Was The Shooting Of This Dog Justified?

[Kromovaracun]

A petition has recently been started to fire an officer who shot a dog to death. The incident was recorded, and you can view both the petition and the video (which you can probably guess is quite graphic, I know AB has its share of animal lovers) here:

http://www.causes.com/justice-for-max?utm_source=causes.com&;utm_medium=fbpost&utm_campaign=fbMAX0703

Does anyone know what exactly was the dog's owner being arrested for? Was the dog a sufficient threat to the police to warrant being shot?

[Just-Jude]

American cops would shoot a rabbit if it threatened them!

Morons with guns!

[ludwig]

// American cops would shoot a rabbit if it threatened them! //

You mean like 'Give me a carrot or I'll chin ya'? I'd shoot it too. I'd be scared 5hitless.

[Kromovaracun]

I'm not sure how we can definitively say that handcuffing the dog's owner was an over-reaction considering we don't know the reason he was cuffed. There was a whole fleet of police cars in the street, and one of the officers is carrying a rifle of some kind - which you'd think would imply something major had happened. The police could have been searching for him in connection with a previous offense - notice that he turns around and puts his hands behind his back in anticipation of it.

Must say, having read the thread my sympathy does lie with the police officers in this case. Dogs of this breed can be dangerous, and it hadn't been properly secured by its idiotic owner.

[ELVIS68]

The dog was just protecting its owner, in the video when the dog was on the lead it was more interested in pissing up the lamp post rather than attacking anyone.
It only jumped out of the car window when the police started manhandling its owner.

[Kromovaracun]

Who could have been being arrested for perfectly good reason, for all we know. The dog would not have intervened had its owner properly secured it.

As far as I can tell, actually, the dog does attack the leg of one of the officers quickly at about 3:17/18. I honestly think I would probably have done the same thing.

[Kromovaracun]

"been being"....

Blerch. I'm tired. Sorry.

[wolf63]

I found this newspaper item about the incident.

http://laist.com/2013/07/03/hawthorne_police_launch_2_investigations.php

I am unsure if it actually adds any information to what has already been mentioned on this thread.

[ludwig]

// notice that he turns around and puts his hands behind his back in anticipation of it. //

They would have instructed him to do that as they were walking towards him.
He was being an annoying pr1ck constantly filming them, but they really could have ignored him or told him to move on.

It was just an unfortuante series of events, but given the dog's size and behaviour, they had no choice in the end.

[dizmouk2009]

I've watched this a few times and everything seems so unfortuanate.

I believe that the police should have training when it comes to dealing with animals. Obviously it's a large dog and coming from an animal lover who currently has 18dogs at our rescue I will say the following. It makes no difference to the size and breed of animal. Obviously it being a known dangerous breed the police officer probably should of gone about things differently.

I'm currently studying a Dog Behaviourist Practitioner Course so I have a general idea as to why this happened like it did. Can I ask anyone who is frightened to death that they would get as close as they did? The officer moved forwards with his gun towards the animal - wrong move.

I know it's easy to say "well they should of done this, they should of done that". He was clearly petrified of the animal and what it may do to him or his colleagues.

My opinion... I don't know, because I don't know all the ins and outs. Had they just let so of the man and told him to control his animal then the dog would still be alive. The officers have nothing to fear if the man runs off because they can just shoot him instead.

Any animal can be dangerous, it is up to the owner to be responsible. We have a very aggressive romanian dog with us that we know we can't rehome because it will bite someone. Do we let it out in public? No, Do we walk it off a lead? No. He lives a nice life with people who know him. I disagree that all dangerous animal should be terminated when most of the problems are down to owners that haven't got a clue.

We run a Dog Rescue and Rehabilitation and have never had an animal bite its new owners. Next time, shoot the man.

[jomifl]

diz, moving towards a dog might intimidate it and make it go away, moving away will encourage it to attack.
/It makes no difference to the size and breed of animal/
Rottweilers can kill adult humans, chihuahuas probably not.

[dizmouk2009]

Moving towards an animal which is clearly doing one thing and one thing only, protecting its owner. Had they stepped back the chances are it wouldn't of tried to attack.

I will stand by what I have said, it makes no difference what breed or size of animal. If a dog like that came at me I'd just stand still, it didn't exactly run at him, it was just being defensive and protective. All that dog wanted to do was get to its owner, it never showed any display of aggression before the bloke was manhandled. Everything clearly all happen so quickly, I don't think there is a right or wrong to this, no one knows, even with footage exatcly what happened.

[dizmouk2009]

And yes in relation to my above statement I have had more than one dog do this to me before. I've never been bitten or attacked and I've worked with some serious aggressive animals, including funnily enough a little chihuahua which nearly did bite me. I've seen the mess it made of the owner of the kennel and to be honest it looked bloody horrific.

[Gromit]

// moving towards a dog might intimidate it and make it go away, moving away will encourage it to attack. //

That is just not how dogs tick.

The owner was handcuffed. What they should have done was move away from him. It was because the dog thought its owner was being attacked that it went to protect him.