW — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:46:51 +0000

Does anyone know if there are other countries where this is not a problem?

By: Tokin42

Tokin42 — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:10:55 +0000

I mistakenly posted this in the wrong thread just a second ago, sorry about that….

Last month police tore down a section of privacy fence in my folks back yard looking for a guy who had stabbed someone in a nearby neighborhood. 6 cops and what looked like a dutch shepherd came crashing through and ran into my folks dog, a very high energy 2 yr old australian shepherd. He’ a great dog but his desire to play overrules everything with him. He’s barely out of his pup stage and he thinks every dog he meets wants to run and roughhouse. They have a pretty large yard and he came running at them at a dead run for awhile so they had a chance to think about it. He went right for their dog and stopped ready to play. My dad said the officers dog seemed up to playing but the other cops were kinda busy. 30 seconds later when my dad made it outside the cops were trying to keep the two dogs separated. They asked him if he would bite and then politely asked him to take the dog inside while they worked.

When dad called to tell me that the cops broke down his fence the first thought I had was they shot my folks dog. How sad is it that a situation like this where cops DON’T shoot the dog is an incredible story? Cop shoots dog stories are so frequent that I felt compelled to send a letter of thanks for the officers using good judgment when they were already obviously amped up a bit. Until people start paying attention to this and making their voices heard on the local level this is not going to stop.

By: Red Green

Red Green — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:09:48 +0000

The Humane Society and Peta, among others, would call it a felony.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:07:16 +0000

From the other Kalamazoo dog shooting:

http://blog.mlive.com/kzgazette/2008/07/dog_owner_asks_for_answers_aft.html

“He noted that the way the officer was canvassing the area for possible witnesses to the break-in was standard procedure.”

Screw knocking on the door! Go around back and start snooping around first! Because, obviously, it’s standard procedure to kill all dogs in the area.

Since when is snooping around in some guy’s back yard when he’s home standard procedure?

By: Blurm

Blurm — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:34:13 +0000

Would it be wrong to find out where all the cops in these towns live and go around shooting their dogs?

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:21:22 +0000

Surely few of these dogs are puppies. So why not a more accurate term than “puppycide”?

By: witless chum

witless chum — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:22:10 +0000

http://www.mlive.com/kzgazette/news/index.ssf/2008/12/police_shooting_of_dog_being_i.html

Another from Kalamazoo. Second in a year. Both were basically the same situation, where cop comes on property investigating unrelated crime, dog runs at them and they shoot it.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:32:34 +0000

Here’s a slightly different take:

6 cops in plain clothes with no warrant go to a house where a meth lab is.

These are cops. In their minds, they’re the hero of the little guy, so long as the little guy worships them, that is.

(Note, I didn’t say ‘suspected meth lab’, as far as these guys are concerned, there’s a meth lab there and it’s their sworn duty to protect their innocent fans.)

All our heroes need now is probable cause! Anything will do… an obstinate homeowner, a broken window, a wierd smell…

Dang! Noone answered the door. We don’t have a warrant, so we’ll go around back and snoop around…

A barking dog that’s coming right at us! Ka-ching! Instant probable cause! Blam! Blam!

Homeowner: “WTF!!! My Dog!”

Sir, you’re under arrest for some micky mouse charge…

Ka Ching! No warrant search! Score!

And guess what! The assholes ‘investigating’ the incident think the same way! So it’s no wonder “No wrongdoing was found” and “The officers followed procedures”.

By: annemg

annemg — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:25:34 +0000

Even worse is that these cops are firing in neighborhoods when they don’t need to be. In my experience, cops are worse shots (by far) than the average gun owner. Half the time they can’t even keep it on the paper. Think of the implications of that.