Cop Shoots Service Dog During Kid's Birthday Party

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Aside from the whole killing a dog for virtually no reason part, no one seems to have commented on the officers decision to discharge a firearm in a suburban neighborhood outside of a child's birthday party when his life most certainly was not in danger. If a citizen did that, they'd be looking at reckless endangerment at the least.

This bloke has some serious male dominance issues.

If this is the one I'm thinking of it was in Missouri. It was a late night/early morning no-knock SWAT team raid over suspicion of possession of pot. The dogs were behind a baby gate in another room. They were barking up a storm, of course, but didnt jump the gate. I believe one of them was a pit bull and could have easily jumped that gate if he wanted to. The cops, asswhipes that they were, shot the dogs without a second thought then go around pointing weapons at little kids as the cleared the rooms of the house. And if I remember right, the cops were mad at the guy for having the nerve to be mad at them for murdering his dogs.

Trust me when I say it didn't escape me. As a dog lover I was too wrapped up in the shooting of the dog and the general assholishness of the cop to comment on the negligent discharge of a firearm up to this point. It would be a good thing to save this for the next time one of our illustrious (< insert sarcasm) gun haters makes the childish comment that only trained police professionals are competent enough to carry and use a deadly firearm.

I figure if it was John Q Citizen that did that very same thing he'd be charged with all or any combination of but not limited to the following:
1) Unlawful brandishing of a firearm
2) Unlawful discharge of a firearm
3) Reckless endangerment
4) Animal cruelty
5) Destruction of private property
6) Trespassing (I believe armed trespassing is a felony in at least a few states)
For which he could lose his carry permit and/or spend some time in jail and/or pay heavy fines if found guilty.
Personally, I doubt that cop will be charged and probably won't lose his job over it. But because of this one moment of particularly bad judgment, his reputation as an individual and a cop and any respect he may have had as a cop is gone and will not be back in the foreseeable future.

Last edited by Raptor on 14 Feb 2014, 11:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

People have accused Park Rangers here of shooting dogs that have gotten onto park land.If you are hunting with dogs,they don't know the boundaries,they just follow their nose.It had been in the paper that a kid's pet goats got on park land and the rangers shot them without even trying to find the owners.The kid was raising them to show at the fair,they were tame and would have been easy to catch.Most people here have a grudge against park anyway,it seems like they would want better relations with the locals.

We should kill all cops by crushing them in their police cars, after they've be spent in a demolition derby, as they is what all of the thugs are good for. It would would even be better lock them in the trunk, and then run them, as the first hit will probably kill them, if you hit them back to back.

I've been just waiting for the right opportunity to argue for the one form of gun control that I unreservedly support; gun control for the police and federal law enforcement, the most dangerously incompetent gun handlers out there.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ABCiPJRCyA[/youtube]

Oldie but goodie.

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That was a classic. It gets even better when he wants one of his fellow cops to hand him and M4 and the kids loudly object.

Sorry. No love here. I say that dog was more of a pet than a true "service dog". A true service dog can cost upwards of $30K to train and be placed. What fool would let an expensive animal run around like that?

No dogs do not "just get out". In the States you are required to have control of you animal at all times, which mean on a leash or in an enclosed area. You can't just have your dog run round defending your property loose. The dog bites (not kills) someone, you can lose everything. I HAVE to have special rider in my rental insurance because I own a 14 lb Italian Greyhound.
It's because of idiots, who think having a dog is just food and water.

As for Labs being an easy dog. IF it comes from a non inbreeding breeding stock, IF you socialize the hell out of the puppy and give it decent training. Yes, Labs are good dogs. I've seen way too many untrained, fear biting Labs. My vet friends HATE 90% of the Labs that roll into their clinics. People have no clue how to handle them. They treat them like a Pug, and wonder why Thunder destroys the house, escapes and is basically crazy.

I've had dogs all my life. My friends are active breeders and show at shows like Westminster. When people are morons, the animal pays. This happened in Idaho, so I'm not surprise the police shot the dog. Anyway, since when is it the police job to become the Dog Whisper? Control your damn pet. Get a deer fence and run an hot wire if the dog is getting loose.

I don't live in the hood, and if an 80+ lb Lab was activing aggressive, and close enough where the police could kick the dog, they'd probably shoot it too.

This also gives service dogs a bad name. Where I used to rent, it had a no pet policy. They used to be easy about service dogs, until a few destroyed the rentals. Now you need a doctors note the and proof from a very short list of "service dog providers", that your job is actually trained for whatever the task is. Fools ruin things for everyone.

