Free Republic

A 911 hang up call Manatee County Sheriff's officials believe was initiated by a dog, resulted in the dog getting shot in Bradenton on Sunday morning. According to MCSO spokesperson Dave Bristow, Deputy Will Kelley responded to a home on West 21st Street to check on a 911 hang up when the owner opened the door of the home, but was unable to keep the dogs inside. Bristow said the dogs' owner, Kathleen Derosa, opened the door and tried to squeeze out without letting her two roughly 65 pound Bull Mastiff-Pit Bull mix dogs get out. The dogs forced their...

A federal jury awarded $333,000 to a Chicago family Thursday after Chicago police officers raided its South Side home with guns drawn and shot its dog in a search that found no criminal activity in the apartment. Teenage brothers Thomas and Darren Russell were in their second-floor apartment in the 9200 block of South Justine Street in February 2009 when officers announced they had a warrant to search both units of the two-flat. Thomas Russell, then 18, opened the door and found officers with their guns drawn, according to the lawsuit. Russell said that he put his hands in the...

SWANZEY, N.H. -- A 7-year-old Siberian husky was shot in the leg Thursday night while his owner was working inside his garage. "I heard a loud bang and then I heard Dozer whining. I said to my son, 'Somebody's shooting at Dozer,'" said Philip Sherrick, Sr. Sherrick went outside and saw the armed man standing in his driveway who said, "It's just pellets," and walked away, Sherrick said. Sherrick called police and drove Dozer to the vet hospital, where he had emergency surgery to amputate his right rear leg at the hip. Police recovered the shell casings from the rifle...

Cowards killed Marcus Luttrell's dog, Dasy. *snip* One of suspects remains at large — there is a warrant for his arrest. Have you seen Michael Edmonds? If you have any information about his whereabouts, please call the Texas Rangers in Huntsville, Texas at: (936) 435-0152 and ask for Sgt. Steven Jeter.

A spokesman for the Dover Police Department said the agency is conducting an internal investigation into the March 9 police shooting of a dog in the Morris Estates neighborhood. The dog’s owners and neighbors, however, are incensed at the shooting, saying an innocent animal was killed and that officers disregarded the safety of people in the community. Capt. Lester Boney said Dover animal control officer Mark Moore called police after two dogs, a rottweiler and an akita, had acted aggressively toward him. Two uniformed officers, Patrolman 1st Class Michael Konnick and Patrolman Peter Martinek, arrived on the scene on Evergreen...

A New York City man died after he got in an argument with a neighbor over his miniature schnauzer urinating on the neighbor's azaleas. Eighty-five-year-old Otto Mittler was walking his dog Max, who urinated on the bushes at the end of the driveway. Then 84-year-old Joseph Marsala grabbed a garden hose and sprayed the dog with water, resulting in Mittler charging the neighbor, the New York Daily News reported Sunday. He came at me like gangbusters, Marsala said. He gave me a shot to the jaw and I shoved him. He went down. Mittler broke his hip Wednesday and died...

Maybe the death of old Blu, a 1 1/2-year-old pit bull Richmond police shot to death in July, will not be in vain. One thing is almost certain, though. It's going to cost the city a bundle. The Police Department plans to take another look at its policy for handling threatening animals now that the Police Commission has ruled in favor of Blu's owners, Cynthia Peters and Mark Parr, and attributed the dog's death to deficient department guidelines for such situations. The commission sided with the couple in their appeal of the Police Department's internal investigation, which found no fault...

Richmond police plan to re-evaluate their rules for shooting animals after an investigative panel found that officers lacked proper policy guidance when they killed a pit bull this past summer. After a closed meeting last week, the Police Commission sustained the owner's appeal of a department finding that cleared the three officers who shot her dog in July. The commission found no fault with the officers -- it did not investigate their conduct -- but attributed the death of Cynthia Peters' dog to "policy failure." "The policy was clearly deficient," commission investigator Don Casimere said. "There needs to be much...

TAMPA - When Maria Rosas heard gunshots coming from the back yard of her east Tampa home, her first thought was that people were getting shot. Once the situation calmed down, Rosas realized the targets of the gunfire were her dogs. The person shooting was a Tampa police officer. That officer, Joe Blanco, was part of five-person narcotics team trying to get into a house on 26th Street. A person inside the house was wanted on a warrant, Lt. Craig Roberts said. Because Rosas' home at 3406 N. 10th St. is adjacent to the one Blanco was trying to get...

In Maury County tonight a family grieves the loss of a pet and waits for answers. The family claims a school officer shot their dog. Just as school let out at Highland Park Elementary School on Friday in Columbia, a family who lives adjacent to the school says a school officer came over and shot their dog. The family says the officer shot the dog without warning. The two year old Labrador Retriever was shot right in front of Betty Rimaudo’s daughter. Rimaudo says she confronted the officer. “ I saw the officer standing there and I said, ‘Did you...

(CBS4) ENGLEWOOD, Colo. Pet owners in Englewood claimed police officers shot their dog for no reason. Debbie and Mike Sullivan had their dog Josie for almost five years before a police officer shot and killed her at an apartment complex near Union and Detroit. "She was the child we never had. We never had children," Debbie said. "I feel like I'm in shock." Witnesses said the dog jumped on the officers in a friendly manner and startled them. The officers apparently interpreted the dog's behavior as aggressive and shot it three times. "I said 'you come across big criminals everyday...

Oceana County - Susan Schogren filled up her truck and boat with gas at a Montague gas station and forgot to pay for it. But shortly after, she says she went back to the gas station and paid $75. Problem solved she thought until she went home. A Montague police officer stopped by her home. His police chief says the officer thought he was going to be attacked and shot Schogren's dog twice--once in the head and once in the shoulder. But Schogren says the attack on her dog was unjustified. She says her dog Hooch is a 10-year German...