Residents in an Ontario neighborhood contacted police about a coyote roaming the area Monday night. Ontario police sent a car in response and an animal approached the car:
“It just kept hanging around and it wasn’t afraid of the vehicle at all, of anything. It was just lurking around looking at the vehicle,” resident Kelly O’Neill told CTV Barrie on Tuesday. “It wasn’t afraid at all.”
Instead of capturing the animal, O’Neill said the police cruiser ran over it several times. One of the officers then got out of the car and shot it.
On Wednesday morning, OPP confirmed the animal was a dog, not a coyote.
Oops. I guess that’s why she wasn’t afraid. The 21 year old dog, called Merrick, was blind, deaf and suffered from dementia according to the owner. After a windstorm blew open a gate in Merrick’s yard, she wandered out. When she saw the police cruiser, she apparently ambled toward it before she was violently tortured to death.
The killing was caught on a cellphone video which was spread on social media. It caused a public outcry which resulted in the police having to admit that the animal was a pet dog, not a coyote.
But: EXCUSES FOR THE EXCUSE GOD.
The police commander wants to remind everyone that Merrick looked like a coyote. And as far as the standard police response to a report of a roaming coyote being Brutalize First, ID Later, that’s still fly:
The OPP “remain committed to destruction of wildlife that is an imminent threat to public safety,” the statement said.
To be clear, the “destruction” the Ontario police is committed to involves slow and deliberate cruelty to animals. Which sounds so crimey. Especially when it’s based on what the victim looks like. In the dark. From inside the car.
The historically awful Ontario SPCA has received requests from the public to investigate but has declined to lift a finger. Police will investigate themselves in the matter.
(Thanks Jan for the link.)
Dear Christ. They tortured an old lost dog horrifically. Because it’s what? Policy?
Unbelievable.
Poor baby!! Made it to 21 to have some jerk end it like this!!! So sorry for the family of this dog.
Holy SH*T!
WTF. Didn’t they check if the animal would respond to the standard whistle + “here boy” summons? A coyote wouldn’t. Were these chickenshit cops too afraid to lower the window?
The icing on the cake? OPP collected the remains and thus far have refused to give them back to the owner for burial/cremation. No excuse has been given for that bit of cruelty.
I saw in a video link at the side of the article that the owner has since received Merrick’s remains. The owner is shown carrying her in a pink blanket.
These idiots make Roscoe P. Coltrane look like John McClane. Rednecks.
Figures…it’s Canada, Animal cruelty is common place up there. Poor sweet dog, I don’t think i have ever heard of a dog turning 21. How much of a threat could this dog have looked like??? Just another case of how some humans see animals and how they don’t feel they have as much right to this planet as we do. I would be happy if 90% of the human population would just die.
I assume Canada is like everyplace else: some good people, some bad but relatively few who would actually hurt animals on purpose. Animal cruelty is not a regional problem, it’s a people problem.
I hit the OPP facebook page and pretty much stated that it doesn’t matter if this was a deaf blind dog or a wild coyote, the way they dealt with the situation is a perfect case for an animal cruelty charge.
Yes it’s absolutely heartbreaking that it turned out to be someone’s pet but I think it would of been equally heartbreaking to find out that yes, this was just a coyote that had happened to wander into a neighborhood looking for some food. Being run over 3 times by a car and then finally dispatched by a firearm is a fate no living creature should have to suffer….
I agree! I think the “we thought it was a coyote” excuse makes it so much worse. Hitting an animal with a vehicle is an incredibly inappropriate way to deal with ANY animal, domestic or wild, nuisance or not.
Update: “The only way the public will find out about it from us is if any misconduct is found that is serious and sent to a police service act disciplinary hearing. If there is any other finding, nothing will become public.”
-Rosemary Parker, OIPRD spokesperson
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/police-ran-over-her-dog-twice-before-shooting-it-to-death-but-investigators-may-never-tell-her-why
Nice attitude there, public servant.
The ole’ “We’re investigate ourselves” trick.