Beware Of Dog

[Red Arrow]

When I was a kid, it was German Shepherds that were the boogey-dogs

And Dobermans.

[Red Arrow]

Just because Pitt Bulls are not a leading cause of death or injury does not mean that there is not related predictable and common risk that can and should be mitigated. Homicide is way, way down the list of risks too, should we ignore murder because it's not a leading cause of death?

I was thinking more of giving cops in Chicago the green light to "mitigate" the cause of homicides there.

[AquaMan]

Which state would you like to live in that you can afford?

Which state would you like to live in if you could afford living anywhere?


(Other than the State of Confusion  )

1. I don't know
2.Hawaii
3. My State of Confusion is seceding from the Union.

Most people cannot correctly determine a breed of dog any more than they can correctly identify the first three presidents of the US. And, pits are mixed with many other breeds either purposely or randomly. Shall we shoot all undetermined, but likely, pits and pit mixes? Shall we use the final solution on the breed?

What about the argument that its not the dog that kills, but the owners that raise and board the dog? Very similar to the gun argument.

I personally don't care to have the breed or be around them, but any dog can attack and most can kill either alone or in groups. Nothing excuses a man with a badge and a gun shooting a dog for no reason.

[Red Arrow]

1. I don't know
2.Hawaii
3. My State of Confusion is seceding from the Union.

I have been to Maui Hawaii.  It was very nice but it was expensive.  Housing was out of reach, moneywise.  Food from the grocery store was higher than here but not absurdly so. Gas for the rental car was about 30% higher as I remember (2004).

Most people cannot correctly determine a breed of dog any more than they can correctly identify the first three presidents of the US. And, pits are mixed with many other breeds either purposely or randomly. Shall we shoot all undetermined, but likely, pits and pit mixes? Shall we use the final solution on the breed?

What about the argument that its not the dog that kills, but the owners that raise and board the dog? Very similar to the gun argument.

I have been around obedience training for dogs since the early 60s.  My mom is a retired Obedience Trial judge.   I do not believe any particular breed is inherently vicious.  Breeding lines within a breed can have a generally bad disposition.  Owners can have a big influence on a particular dog but cannot overcome "family" traits altogether.  Dog owners can take an otherwise acceptable dog and turn it into something that needs to be put down.  Large, strong dogs are easy targets for people wanting a vicious "guard" dog.

I personally don't care to have the breed or be around them, but any dog can attack and most can kill either alone or in groups. Nothing excuses a man with a badge and a gun shooting a dog for no reason.

I prefer some breeds over others based on stereotypes but have met nice dogs in many breeds and dogs I didn't like in just as many.

[AquaMan]

I believe you can gain insights into a person's character by noting what type of dog (or pet) they have, and how they treat them. People who bother to train their dogs and understand their personalities are likely good people to know.  

How people treat animals that are dependent upon us, loyal to us and always forgiving says a lot about how they are likely to treat their fellow humans of different classes and cultures.

When I see a dog mistreated by their owner, I immediately suspect their children may also be at risk.

[Vashta Nerada]

Regardless, if your first response to seeing a dog, and said dog is not latched onto a part of your body, is to pull out your service weapon and shoot it, you should be fired immediately. Regardless of the breed. This idea that cops can go around discharging their weapons when they aren't being fired upon has got to go away. Police forces in this country are becoming more like paramilitary units. Why are we OK with devolving into a third world country?

Don't get me wrong, I'm wary of pits, especially if they're off leash. But again, it's not the breed, it's the owners who train them to be that way. Police dogs are also trained to bite the smile out of people, yet we don't shoot them when they retire. Go figure.

A cop shot a dog the other day. Again.

Maybe you've seen the video — it was all over the Internet, complete with the dog's grisly death spasms. Hawthorne, Calif., resident Leon Rosby was using his cellphone to record a standoff between police officers and armed robbers. At the end of the standoff, officers headed Rosby's way. He put his dog, a Rottweiler named Max, in his car, then placed his arms behind his back to be cuffed. (He'd had run-ins with the law before.)

As the officers began taking Rosby into custody, Max jumped out the car window and approached. At first he sniffed the ground and paced, agitated but not threatening. When an officer made a move toward Max, he jumped and snapped.

So the officer killed him.

This was just a few days after police officers in the Chicago suburb of South Holland went to the house of Randy Green to investigate a report of an unleashed dog. While the Green family slept inside, the officers watched their dog, Grady, rest on the front porch.

After 20 minutes, according to the Greens' lawsuit, "Grady approached Officer (Chad) Barden," at which point Barden — who, the lawsuit contends, had a dog-catcher pole in his vehicle — shot him.

That incident followed by just a few days another one, also caught on video, in which two El Monte, Calif., officers entered — without notice — the fenced yard of Chi Nguyen and shot one of the family dogs when it approached.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports "there were four children present at the home when the shooting occurred, and a children's pool party was taking place in a front yard across the street, according to the family and the video." El Monte police spokesman Dan Buehler said the officer "followed policy."

That's precisely the problem.

Across the country, both state laws and departmental policies seem to let police officers use deadly force as a first resort against family pets that often present little or no threat. In one infamous 2010 case from Missouri, an officer shot and killed a dog that had been subdued and held on a catch-pole. In another, an officer shot D.C. resident Marietta Robinson's 13-year-old dog, Wrinkles, after Robinson had confined the dog to her bathroom.

