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I have a Shepherd and a very large yard (7 acres) and usually don't have a problem. I never let her go outside un-tethered unless I'm with her. She has unfortunately decided to chase a couple of rabbits off the property and I've had to go out in the car to find her, its scary. She is a wonderful, gentle as can be sweetheart but her bark sounds awful and would scare the crap out of anybody. If a cop were to shoot her I think it would kill me.
I have a training collar on her now, even on the leash I don't let her out without the collar being on and tested. The collar has a beep mode and vibrate mode and a shock mode. I took the shock mode off so she couldn't be accidentally shocked. When she hears the beep or feels the vibrate even when chasing a varmint she stops and comes running back.
If you have an animal you love you better treat it responsibly or you could lose it, but, I have no time for cops that kill dogs. They have so many other means to stop a dog attack they don't need to kill it. Use your baton, club or taser, fine the owner but don't kill a dog, that is just stupid. For an animal control officer to be in a position to have to kill an animal is triple stupid.
There have been way too many dogs shot at the hands of cops. I don't know that I agree with you in this instance. From the article:
"Brewer said the dog “charged the animal control officer” after officers knocked, startling the animal control officer and forcing him to fall off the porch on his back, hitting his head. “The animal control officer tried to kick the dog away,” said Brewer. “The dog lunged in the air toward the animal control officer and the patrol officer standing by shot the animal.”
So, the animal control guy was on his back and the dog was apparently attacking him (or "playing roughly" as its owner would say). I don't blame them for shooting the dog. Yeah, they may have been able to avoid shooting, but I blame the owner who seems to have been quite nonchalant about his dog's comings and goings and rough playing.
My dog was attacked a couple of months ago by two large dogs, one of which was a German Shepherd. I'm walking my dog on his leash down the sidewalk when two large dogs come bounding out of the front door of the house we were passing. One grabbed onto my dog's collar, and the GS had hold of his leg. I had my concealed .38 in my pocket and had it halfway out of my pocket (I have shot a dog that attacked my dog in the past). Fortunately, I was abled to fight off the dogs by kicking and screaming until the owner eventually came out of his front door. He had the same piss-poor attitude as the owner in the story. Didn't ask if my dog and I were alright. Just said "sorry, man, they just got out", as if it was the dogs' fault and not his. There are way too many people with large dogs who have a half-assed attitude about keeping them under control. I was able to avoid shooting the dogs, but I would not have had any problem shooting them if the situation got out of control and I had not gotten them to release my dog (a much smaller corgi)
Animal control shows up to serve notice to an owner about an attack his animal made on a minor (even if the owner doesn’t think it was an attack.) An officer is sent with him due to the animal’s history. They knock, the dog comes charging out of a trailer. Dog gets shot...
Owner claims it is a service animal, no valid paperwork found to verify that (betcha they bought the kit off the internet or at a swap meet), doesn’t appear the dog has had much of any training (especially with the repeated attacks and escapes.)
All in all, every ingredient for a disaster and luckily no one else was hurt.
I abhor the stories where cops show up, enter a private yard then execute the dog when all the cop had to do was leave the yard, and either verbally call to the owner (funny thing how cars have loudspeakers) or use a phone (amazing how these things work) to handle their animal so that business can continue.
But when a dog with a known problem comes barreling through a doorway, I’m not going to blame the officer for not using some other method. That isn’t a condition where retreat was a valid option especially with someone down and exposed.
The owner should have taken steps to control their animal, I’m sorry that the dog paid for the owner’s negligence. And if he had the audacity to present fake service animal documents to police, I hope they throw the book at him.