Posted on 07/09/2013 10:37:24 PM PDT by Altariel
An off duty police officer has shot his neighbour's dog dead in front of it's 12-year-old owner, after it allegedly attacked him and his wife.
The Fitzhenry family, from Harris County, Texas, say their beloved boxer dog, Gunner - who they described as a big softie - was shot by the off-duty Houston police officer on Friday along a pathway.
Houston Police Department Officer Mark Condon claims the four-year-old dog charged at him and his wife, after it escaped from the Fitzhenry's garden by accident.
But according to 12-year-old Dalton Fitzhenry, who family say treated the dog like a brother, the pet had only wanted to play.
The Fitzhenry family, from Harris County, say their beloved boxer dog, Gunner, was shot by an off-duty Houston police officer on Friday along a pathway
They say the four-year-old dog escaped from their garden by accident after their children opened the gate and went to pick up a ball they had been playing with
Mr Condon, said: 'The dog charged us and attacked me, my wife and one of our dogs.'
He fired at the dog, striking it in the neck, Khoun.com reports.
He claim details of the injuries he, his wife, and dog suffered, have been recorded by police.
The Fitzhenrys said Gunner was one of the family and losing the animal was like 'losing an older brother' for their children. They now plan to lodge a formal complaint with HPD.
Dalton, 12, said the officer had shot the dog at point blank range. The animal died on the way to a vet.
He added: 'He just pulled it out, like, point-blank range and shot.
'Gunner didn’t have the chance to run.'
Dalton’s parents said the boy was screaming and crying as he watched the ordeal.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This cop is a menace.
Cops really need a remedial course on interpreting dog behavior along with laws to hold them criminally responsible for shooting same.
It is possible that this isn’t just another one of the many ‘cop shoots dog’ stories. It is possible that the dog actually did attack those people. And I know that if a large dog attacked a family member of mine, I would shoot it.
Dog: bark
Cop: *bang*. It threatened me!
"The officer claims he fired at the dog, because it injured both himself and his wife, and also his dog. But according to 12-year-old Dalton Fitzhenry, the pet had only wanted to play."
Note the kid does not deny that the dog injured the other people and their dog. He is claiming the dogs intentions were misunderstood.
Sorry, but if a dog runs out, attacks, me, my wife and my dog and I have a gun, I am using that gun.
Take a look at the dog also, that does not look like a warm cuddly pup to me.
I am making no conclusions here, but right now I am leaning towards the cop.
one has to remember that a pit bull can be a big “softy” to its owners and kill the little girl next door. I don’t know what exactly happened here but if I was armed and a Boxer or any big dog attacked me, he is going to die.
I have been looking around at the various news archives here. Do you know that going back more than 10 years I cannot find a single incident of a Japanese cop shooting a dog? Not a single one. Zero.
Now, granted, Japanese do not usually go for big dogs — at least not in the cities — and overall gun ownership is very very low — although all police do carry them — but still...
These stories out of America are just coming too fast and furious to be happenstance. I wonder what the figures are for Canada, Mexico, or even Brazil. What the hell is going on????
There seems to be a lot of them lately. A couple years ago it was shark stories. Now it's cop bang dead dog.
I live in a neighborhood with lots of dogs and dog owners. I cannot tell you how many times some huge dog has lunged at me & my dog, foam spraying out of its mouth, while the owner is behind it claiming it’s “friendly.” I do not wish to hurt anyone’s dog, but if one bites me, all bets are off. I also reserve the right to protect myself BEFORE I get bit.
Well there’s another future fan of the police force.
Cops need to stay off private property.
I HATE it when cops or pseudo cops come on my property w/o a warrant or exigent circumstances.
As time progresses, trespass will not turn out well.
If there are no injuries to the cop, his family or dog then the cop seems guilty to me.
But right now he claims there are injuries which are recorded and no one has refuted the existence of that documentation YET.
The piece is naturally tragic - either an innocent dog was shot or an attacking dog was shot - it was still traumatic and the dog is dead.
The article seems crafted to slant (i.e., if it bleeds, it leads).
FOr example - the family may call the dog a Big Softy but all that tells us is that the dog was big and that it was kind to family members. If it did attack the other people and their pet - then it was not considered a Big SOfty by them. I was pinned against a fence by a “big softy” while it snarled and barked angrily and inched closer to me. The family laughed and said it was a big softy but had to fight to get it inside because it was so intent on threatening me it didn’t respond to any of their commands. They had to haul it in like they were dragging a log and I had to hope that the cheap leash and collar combo held.
They stress that the dog was shot in front of the child who loved it (and that sounds so cruel) - but that would happen if it were a genuine attack or if it were a cop over reacting. I am skeptical here because I doubt a cop would want to see the look on his family’s face if he shot someone’s dog for no reason.
The article notes that the kids accidentally let the dog out when retrieving a ball. Certainly this is innocent but is that all the restraint they put on their big dog? I mean the children are free to use that gate and children often do leave gates and doors open when they are playing so there’s apparently not much restraint on the dog to begin with. “He got out” is in almost every dog attack story I read. I’d need more info to know for sure who was at fault.
The kid says the cop just shot the dog at point blank range and that it didn’t have time to run. Unfortunately a dog would not know to run from a pointed gun - if it was at point blank range then it wasn’t leaving these people alone.
At present I doubt the cop shot a playing dog in front of his own family. If he did - then bust him but the fact that other creep cops have shot dogs without the need to do so doesn’t prove this one did so.
All cops are a menace.
Some just more lethally so.
Their pensions and benefit packages are on course to bankrupt many a municipality/county/state.
Giving union parasites a badge and a gun is just the second of two really bad ideas.
This happened last Friday. I would think that with this thing going viral, the police would have had gotten the documentation out there long before now.
Where is it?
cops shooting dogs stories are outpacing friendly pit bull kills someone stories.
I note that most serial killers started off torturing and killing animals...
So sad that you think that. I have been around Boxers all my life and I have a strong suspicion that the "it's OK, I'm a Cop" acted aggressive and threatening to Gunner before anything else. Boxers, above any other breed, are stalwart protectors of women and children. The pathway was not Gunners territory, so he would not have had an animal motivation to attack Officer Mark Condon's family.
If the policeman was injured, I want to see the photos of his wounds and I would also like to know if the policeman's dog was a pit bull or other breed known to be used as an attack dog.
Maybe not
July 2nd:
http://blog.dogsbite.org/2013/07/2013-dog-bite-fatality-liberty-county.html
June 26:
http://blog.dogsbite.org/2013/06/2013-dog-bite-fatality-chained-pit-bull.html
Might be a tie?
Maybe it happens, but I don’t ever recall hearing about anybody but a cop shooting someone’s dog. Not once. Ever.
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