On August 9, a Philadelphia police officer Sgt. Chad Culbreath was allegedly speeding down a street and ran over a woman’s pet dog, Phoebe. Sidara D. Son says that Culbreath refused to let her take her dog to a hospital and allegedly said “it’s just a dog.”
Son quotes Culbreath as saying it “isn’t a child, it’s just a dog.” He then allegedly threatened to arrest her and then called for backup. Five more police vehicles arrived and blocked off her street. “Culbreath’s supervisor, Sgt. Morrow, was one of the back up units. Eventually Son was allowed to take the dog to a hospital but she died in her arms.
The dog apparently got away from someone holding her leash and the officer was accused of not just hitting the dog but almost hitting someone running after her. The accident itself may not present much of a liability issue if the dog was off leash. However, the actions of the police after the accident could be a potential basis for a tort lawsuit. While the law still does values pets as chattel or property, the pain and suffering inflicted by such alleged misconduct could be considerable for a jury.
As someone who lost a beloved family dog in a car accident, the account is incredibly disturbing. Putting aside what was said, if the police refused to let the family take the dog to a hospital, I would seriously question his fitness to serve as an officer.
If these allegation are shown to be true, what do you think the appropriate punishment should be?
Kudos: Michael Blott
Don’t forget the drug raids where cops kill dogs. Many of them at the wrong address.
If you kill one of THEIR dogs, they treat you like you killed a human cop. If their dogs are considered on the same level as a regular cop, then citizen’s dogs should get the same kind of recognition as a human civilian.
That double standard is just one on a LONG list of why people are up & PO’d about police agencies.
SamFox
Sam Fox – we had a canine officer who forgot his dog was in the car and left him there over night. That was 4pm until 7:30am. Temperature went from 115 to 90. Sometime during that period the dog died. The sheriff who is a great lover of animals wanted him hung on the spot, however the city attorney would not press charges. They did take him off the canine force.
This article really doesn’t make much sense. How could a cop legally prevent someone from taking her injured pet to the vet? Unless he had a legal reason to detain the owner, she can go wherever she wants and take her dog with her. If the contention is that he required the injured the animal to lay in the street, suffering and in pain, so he could fill out an accident report, then he should be fired. Not only because of his insensitivity to the suffering of another living creature, but also because his callous actions will cause a lessening of public respect and confidence in the Philly P.D.
The Philly PD has long time reputation for being less than professional and more like SS troops. Thus this cop needs to be fired ASAP and a hefty law suit brought against the cop and the city.
Dog lives matter.
It is not uncommon that cops prevent treatment to animals they have injured following policy. They want a record of what has happened and the concerns of the animal or the owner is of a lessor or no concern. In some cases the supervisor will overturn policy, and rarely will discipline the officer for not using good judgement.
Unless there’s a different account out there, I didn’t see where anyone “alleged” the officer was speeding, only that Son thought he might have sped up when he saw a bunch of people trying to flag him down (from some distance?).
So the dog was allowed by the owner to get outside to chase a balloon. The balloon is popped and then one of the visitors leads the dog by the collar across the street to dispose of the trash. When people at the house see the police car coming, they start yelling. Dog gets excited and breaks away from the person holding the collar, and is hit/run over by the police car. What isn’t clear is where the police car was relative to the dog and the people. If the dog was between the car and the people, and the people were yelling at the cop, the cop’s attention is likely focused on the people yelling, and not on the low, dark-colored dog. Depending on distance and angle, he may not even have been able to see the dog over the hood or fender. Dog owner is hysterical and berates the officer for not stopping when she “told him to stop,” he’s probably a little defensive at that point where there are a bunch of people screaming at him.
The cop wouldn’t (or couldn’t) put the bloodied dog into his car and drive it to an animal hospital, and apparently the owner thought the cop called a dog ambulance or paramedic for the dog, but it was only animal control. And far from “preventing” her from taking the dog to the animal hospital herself, there was a delay of a few minutes to get the other police vehicles out of the way. It’s a sad situation, but without a lot more detail, I wouldn’t be so quick to take the cop’s livelihood away and possibly deprive the community of a good, competent officer (if that’s what it turns out he is).
