[ImJaxon]

Police shooting of pet German shepherd sparks outrage by El Monte family (Video) - SGVTribune.com


This is just unbelievable.

As a former police officer who understands shooting scenarios, this is not one.

Unacceptable.

 

[LifeofRiley]

Police Departments around the country need to really take a close look at their policies re: pets! This is the second time in a week, on this forum alone, where an incident like this happens and the police department responds by saying it is policy!

Sorry, that is not acceptable!

 

[llombardo]

Wow...just wow All of my dogs would do the same thing if someone/anyone entered the yard. It scares me to think that it could happen to me to. Not that long ago, my dogs were barking and growling at the door. Even my female GSD and she hardly ever barks. There was something there and I knew it. As I walk to the door a police officer is about 5 ft away from the door shining his flashlight at my dogs and it was pitch black outside. Then he actually had the nerve to ask me if they always bark like that? Really? What did he expect them to do, I could hardly see him. They were doing there job. I just looked at him really stupid, then he went on to ask how many I have. I told him and he says I don't think you can have that many. I said oh yes I can, check with the village(I already know the laws and I knew I was right) Bottom line is that he was mad that they barked at him and he thought he was going to cause trouble. REALLY made me mad

 

[ImJaxon]

It's an easy subject to get emotional on. I try not to do that.

Just applying common sense and my training over the years, this appears to be completely unwarranted and irresponsible on the officers part.

Very sad that they had to put their dog down. I would have gave them the 7K if I knew about this before hand. So sad that some paper with green ink on it was the difference in life and death for that poor dog.

All she was doing was protecting.

I guess the officer had reading problems. I certainly would have never entered a yard with a sign so present. No way.

 

[llombardo]

I guess the officer had reading problems. I certainly would have never entered a yard with a sign so present. No way.

Its interesting because I have a beware of dog sign on the very door that the officer was harassing my dogs. Yes its harassment when a person keeps doing what they are doing knowing that they are causing a reaction.

 

[Fade2Black]

Just another example. Cops get away with this stuff all the time. Their badge is a license to do as they please. Then comes the lies coverups and denials.....

 

[mandiah89]

Wow this is just disgusting. And for the dept. to not cover the cost of the surgery is even more so. I posted a thread just like this of a similar incident. At least this one is all on tape and its clear the officers were in the wrong

 

[selzer]

My back yard is fenced in, my front yard is open. No one has to open my gate to get to my front door. If they did, and I let my dogs rome in the fenced area, then these issues might happen more often.

Personally, I think if they knew the cops were coming, they should have put the dogs up or had been outside with them. I know, blaming the victim, but what is it with all these GSDs just hanging around in the back while someone gets all the way to the door. My girls are alerting when the car slows down to come into the driveway. Certainly by the time the car stops in the driveway they are barking, and they would be at the car door before it opened if they were loose.

 

[ImJaxon]

What will come back to burn this guy is that he is very calm and is not startled by the dog running at the fence line. His feet don't move. He doesn't jump back. He calmly pulls his service weapon and fires right into the dog intentionally. But I do not think he will be disciplined or fired. He will get a case of "I feared for my life", and it will go away. The City of El Monte already knows that the family has no money. No money to do surgery on the dog, means no money to hire a lawyer to sue. A lawyer looking for press should take this on Pro Bono.

 

[Fade2Black]

Not a GSD but here is another recent one. Police raid the wrong apartment and kill an Iraq war Vets dog that was tied up....

Police Raid Wrong Apartment, Kill Owners Dog

Police Raid Wrong Apartment, Kill Owners Dog



6/5/2013 11:12 AM ET
A drug raid allegedly at the wrong apartment, went awry when police in Buffalo, New York killed the dog of an Iraq War veteran.
The incident happened earlier this week when the tenant received a call from his landlord who told him what had just happened. The landlord told Adam Arroyo that Buffalo Police raided his place and killed his dog, WGRZ.com reports.
Arroyo, who was at work at the time of the call, instantly started to cry and rushed home. He returned to his place trashed, with a search warrant and no police or his almost 3-year-old pit bull Cindy to be found.
There were bullets left on the ground inside, with visible blood stains.
The search warrant was for the "upper" apartment of the complex. But according to Arroyo, his residence is considered the "upper rear," WGRZ.com reports. Arroyo additionally said "They were looking for a black male. I'm Hispanic. Puerto Rican. And, they were looking for crack/cocaine."
Officials who executed the warrant found nothing inside but a baton and pepper spray the victim said he uses for safety.
Arroyo said, "People make mistakes, but this is something, it was a very big mistake, you know, especially coming in here and killing an innocent dog that is chained up. I could understand it if the dog was loose and it charged, then you know that gives them probable cause because they fear for their life, but to shoot an innocent dog that doesn't pose a threat," WGRZ.com reports.
An internal investigation is underway.

 

[ImJaxon]

Selzer, I agree that if they knew the officers were coming they should have put the dogs up. Reading the story at face value, it doesn't look right. Even the shooting doesn't look right to me.

Still, I will try to remain objective, as when you are an officer, you are supposed to honor the brotherhood. I have modified that honor a bit, and I can't support a cold blooded killing if it wasn't within the guidelines of the use of force.

Will be interesting to see what happens as other details come out.