Sometimes the blame is squarely on the owner.We had to put down a wolf hybrid that belonged to the neighbors because it had clamped on to the neck of one of our goats.The owner let the dog roam at will and was away from home most of the time.Same for people who dump their animals out in the Styx to starve.Then it shows up at someone's house,fights their dogs and tries to kill the livestock.
A friend of years is in a bad situation right now with her neighbor,he has several Catahoula Cur dogs that he is training to be mean.The other day they chased her grandkid in the house.The dogs are loose and terrorizing the neighbor hood,there are no leash laws here.Its not the dogs fault the owner is an ass,but if the cops show up and this pack of dogs is aggressive,you just know it's going to end bad for the dogs.Some people just should not be allowed to have pets.

In the state of Montana, the law allows you to shoot a dog if it has been threatening your cattle and sheep or other animals you have. If the dog is going around barking at them and chasing them and causing a disturbance to them, the owner has the right to shoot the dog. People will be nice enough to inform you your pet is threatening their livestock so you can leash them up or train them but they don't even have to tell you this but they do just to be nice. The area I lived in, dogs have been shot and it happened before we moved there in the house my grandfather owned that he rented out and the person who rented it had his dogs shot by a neighbor because they were chasing cows and other animals. The neighbor had tried talking to them about it and they didn't listen so the person finally shot them.

There was a special case outside of Missoula when I was about 15 and there were these wolves and they were threatening someone's livestock and chasing them and hurting them but here was a problem, the owners couldn't shoot them because of the law about endangered species and the people had to go to court or something and someone else had to shoot the wolves for them. If they were just domestic dogs doing it, thy could shoot them no problem.

If you really love your dog, you would keep them locked in a kennel or leashed to keep them from chasing after the animals or leash them every time they do it or keep them in your home. You would try and train them too to not do it. I found locking my dog up every time she chased after deer taught her to not do it. My grandfather didn't like any dog chasing deer off his land and eating geese eggs. My cousin's dog was doing that and then mine was chasing deer and I started to lock her up every time and my uncle did the same and her being kept leashed while I was at work taught her to not harass the deer. Then when my parents had her when I moved, they saw how she left cows alone but sadly I had to get rid of her because they already had five other dogs and I didn't find it fair to make them keep her and I didn't know when I could have pets again so I told them they could give her away so they did. But some owners just do not care about their dogs and then are upset and surprised when they find out they were shot.

Well it would be the owners fault the dog is running around without a leash, not the dogs fault....also not sure if you watched the video, but its fairly clear the dog did not get 'agressive' till the cop provoked by screaming at it and kicking it. Also based on the fact the dog was running around I question if it truly was a trained 'service dog'....but even so it was pretty clear from the video the cop did not need to shoot the dog.

I think most states allow for shooting dogs that attack or harass livestock. Even if the law doesnt specifically allow for it they do it anyway. I can understand that because the dog is damaging expensive property. I'm a volunteer dog handler at the local Humane Society and our neighbor there is a horse farm with expensive horses. We have had dogs escape their handlers and go chase the horses around. Luckily, the owners of the farm have been understanding but we know that could come to an end and we'd have an occasional dead dog to deal with. We had a black mouthed cur and a doberman there and only a relative few handlers, me being one of them, were allowed to walk them because they were very strong and determined to go chase the horses.

When I was a kid we lived in a very rural area for X number of years. Everyone let their dogs roam free, although in retrospect it probably wasn't a very good idea. No one had any problems with it except for one neighbor up on the hill above us. They raised fighting chickens and claimed that our black lab was harassing the chickens and had killed one or two. It was BS because those chickens would roam down onto our property and s**t all over our yard and deck and that dog hardly even looked at them. We also had a curly haired mix breed female that would chase them off but never the lab. Those neighbors said they'd shoot our lab if he ever came back up there so my old man told them if that happened he'd shoot their expensive fighting chickens the next time they came down and s**t on our deck and yard. To make a long story short they didn't shoot our dog and we didnt shoot their chickens.

@Sweetleaf


That dog was not under the control of his owner. PERIOD. It's not up to the cop to play nice. I can get a citation for a $500 if my dog is unleashed and a cop is around. If it happens enough, the police take the dog away. If my home owners insurance finds out my dog is not under control, they will drop my coverage due to liability reasons. I can get evicted because my lease says I must have insurance coverage.

In a city, not too far from me, a woman was mauled to death by two Lab/German Shepard mixes, which some jackass couldn't control. The dogs would hop over the fence. The police killed one of the dogs, and are looking for another. The owner is up on manslaughter charges.