People who don’t think pets are important, and there are many, would agree with the “it’s just a dog” comment. For those of us whose pets are members of the family it’s a tragedy, especially for children. From the pictures, this dog appears to have been a special member of this family and hard to replace. A sad lesson for children that a policeman would interfere with getting the dog to a vet. The family should decide if the police should get a new puppy for them and when. And an apology from the policeman.
Not letting them take the dog to the hospital is unforgivable. As far as I am concerned it is the same as running over a kid and leaving them in the street.
JT does seem to have manic streaks. It seems he’s back on cops. I love it when he’s manic about Hillary.
Nobody wants to hit a dog. Cops are not perfect and they are under stress and I seriously doubt a copy tried to run a dog down on purpose. I can see a copy doing that to a person, sure, but a dog? Come one….. Dogs run out, boom, dog gets hit. Has nobody here ever run over a squirrel or a deer? You feel bad but what can you do. …..Anyhow I don’t understand the notion that she was somehow prevented from going to a vet.,,,,,the articles says that the dog died on the way to the vet. This is sad. There is suffering in life and sometimes there is no solution to it.
It’s also why you have to try and keep your own dog on a leash and train them.
The cop is “just a pig”.
As told this is horrendous. However, I have to ask, what was the level of hostility the officer faced following the dog being injured? Why did he find it necessary to call for back up? Was the failure to allow the owner to take the dog to the vet due to idiocy or to the possibility that the owner had threatened the officer and was facing the possibility of arrest? There are a lot of unanswered questions here.
The guy is disconnected, calls in back up, five cars. This is an ideal filtering moment. Get rid of him.
I do not paws or hesitate to conclude that these low- lifes (if the allegations are true) should either be fired or be required to serve as the fire hydrants for canine squad.
Very upsetting to any dog lover
The Science Geek
http://www.thesciencegeek.org
POLICE OFFICERS SUCH AS THIS AZZ ARE GIVING THEM ALL A BAD NAME! THIS HITS HARD FOR WE ANIMAL LOVERS! THIS WASN’T’, JUST, A DOG! SHE WAS PART OF A FAMILY WHO LOVED HER! SORRY, BUT I THINK THIS INSENSITIVE OFFICER SHOULD BE FIRED! SOUNDS TO ME LIKE HE’S NO BETTER THEN THE ONES FOUND GUILTY FOR KILLING A HUMAN! i’M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE OFFICER IN FERGUSON! HE WAS JUSTIFIED AS FAR AS i’M CONCERNED! WE HAVE KIND, COMPASSIONATE POLICE OFFICERS WHERE I LIVE! THEY DON’T TOLERATE OFFICERS LIKE THIS! THEY GET RID OF ANY WHO COMMITS THIS TYPE OF ACT! MY HEART GOES OUT TO THIS FAMILY WHO LOST THEIR FURBABY DUE TO THIS NASTY OFFICER DRIVING LIKE A FOOL! YOU CAN TELL BY THE PHOTOS THAT THIS PUP WAS A FAMILY MEMBER & WAS LOVED! SO SAD!!!
Shades of Frank Rizzo! Another Horse’s A$$
I think I have to agree.
What could possibly be the public safety issue that would require preventing transport of the animal for health care?
I think the officers involved owe us an explanation and with out a convincing explanation for their decisions I would be perfectly comfortable seeing them removed from the force.
Five more police vehicles arrive at the scene and block off the street? For what purpose? What was the justification given, either by this officer or the others, for proceeding to block the street? Were all of these officers, including the sergeant, rigorously questioned? No information as to why at least five other police officers, or more, participated in this fiasco. All of those present should be required to account for failing to allow the dog to obtain medical attention in a timely manner. Even if the street needed to be blocked for some procedural reason, a clear passage should’ve been made for the injured dog to reach medical help. Heartbreaking.
Another person who is unfit to be a police officer. One has to wonder where police departments get these individuals or if they actually seek them out.