Sorry,
Bunch of silliness... A dog comes at you, you back away.. 35 feet away is not IMMENENT threat when you are a human holding a gun.. This officer obviously had time to “order” a dog to stop.. which is amusing on its face.
I am not saying the officer had malicious intent, he most likely didn’t, but he clearly over reacted.. if a dog comes off its porch and you are in the street and the street is 60 feet from the porch, you back away the minute you see the dog coming... My dog which is a BIG golden can cover 60ish feet in a few seconds running full tilt and barking, and this is plenty of time for me or anyone else to react before he reaches them.... Obviously the guy had time to react, he not only ordered the dog to stop but also shot and killed it.. while it was still in its yard.
Now, lets take your hypothesis one step further.. using 35MPH for a dog running full out, which I think is a bit high, given trained greyhounds go about 45 MPH.. I think a golden moving at 35 is probably overestimating.. but we’ll stick with it... Now a human can sprint at 15-20 MPH for short distances, and the fastes ever sprint recorded by a many was about 27 MPH. So, that’s a 10-15 mph differencial... which means backing away, instead of shooting equals about 20 MPH.. which is MORE than enough time to assess a situation when talking about this sort of distance.. it wasn’t a hair trigger moment with only fractions of a second to react.
Again, I don’t think the officer had malace, just the officer either wasn’t familiar with dogs, overreacted or both.
Like I said, I’ve been bit by dogs, I’ve dealt with dogs charging and lunging at me in full trot... I’m know exactly how scary it can be... I also know that Goldens as gentle as they are by nature can certainly look imposing and can do damage like any dog should they choose to do so. With all that being said though, I think this cop did not handle the situation well..
With a gun, you can take out a dog at the last second... they don’t have the capacity to launch projectile weapons at you. I have never ever heard of an incident where a dog beat an armed human.. shooting it when its 25 feet or more away in its own yard barking at you.. is just not something I think can be justified, given no prior history with the dog. Had the dog already mauled a person and was now heading at you, that would change the situation.. but a dog running off of its porch barking at a stranger.. yet is still in its yard... hard to say the cop reacted properly here in my mind.
Being lighter dogs can get up to speed faster than humans.
Interesting that the dog had to be ON THE PORCH RESTING when the officer pulled his gun out of its holster.
I don't believe the cop pulled on a resting dog ~ rather, he was skulking around gun in hand looking for the guy with the meat truck ~ a dastardly criminal dispensing dead animal parts in a pristine upscale neighborhood. How dare he clutter up the place by parking in the driveway! (/s)