Posted on 03/09/2011 7:45:20 AM PST by Immerito
MONROE, N.C.--Concern in Monroe after an officer shot and killed a dog in front of high school students. One of those kids emailed us saying the officer acted inappropriately.
Police say a German Shepherd was chasing a student at Central Academy of Technology and Arts. Investigators say the dog was acting aggressive and charged when the officer approached so she shot the animal.
“Charging” - “Lunging” - semantics.
Interestingly, in my long long life I have met cops, and I have had many dogs. And I have known a few k-9 officers, come to think of it. None of my dogs have ever been shot or even threatened by a cop. None of the cops I know, or know of have ever shot a dog. No one I know has ever had a dog shot or threatened by a cop. Oh, wait, I am wrong. Once when I was a little girl, living on Clark Air Force Base in the PI, I did witness a GSD shot and killed by the military police (that counts) because he was running loose and had rabies. But otherwise, nope, they don’t seem to be on a dog killing spree as far as I can tell.
I'm guessing there's no leash law, but kids walk to school ~ probably from nearby.
These people lived there a month and the dog walked the kid to school. The fambly thinks we should all be happy, that "big jim", the cowardly big guy who hid behind the tree deserved it or something.
I think I'm seeing the picture here.
Dog goes to school with kid.
I’m highly cynical of most police-dog shootings I read about. But nothing in this one, makes me think it was improper.
A dog that is being aggressive off of its home turf is generally a problem. Unless there is something else to this story, I’ll have to give the benefit of the doubt to the policeman.
If one believes the claim that the dog was shot in the back of the head because it had a student “pinned” behind a tree, then a student was, of necessity, in the path of the bullet.
Since neither you nor I were there, it is exceedingly difficult for either of us to suggest that the officer did, or did not, fire at the dog with a student being in the direct line of fire. However, is there no way that you could envision a scenereo where the officer was postioned such that the student was not in the direct line of fire? You make a huge assumption based upon your bias against LEO’s.
Not necessarily true. Show me video of this incident.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2686009/posts This is all about wolfises and their friends.
First I will put my responsible dog owner bona fides against yours any day. In fact, against anyone’s.
Second, I think I made it pretty clear I was done with you. It’s pointless. Just stop. If you want to claim victory, go ahead, do a little dance if it makes you feel better.
If the dog was shot in the BACK of the head and the dog was “pinning” the student, as claimed, then repositioning the officer to avoid killing the student would not account for the location of the bullet.
It is more reasonable to conclude that the student was not “pinned”, as claimed.
FYI, when my siblings and I were children, my grandfather, who at that time was in his late 70’s, fired upon a rattlesnake that was within a foot of my younger brother (who was sitting upon a log). The rattlesnake was in a strike posture. My grandfather, from a distance of approximately 25 feet, hit the snake in the head with a 22 calibre handgun. That was when he was in his late 70’s, and shooting at a very small target. Perhaps he should not have fired, given that there was such a risk of hitting my brother. All sarcasm intended.
For the dog to “pin” he student, the dog was either on its hindquarters with its front legs on the student, or the student was on the ground, with the dog’s forelegs (or all four legs) upon the student, preventing movement.
A direct shot from either position would leave the student in the direct line of fire.
I personally suspect that the commenter is unaware of the difference between “pinning” something and “cornering” something. But since the commenter used the word “pinned”, it must be assumed that is what the dog was doing.
Let’s break down the word, “Assume”, shall we? “Ass”, “U”, “Me”! When one makes assumptions, one often makes an “Ass” out of “U”, and “Me”. This is food for thought.
“Where is the evidence that the dog was “lunging” at people”.
I thought that myself. I own a GSD. They are unbelievably fast and IMHO, if one was really after someone... let’s just say the dog could take someone down in a matter of seconds. Good luck at trying to outrun one. However, if the officer has other people stating the dog was snarling, showing aggression etc... than the safety of people is paramount. In all my life, I have never seen this type of behavior from a GSD (maybe other FR’s have). Usually, they are very docile and like people. Wonder if the dog got loose and was just playing?!
I think that sadly, the dog may or may not have been a real danger. The problem is, the officer appears to have been acting on her best evidence at the moment. I can really envision the kids, scared (or acting scared, I have seen that too, having taught high school, kids screaming, some attention getting behavior, some really frightened others just getting into the whole *game*), the dog getting excited, and some dogs actually can’t turn that off either. We had a GSD when I was a kid. She was a great dog, with us, but she actually almost bit a little boy once when he got too rough with my brother. So, it’s possible this dog got out of hand in *play*. Sometimes and with some breeds it’s a very fine line between the two.
It’s hard to say, and the fact that the dog was trained (according to the comments from the supposed owner, altho I sort of discount all of that since I don’t know if that was really the owner) as a drug detection dog who apparently washed out—what is the real story there? Did the dog have a stable temperament? I have seen some VERY squirrely GSDs (I show dogs, I have seen a lot of dogs thru the years, and I used to train for other people, just general obedience). So, who knows what this dog was like?
The owners would naturally be upset and angry. Who wouldn’t be? I don’t find enough information in the article to really determine what really happened.
Case closed. Dogs ARE NOT people. Despite what Anthropomorphic lunatics like to pretend. ANY animal which poses a threat to a human deserves to die. Indeed, God commands it.
Exactly, if the dog wanted to attack someone, it could have done so easily and before the cop arrived on the scene.
More likely, there were students who were playing with the dog, AND students who were running away from the dog (because they are scared of dogs/large dogs), not defacto because the dog was displaying aggressive behavior.
Unfortunately, these students apparently were not told that if you run *from* a dog, you trigger its instinct to run *towards* you. This does not mean that that dog of necessity will bite, it just means that a dog’s instinct is to chase it if it runs (or moves quickly).
Moreover, dogs *sense* fear. If you are afraid of a dog that is outside, the worst thing to do is to stay outside, in its vicinity.
But none of this explains why, if this dog was behaving so aggressively, most of the students did NOT go inside to avoid the dog, even when the cop told them to do so.
Either those high school students are so deficient in the area of common sense that they do not remove themselves from an area with an aggressive animal, even when told to do so, or the animal’s aggressiveness was fabricated.
It didn't.
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