Posted on 06/04/2010 7:45:54 AM PDT by JoeProBono
A report of a dog crying in distress can constitute an emergency that justifies police entering a home without a warrant, a state appeals court ruled Thursday in upholding a Los Angeles County man's conviction for animal cruelty.
In appealing Keith Chung's conviction and 16-month prison sentence, his lawyer argued that officers may disregard the normal requirement that they obtain a search warrant only if a human life is at stake.
But the Second District Court of Appeal said that although pets are considered personal property, protecting them is a legitimate government concern.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Hey, that pic looks like my female pug, Harley.
More erosion of our rights. My dog cries in distress every time I leave the house. This doesn’t give the government a right to circumvent the Constitution.
“a dog crying in distress can constitute an emergency that justifies police entering a home without a warrant, “
I agree. A dog crying in distress definitely indicates that something is wrong — the dog owner’s could be in trouble, the dog could be alone in trouble, or, as in this case, the dog could be in process of being abused.
1. The criminal is a disgusting scum, and I wish the police had followed proper procedures to put him where he belongs for a long time.
2. There are a lot of "legitimate government concerns", but such concerns do not in general justify violations of the Constitution.
3. That is a very cute dog!
If the system for obtaining a warrant is too inefficient and burdensome to deal with this situation, the solution is not to subvert the Constitution but to fix the system.
What is the police presence at the door causes the “distress” (i.e. barking), can they then just walk in?
Or a dog could merely be whining because they are crated/penned up. One of my German Shepherds does this, she’ll boo hoo and cry and you swear she’s dying but she just wants her way but for her safety she needs to be secure when we’re gone otherwise she’ll try to escape the house and find us. Sorry but this is too much of a slippery slope.
How else do you expect the cops to shoot them?
...and promptly shoot the dog. Dog hunting seems to be a policeman’s sport these days.
OH, I hear a dog in distress
Many of them do get off on it....
The law says police doens’t need a warrant, IF they have reasonable cause — dog crying in distress does mean there is something wrong in there, and is just cause, NOT a violation of the Constitution.
Anyone around dogs knows that they cry very differently for different reasons.
The neighbor called the cops — people who live next to dog owners become familiar with the sounds as well, and certainly police can also tell the difference. People do have a capability to make a judgment.
Well, I certainly don’t like it when police over react and shoot a dog in the owner’s yard or house.
BUT this time they saved a dog and put a criminal dog-abuser in jail. How about giving them some credit, that they did NOT ignore the neighbor’s report and the dog’s cries?
Joesixpack — sorry my post 17 was meant for Joe 6-pack.
I don't quite agree. If he thought it was a human voice, that would be different. If he knew it was a dog, it could simply be that a dog on a diet wanted more food, that the dog was lonely for company, or almost anything. He needed a warrant if he knew it was a dog, unless other sounds indicated physical violence in progress [which could be interpreted as the possibility that a dog was being abused as it defended its human owner from an attack, justifying a warrantless entry].
Please see my post 16.
Also, the law does NOT say that police can enter the house without a warrent, IF a HUMAN voice is crying, but it is leaving it to the judgment of the police officer, whether there is some indication that would justify entering the house without a warrant.
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