Is Your Dog Safe?

You’re a dog owner.  You love your dog.  Do you ever worry what might happen to your dog if it encounters a law enforcement officer in the line of duty?

Two separate events in the past two months are receiving quite a bit of social media and local news attention.  Police officers were involved in the killing of two owners’ dogs, despite no outward show of aggression from the dogs.

In Miami, on November 21, an officer was called to a home in response to a complaint of a barking dog.  The 8-month-old American Bulldog, reportedly wagging its tail, came down the driveway barking, and the officer shot the dog dead in front of its owners, firing several times.  All captured by the surveillance camera.

In Inkster, Michigan, a man walking his mastiff, called 911 after witnessing an act of aggression towards a woman at a service station.  The police officer arrives.  The mastiff (off leash), approaches the officer, tail-wagging, and the officer shoots the dog.  The owner rushed the dog to the vet, but the dog did not survive.

In both cases, officers claimed to be in fear for their lives.  The mastiff was shot four times, the American bulldog, seven times.

In reading through the reports of the incidents and viewing the videos, both owners did not have their dogs leashed.  You can make an argument for the Miami incident because the dog slipped out the back door and went down the driveway, which was on the owner’s property.  The incident in Michigan, perhaps the owner should have known better, but according to a Michigan law professor, in an article from The Spartan Newsroom,

“State law requires dogs to be leashed. An officer can issue a ticket for dogs off the leash, but officers have liability for shootings without imminent threats.

The mere fact that a dog is off leash is not authority to kill the dog.”

Michael Steinberg, Law Professor, University of Michigan

The stories of law enforcement shooting domestic animals is not a new one, and many organizations and individuals have flagged this growing epidemic.  Writing for the The Criminal Legal News, author Dale Chappell in his article “DOJ: Police Shooting Family Dogs has become ‘Epidemic’, states:

“The pet owner’s recourse to hold cops accountable for killing a family pet, though, is not easy. The law provides “immunity” for cops unless their actions were “plainly incompetent” or they violated the law, according to the courts. Dogs are considered “property” under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, so a cop killing someone’s dog is recognized as a “seizure” of the person’s property. In order for someone to show a constitutional violation when a cop kills his dog, a person must show that the cop’s actions were “unreasonable” given the situation.”

Within the same article, it’s mentioned that postal carriers and meter readers routinely receive training how to identify dogs’ fear vs. aggression, and how to handle and diffuse situations.  Yet police officers rarely receive that same kind of training.

So why is this important?

As an owner of German Shepherds, a breed deemed “dangerous” in potentially life-threatening situations, I think ahead to how I would deal with the police officers if I was stopped for a traffic violation and my Shepherds were in the car with me.  Or, if an emergency occurred at home, and I needed the police or fire department, and my Shepherds were loose on the premises.  What’s the plan that would keep me and my dogs safe, to ensure that police/fire don’t take extreme measures.

Keep in mind, that it’s not just the Shepherds, Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, etc. who get the “bad rap” and could be killed by law enforcement in a tense situation.  Any dog is subject to split-second decision-making.  In tense situations, any dog can show signs of aggression and bite out of fear for themselves or their owners, putting themselves at risk and others, with a potentially deadly outcome.

To keep yourself and your dog(s) safe, always consider the impossible possible.  The “it can’t happen here” or “it won’t happen to me” is akin to the proverbial ostrich putting its head in the sand.  Just as one might prepare for a blizzard, potential flood or storm, your life and your dog’s matter. 

From the stories and articles mentioned in this blog post, don’t let you or your pup become a statistic.