Police in Charlotte were called to a home on a drug complaint. Scary. A complaint regarding drugs. There’s a war on drugs, did you know?
A K-9 officer was called because a Pitbull was there. A regular police officer maybe shouldn’t attempt to deal with the presence of such a bloodthirsty beast. Best to call in a specialist. It’s a tricky situation.
The Pitbull “attacked” the K-9 officer. ZOMG. Hysteria. Violence.
The K-9 officer shot the dog to death. Whew. Disaster averted. That killer canine could have taken out everybody in the place.
The gory details:
The dog bite did not break the officer’s skin.
Oh. I see. erm…
Do over.
Dear K-9 officer,
When a dog bites without breaking the skin – that’s called restraint. It’s a concept you might want to learn more about.
Was the officer’s K9 nearby, barking and otherwise inciting the pitbull to act defensively? If so, the K9 officer was obviously not a better choice to handle another dog. Not that that ever seems to matter. If you’re a cop, shooting any dog is considered perfectly acceptable. Hell, shooting most people is considered mostly acceptable too.
I have had two officers suspended for one shooting and one strangling while on a catch pole.
If they didn’t call me before they sure do now when they are entering anywhere a dog is present, so they can avoid being disciplined. (not my call on how the PD disciplines)
We also offer training to officers on how to handle dogs on the scene.
Glad you offer training to police officers on how to handle dogs. Wish all police received some training in this area.
I keep reading too many news reports about cops shooting people’s pet dogs. For many people these dogs are like they children and they are so hurt by their uncalled for deaths.
May not have mattered if the other dog was there…I have a pit that gets riled up by police radios. He literally goes nuts and tries to “attack” the radio – unfortunately there is an officer attached to them…so you know – not a good situation. Anyways – I figured out what the ‘trigger’ was by having a police officer, who I know and trust help me, and when we realized what the problem was that made it easier to deal with. Now if we ever have to deal with the police we ask them to either turn down or off their radios while in our home, or ask them to let us put the dog in his cage first.
(Sounds bad – like we deal with police HERE – but it’s in regards to cleaning up our neighborhood that is full of drugs, gangs, and dogfighting!)
I’m always amazed at how many K-9 officers seem to know very little about dogs.
It’s very like my neighbor who trained dogs in the army years ago. He thought he was a dog expert and told people so. Fact is, he knows very little about dogs – he can’t even read their body language worth a damn.
So do we need the pitbulls to teach bite inhibition to the violent officers? Starting to think the drugs are winning the war. Poor pittie.
Jeanne: Well said.
We had an incident happen in Memphis. A huge, killer of a beast (black lab) lunged and tried to bite a police officer (was coming out of his doggie door because the officer was in his yard). The dog was not killed but seriously wounded. It took days before the wounded dog was found because the officers did not secure the gate once they left.
Our police chief immediately started a policy that if any officer discharges his firearm and shoots an animal, they are suspended until an investigation, just like with a human.
Interesting. I can’t think I’ve heard that as an across the board policy anywhere before. I wonder how common it is.
Not nearly common enough, I can bring links to a whole lot of really bad situations involving police officers shooting dogs. It’s a growing problem lately, or so it seems.
In GOOD departments, any time an officer draws his weapon, there’s an investigation and a period of desk duty. If he FIRES his weapon off the range, mandatory desk duty or suspension for several weeks and serious investigation. Doesn’t matter if he shot a silver dollar thrown in the air.
I don’t want a man with a gun (with or without a badge) anywhere near me and my pets.
So I don’t get beat on too bad, I make the following disclosure, My daughter owns 2 pitbulls, one is 105#. They have always been good to be around and played with my dog very well. I do not condone needless killing of animals by law enforcement. I have seen the stories in the past of total disregard for securing an animal and the outcome being the animals death.
That being said, from the article provided, I do not see where it said a K-9 officer was called because there was a pitbull there. I would think a K-9 officer was called because there were drugs and usually the K-9 sniff out drugs, but that would be an assumption. The article only says the K-9 officer was there to assist.
In the comment section, I found this statement,
“I happen to live where it happed. The dog belonged to an innocent homeowner. The dog was on a leash and got away from the homeowner and started chasing the drug dealer becasue he ran toward the homeowner. Hats off to this pit bull but in the state of confussion ended up biting the officer. The owner of the dog is an older woman that probablly would not even need a pit bull for protection if this world was not so full of low lives that simply refuse to work for a living and choose crime.”
So the pit could have possibly been an innocent bystander and got involved when it didn’t need to. If the above comment is true, I am very sorry that this owner could not have controlled her animal. I feel sorry for the officer that he felt he needed to kill this animal to protect himself. And I feel sorry for this animal that he gave his life while he felt he was protecting his owner.
There are times when law enforcement does not have the time to make a decision as to if an animal can be controlled without putting themselves at risk. Was this one of those times? The article doesn’t give enough details for me to decide. I do agree an investigation should take place as to what did actually occur and if the animal could have been contained.
Roger, You are correct. The article gives us very little info. My spin on the info was partly due to the fact that, as we so often see, they chose to use the word “attack” and identify the breed as “Pitbull”. And partly due to the seemingly escalating violence by police officers against dogs. I too would like to see an investigation and the results shared with the public.