 

[Nigel]

The whole event is sad and its scary to hear not only the officers lie, but for their captain to back them on it. The video says it all, they did nothing but enter casually ignoring the sign and to delay treatment for the dog makes me sick. On the other side of the issue I would not let my dogs have free roam in the front yard knowing that the police (strangers to the dog) were coming. I would at least put a lock on the front gate perhaps with a buzzer so people couldn't walk in unannounced.

 

[selzer]

Selzer, I agree that if they knew the officers were coming they should have put the dogs up. Reading the story at face value, it doesn't look right. Even the shooting doesn't look right to me.

Still, I will try to remain objective, as when you are an officer, you are supposed to honor the brotherhood. I have modified that honor a bit, and I can't support a cold blooded killing if it wasn't within the guidelines of the use of force.

Will be interesting to see what happens as other details come out.

Ya know, I don't give cops a free pass. I just don't. But I don't give owners a free pass either. We are ultimately in charge of our dogs, we need to protect them.

There is this yayhoo where my sister lives who lets his dog run around because he has an invisible fence, even though it does NOT contain his dog. When this dog charges at me, while I am walking my dog with my nieces, and I holler out to them to contain their **** dog, they get angry with me.

Why do they have an e-fence that goes up to the sidewalk in front, and the dog definitely charges onto the sidewalk? They are not protecting their dog when they do this.

I see a situation like this one, and I do not think I can do anything about cops doing whatever they do. But I can keep my front yard accessible, and I can put the dogs in crates or kennels when I have cops or anyone coming.

I think there are cops that will treat a suspect's dog with unnecessary violence. I think the people in an apartment had some weed, that was it. The cops came in, scared the kids, searched the apartment, and killed the dog that was in a dog crate. What could possibly make a cop feel they should shoot a dog that is crated? I hope that incident had some cops fired.

But it is still rare. It's rare. Really. We can find these incidents, here and there, but it is certainly not like it's an epidemic.

 

[gsdsar]

I think this sucks. It really does. I feel for this family.

One side note though, in the officers favor, they did not shoot the PitBull. They were seen on video petting the dog and being responsible by going back and shutting the gate behind them. Which they had left open, because I don't think they thought there were dogs in the yard.

The officer that shot the dog, did try harder to get the family to open the door.

I still don't think it was right. But u don't think these were trigger happy cops. They put themselves in a bad situation, the family put their dogs in a bad situation and a living family dog had to be PTS.

Hopefully a lesson wil be learned and rules tightened with all officers in how to enter a fenced yard.

But my heart goes out to this family. It really does. Stuff like this terrifies me. Addresses get messed up, LE busts into wrong houses, pets get killed. I would be inconsolable if it happened to me and my dogs.


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[ImJaxon]

Agree 100000% that we are responsible for our own animals.

 

[llombardo]

I think this sucks. It really does. I feel for this family.

One side note though, in the officers favor, they did not shoot the PitBull.

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This was back in 2008, I'm sure its worse now and this is just in New York.
The NYPD Releases Detailed Data on Dogs They've Shot, But Not on The People - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice

 

[selzer]

This was back in 2008, I'm sure its worse now and this is just in New York.
The NYPD Releases Detailed Data on Dogs They've Shot, But Not on The People - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice

Ok, I see 78 dogs shot in '97 or '98 and 30 in 2006. But it does not tell us whether those dogs were attacking them, or strays having attacked people, or actually set on them, or attacking becuse they were going after a suspect.

We are not talking about 78 dogs that were shot due to cops going to the wrong address. If you are dealing drugs or some other violent criminal, and the cops come to arrest you and your dog is acting like a problem, which some of our dogs would if a bunch of strange guys rushed into our home and took us down and hand cuffed us. Babs might just lay on the bed and say, "not in my job description." But she also might come in and try to take on the lot of them.

In some ways I am thinking, only 78? only 30? These figures include strays that are chaing kids, and dogs in the homes of suspects. How many wrong addresses? How many unjustifyable shootings?

 

[llombardo]

In some ways I am thinking, only 78? only 30? These figures include strays that are chaing kids, and dogs in the homes of suspects. How many wrong addresses? How many unjustifyable shootings?

One dog being shot is a problem, it shouldn't happen in this day and age. There are so many ways to prevent it. I can bet if a regular person shot a dog because they were in danger they would face some kind of penalty. IMO, they are ALL unjustifiable.

 

[selzer]

An ordinary person is not going to burst into a dog owner's home. An ordinary person isn't going to take a dog owner to the ground. I really don't know what my dogs would do in that situation, but it is possible that they will try to do something.

If an officer can neutralize the dog safely in a different manner that takes no more time or conscious thought, attention, then I think most of them will. But I feel the officer's life is more important than any dog, mine included. If a cop has his hands tied up with a catch pole, or is fiddling around for pepper spray, and a violent criminal gets the advantage because of it, you are asking a cop to put his life below the lives of dogs. That is pretty cold, really.

 

[llombardo]

If a cop has his hands tied up with a catch pole, or is fiddling around for pepper spray, and a violent criminal gets the advantage because of it, you are asking a cop to put his life below the lives of dogs. That is pretty cold, really.

This is really just absurd....Its just as easy to grab the pepper spray as it is to grab a gun. So if the officer is fiddling around for the pepper spray, he would be fiddling around for his gun to.