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.
Well there’s another future fan of the police force.
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.
Maybe it happens, but I don’t ever recall hearing about anybody but a cop shooting someone’s dog. Not once. Ever.
Houston Police Officer Shoots and Kills Family Dog in Front of Two Children
On the evening of Friday, July 5, 2013 off-duty Houston police officer Mark Condon shot and killed a beloved family dog that belonged to his neighbor in front of two children.
Gunner was a family pet whose only mistake was following one of his little boys and a neighborhood friend into an open field adjacent to their home to retrieve a ball that had gone over the fence. Officer Condon, his wife, and dogs were taking a walk. Gunner spotted them, approached,and sniffed Officer Condon’s dogs. This “startled" his wife, who reportedly tripped and fell but was not injured. After the boys retrieved their ball, they called for Gunner, who started to head back with the boys. Officer Condon then drew his weapon and shot Gunner once in the neck. The boys, aged 12 and younger, were standing only about 15 feet away. They ran inside the house to get the boys mother, screaming and crying that Gunner had been shot.
Gunner died in their arms on the way to the vet’s office. Gunner was a sweet, goofy and friendly Boxer who loved everybody, especially the boys. No one was injured except for Gunner, who paid the ultimate price.
PLEASE HELP DEMAND JUSTICE FOR GUNNER. HPD must hold their officer responsible for his reckless, cruel, and inexcusable behavior!
Sign Petition:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/896/607/447/demand-justice-for-gunner/
What a frikkin’ coward. He shouldn’t be allowed near a firearm if all he knows how to do is shoot everything.
Bastard!
For the ping list.
One of these days...one of these cops trying to shoot an unarmed dog is going to experience some major brain splatter from a POed owner...and a jury will go sympathetic for the owner
I know LEOs are now trained to shoot dogs because the drug dealers use them to attack and protect dealers...but LEOs just willy nilly shooting dogs is getting to be way too much
Was this a gun free zone? Is discharging a firearm in public a crime? Did he endanger the lives of people/children nearby? Did he recklessly destroy someone’s property? Was he trespassing?
There are laws against this sort of behavior.
Time to start Steroid Testing for LEO’s.
I’d like to make two point here:
1). Don’t these officers also carry pepper spray? Why don’t they use that instead when their trigger finger gets itchy?
2). Studies have shown that children who abuse animals grow up to abuse humans. How long before the shooting of people becomes much more frequent? If the person show’s up dead, there will most likely be only one side to the story – the LEO’s.
Here’s the problem as I see it. The facts of each case are inevitably going to differ. But the problem is cultural.
In baseball culture it’s considered OK to scratch, spit and chew.
In Japanese culture it’s considered polite to bow.
In college fraternity culture drinking (even to excess) is considered cool.
In airline pilot culture it’s normal to speak in a Chuck Yeager drawl.
In cop culture, they are supposed to shoot dogs.
To me this is the real issue.
It’s time for these thugs with badges to start disappearing.
What the hell is this cop shooting this kid’s dog especially in front of him? What the hell are cops shooting family pets?