Oakland Police officers are facing criticism after shooting an 11-year-old arthritic yellow Labrador three times in responding to a burglar alarm. Owner Kate Hallock says her dog Gloria was shot three times with a 40-caliber Glock handgun in the family’s backyard.
Hallock says that she simply found a blue note on her front door saying “Oakland police responded to your residence to investigate a burglar alarm. While circling the rear perimeter, lab advanced on officers in a threatening manner before being shot and killed.” The police told her that Gloria had barked and growled at them.
Oakland police have been criticized over this video where they shot a baby deer earlier this year:
Police fired six rounds at the baby deer.
Notably, in this case, the officers did not simply use pepper spray or even a taser before moving to the 40-caliber Glock.
There have been a series of such controversies involving family dogs killed during police operations (here and here and here and here). Obviously, officers do face dangers from such dogs and need to protect themselves, but critics have charged that they use lethal force too readily with barking or growling dogs.
As a civil liability question, the value of the dog itself is treated as chattel and generally left as a low market rate. Owners however can sue for negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Source: San Francisco Gate
Jonathan Turley
We had a dog shooter in a near by town kill a couple dogs, then he moved to our town where he again shot another dog in its OWN YARD!
(Which seems to be the case here also.)
A committee found the officer negligent, but then our chief steps in and over rides their judgment!
Obviously this guy has a problem with dogs. But apparently they are going to wait until someone gets hit by a stray bullet before anything is done about it.
In this case it sounds like someone knows nothing about dogs. WHY WOULDN’T a dog bark & or growl at someone in their own back yard??
Lets just hope this is the last time it happens, unlike our case, before someone gets killed.
Stuff like this makes police officers either look like bumbling idiots or people on a power trip.
I would certainly think twice about having a partner like this on patrol with me – He/She either has remarkably poor judgment, or is afraid of his own shadow. In any case he needs to be taken off the front-line and reassigned to a position less critical to the public good. He’s if not a menace to his fellow officers, he’s certainly a menace to public perception of police officers everywhere.
W=c:
“Most of the birds are not killed quickly. They are more often wounded and left to suffer a lengthy and protracted death through bleeding, broken bones and other injuries. Some birds are even tethered to the ground before a gun is aimed at them, thereby ensuring a kill. Yet again, ironic that this is considered a sport by many.”
A sport?
WOW!!
Hey Wootsy, I’m having trouble seeing your Gavatar, what painting(?) is this one? Your adventurous with your Gavatar, that’s cool.
Pigeon shoots: people are hard-wired to be F*****-up and there are a lot of them out there. In a perfect world a ‘pigeon hunt’ would be an event wherein the people with guns would put feathers in their hair and pursue each other, last man standing gets bragging rights.
here’s another sport for the cowardly;
http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/pennsylvania-pigeon-shoots/
somehow “unless” was dropped of the front of the statement
As a civil liability question, the value of the dog itself is treated as chattel and generally left as a low market rate. Owners however can sue for negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
=================================================================unless the animal in question is a police k-9, even if it’s attacking you.
Sadly, this has been happening more and more often. I no longer let my dogs outside unless I am in an adjacent room, due to the recent activities of our local Sheriff’s Department. It is completely unacceptable, and of course the police departments involved always just form a giant blue wall around the officers involved and the problem.
I think the most telling piece of evidence was what an officer involved in a similar shooting here (Jefferson Parish, LA) said: “If we think the dog’s aggressive, we get to shoot it.” It’s the “We get to” that has always bothered me; and I think he was telling the truth. You can use lethal force on an animal with what appears to be no recriminations by your department, so what indulge, right?
All I can say is that I used to feel safer with police around, and now I’m pretty much always worried about the safety of my dogs.
That is a horrible story! The officer who shot this dog should be fired, period. I have had several labs and they are normally very gentle dogs. Of course he is going to bark at anyone coming into the yard, but like my labs, I bet his tail was wagging while he was barking! So sad.
There is an acute shortage of shooting range facilities for most police forces – can we really blame them for taking advantage of technical training opportunities that present themselves in the community? They hone their skills to keep us safe, you know.
Also, does anyone realize what veterinarians charge these days to make a house call and put down a dog? It’s criminal. And here these cops did it for free, and didn’t even pass on the cost of the ammunition used. And now they are the bad guys?
Foreign policy is just an extension of domestic policy.
Carlyie Moulton:
” that is what the police have always been in minority communities and what they are becoming everywhere.”
How true that is,Back in the day when abuses were being done in those communities the majority thinking was the alleged abuses that took place there could not be true.
How the jack got out of the box I think started in the 60s when revolution was spreading on college campuses and the brutality came to light during that period.
The problem is that these cops have far to much care for their own safety than they for for that of other people of living things. But then that is normal for soldiers in an army of occupation and in the US that is what the police have always been in minority communities and what they are becoming everywhere.
Bitch slap em Dano…..