I jog carrying bear mace because morons don't train their dogs. People who by large sporting/working breed dogs and keep him in little suburban yards. Those animals were breed to work long, hard hours. Joe Critter Six Pack doesn't do s**t with them, so the dogs chase game, and run the neighborhood.

Do I think the cop needed to cap the dog? Probably not. The law is on his side. I know Idaho lets you cap dogs running loose, and you don't need to give a warning.

The owner is flat out ignorant, and the dog paid.

In the States, animals are considered property. If your horse, dog, pig, goats..whatever are out loose and being a PITA, the authorities have the right to kill them. You may get a second, third chance, you may not. I'm sure this isn't the first time Idaho dude's dogs were running loose. I'm bet he's more hacked that now he's part of family lore, "Remember the birthday party, when the dog got loose, and the office shot the dog..."

the law enforcement in this country are out of control.

I’m not Sweetleaf but I’ll answer anyhow.
I grew up with dogs just about from day one. I lost a dog to old age just last October. I’m also a volunteer dog handler for the Humane Society and I usually put in several hours a week doing that. I don’t claim to be an expert or a dog whisperer but I’ve put in my share time with dogs.


The dog was not under the control of his owner (neither of them were) but no one’s arguing that. Apparently, there was a history of the dogs not being kept at home and roaming and the owner should have been cited for it. The dog lover in me would have had the dogs inside participating in the birthday party that was supposedly going on at the time. It might be legal for the cop or even a citizen to shoot a dog in self-defense and I support that but this was not a case of self-defense. To anyone with two brain cells to rub together and any experience at all with dogs, those two dogs were only excited and nervous. All the dumb ass had to do was stand f*cking still and/or call the owners out to round their dogs up and put them inside. Having that done, write the citation THEN.
Doing it this way:
• The cop has done his job by issuing the $100 citation and walks away without blood on his hands.
• The owners will most likely do a much better job of keeping their dogs under better control OR face further con$equence$.
• The dog lives.
• The cop is not on suspension pending investigation findings.
• That cop has not made bitter enemies out of that whole family.
• The incident does not add to the growing mistrust and resentment of law enforcement.

WTF kind of communist country do you live in where you’d get a $500 fine for a mere leash violation? For a pet Bengal tiger maybe, but a domestic dog?



In a city not too far from everyone someone dies from something preventable every day. As common as dogs are in society, if they were generally as aggressive as you make them out to be the streets would be running red with blood.
Manslaughter charges? Did he sick the dogs on the woman? If the dogs attacked her on their own he’d at most get something like reckless endangerment or some kind of willful negligence charge and/or sued. I agree he should get hung from the yardarm either criminally or civilly. Maybe both.


Must be a hell of a neighborhood . I run, too, and have had several encounters with dogs of all sizes that have momentarily gotten free and come out on the street barking at me as I ran by. Each time they have been nothing more than curios, nervous, and/or excited. I just come to a stop, stand still, and don’t try to stare them down. This alone calms them down by at least 50% or more and some have let me pet them. The owner typically calls the dog back or comes out and takes them by the collar and apologies. No big deal and this has happened only a few times at my house with my last dog (a pit bull). She rarely ever barked, just walked up and sniffed them with her tail wagging. I was actually very astute in keeping an eye on her when I had her in the front yard or garage. My fear being that some nervous Nellie scaredy-cat would mace her or shoot her just for being a pit bull.
Really, I’ve had very few really scary encounters with dogs and that’s with a lot of exposure to dogs in all kinds of situations. The most I have ever had to do is kick one HARD when I was 14 to keep from being bitten. Rest assured that I will shoot a dog if I have to but only if I have to. For that matter I’ll do the same with people but only if I have to.

And the ruling after the investigation (there is one going on over this incident now) will probably be in favor of the cop, right or wrong. Even being technically legal and found justifiable in this case, that doesn’t help the police’s credibility, trust, or respect in that small town of 2500. John Q Citizen remembers things like that for a long time. Personally, I wouldn’t give a bucket of shi+ for that cop’s future wearing a badge in that little town. He f*cked up and everyone saw it, thanks to his dash cam and Youtube.


The owner was remiss in the control of his dogs and this wouldn't have happened if he’d been more responsible in his responsibilities as a dog owner. The cop exercised poor judgment and unprofessional conduct in his handling of it. Not only in how he handled the encounter with the dogs but his rather callous handling of the owner who was clearly in duress over what just happened.