Free Republic

The dog's owner said he has no idea why police officers thought it was necessary to gun down his Labrador mix. Terry Boyle, of Birmingham, said four police officers shot and killed his 5-year-old dog, Buddy, Saturday night. Boyle said he rushed home to hear the horrifying news from neighbors who said they witnessed police officers shoot his dog four times. "From what I have been told he was not aggressive at all and he tried to get away from officers when all four approached him at the same time," said Boyle. According to police reports, officers have responded to...

PAROWAN — The police chief of Parowan has been charged with two misdemeanors in connection with the killing of a dog, according to the city's mayor. Mayor Donald Landes said he believed the charges were related to the shooting last July of a loose dog that Chief Preston Griffiths had determined to be "vicious." Griffiths, 43, was charged last week in Iron County's 5th District Court with official misconduct, a class B misdemeanor, and obstruction of justice, a class A misdemeanor. He was served Friday with a summons to appear in court March 22.

A dog in Oregon is up for a national award after saving her owner’s life, The Oregonian reported. Ceili, a 15-year-old Lab mix, doesn’t usually get too excited – but one day last August, she stood by her owner’s side, trying to block his path, licking his face and even sniffing his breath. “She was driving me nuts,” said Danny Fincher, 62. Later on that night, Fincher started feeling ill, and Ceili continued pestering him – she pulled off his shoe and tried to block him from climbing the stairs. She knew something was wrong.

Police departments are perennially accused of excessive force--the poignant SPD shooting of Native American carver John Williams being just the latest example. Usually, however, the victims are human beings. Not so in an excessive-force case recently filed in federal court, which details the fatal shooting of a Labrador retriever mixed-breed dog named Slyder, allegedly for doing little more than sniffing the butt of a police dog.