“Is this cop a psychopath?”
Possibly not as much as you might think. Not all dogs act the same.
While golden retrievers are not aggressive by nature, there are several possible reasons why they might show aggression. Any dog can be possessive, try to assert dominance, be afraid or in pain, or come from a background of abuse or neglect.
It could have appeared to the cop that the dog was advancing on him and the cop was afraid of the dog. Just because a dog approaches someone doesn’t make it a safe approach all the time depending on history and treatment.
Example, I was exercise running while in the military with my daughter on a bicycle on my right next to the curb and we were approached from the other direction by a woman on a bicycle with her dog leashed on her right. My daughter was a few feet in front of me, still on my right, when the woman’s dog crashed into her trying to get to my daughter and knocked the woman down. She held the leash and the dog was cut off short. But there was no warning, no growling, no bearing off teeth, or any other behavior that I could see that preempted that.
It can happen. And an animal moving toward a person without knowledge of the animal can be considered threatening. The article mentioned the incident happened at a scene. A scene of what? We have no idea what happened prior to the cops arrival. Need more information.
wy69
I understand that the cop may have panicked when he saw the dog moving towards him. I understand that some think the first shot may be somewhat justified in that case. But to keep shooting the wounded animal when it was crawling away?