Last year, police officers chasing two suspects in Lake Charles, La., shot a dog named Monkey that barked at them. In Henrico County last July, police officers went to the home of a homicide victim to notify the family of the slaying. When the family dog ran toward them, the officers shot and killed it. In Danville four years ago, a police officer shot and killed a 12-pound miniature dachshund. For growling at him.

Danville's chief says the officer followed policy.

Police officers receive extensive training about the use of force when it is applied against humans. But how many departments provide training on dealing with pets? Very few, says the Humane Society. This despite the fact that, according to a Justice Department paper ("The Problem of Dog-Related Incidents and Encounters"), 39 percent of U.S. homes have dogs.

More than half of dog owners "consider their dogs family members," it continues, "and another 45.1 percent view them as companions or pets." Less than 1.5 percent view them as property.

Do we really need systematic training to combat a few isolated incidents, however unfortunate? The question rests on a false premise. Civil liberties writer Radley Balko notes that over a nine-year period, Milwaukee officers killed 434 dogs — about one every eight days. And that's just one city. Across the country, according to Justice, "the majority of (police) shooting incidents involve animals, most frequently dogs."

But surely those shootings occur because the animals themselves pose a serious threat, right? Nope. The Justice Department says not only that "dogs are seldom dangerous" but that even when they are, "the overwhelming majority of dog bites are minor, causing either no injury at all or injuries so minor that no medical care is required."

As Balko writes, "If dangerous dogs are so common, one would expect to find frequent reports of vicious attacks on meter readers, postal workers, firemen and delivery workers. But according to a spokesman from the United States Postal Service, serious dog attacks on mail carriers are vanishingly rare."

Yet serious — deadly — attacks against dogs are all too common. They shouldn't be. And the solutions are obvious: Departmental policies, backed by state law, should require police officers to use lethal force against companion animals only as a last resort.

Officers should receive training in safe and non-lethal methods of animal control — and in dog behavior: "An approaching dog is almost always friendly," according to the Justice Department; "a dog who feels threatened will usually try to keep his distance."

Finally, lawmakers should require an investigation of every dog shooting, to avoid what the public too often gets now: a knee-jerk defense of the officer involved and a callous dismissal of the family's suffering.

After all, if a child ran at a policeman with a knife the officer might fire in self-defense — yet nobody would just let it go at that. Animals don't occupy the same moral station as children, but family pets are more than just property. A badge and a gun should not be a license to shoot them at whim.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/opinion/our-opinion/hinkle-it-s-time-to-train-officers-not-to-shoot/article_1a45d0d5-26a2-5883-a8eb-088defaf0bdd.html

[heironymouspasparagus]

I think maybe it's not dogs I'm gonna worry about as much as Frat Boys at OSU...!!  Nothing like an Alpha Gamma Rho hazing to make the day....guess that's what happens when Frat Boys are off leash.

[Vashta Nerada]

An Oklahoma family accused local law enforcement of pointing his gun at two young children before shooting and killing one of their dogs, KOKH-TV reported on Friday.

The homeowner, Cindy Wickham, said the incident began when an unidentified Logan County sheriff's deputy went to her home in Guthrie in response to reports of "screaming" in the area. At the time, Wickham was watching her two young nephews and her two dogs, Charlie and Joker, were in the yard.
Wickham said she told the deputy to stay behind the fenced entryway to the residence, since she wasn't sure how the dogs would react.

"I said, 'Don't come in,'" Wickham told KOKH. "And he just went ahead and went in."
When the deputy entered, she said, Charlie approached him and began sniffing him. At that point, the deputy allegedly pulled his gun out and pointed it at not only the dog, but Wickham and the two boys.

"It just happened so fast that I couldn't do nothing, I couldn't prevent it." Wickham told KOKH. "The only thing I could do was put my nephews behind my back."
Shortly afterward, the deputy shot and killed the animal. Neither Wickham nor the boys were injured.

Authorities in Logan County have not commented on the incident aside from saying it is under investigation. However, Wickham said the deputy told her, "The motherf*cking dog bit me" after shooting the dog.

One of Wickham's neighbors, Kaci Malicoat, backed up her account of the incident.
"I could see [the deputy] waving the gun back and forth at her and the dog," Malicoat told KOKH.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I have been to Maui Hawaii.  It was very nice but it was expensive.  Housing was out of reach, moneywise.  Food from the grocery store was higher than here but not absurdly so. Gas for the rental car was about 30% higher as I remember (2004).

I have an uncle who lived in/near Honolulu for about 35 years....finally ended up moving to New York City for the lower cost of living.....all I could say to him was, "Geez...."

[patric]

TULSA, Okla. - People at one north Tulsa apartment complex are upset after Tulsa police shot and killed a dog Wednesday night.

They said this happened in front of several residents and children.
FOX23 found out from police that a call came into 911 for a dog that was acting vicious. Right now the shooting is being reviewed as all officer-involved shootings are, but neighbors said this shouldn't have happened.

Around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night, the security at the Comanche Park Apartments tried to get the dog under control. Cell phone video showed the pit bull mix barking. Security pepper sprayed the dog three times, but it wouldn't calm down.

Some neighbors told FOX23 the dog was likely scared and said it was anything but vicious.
"My kids were playing with it earlier in the day. My kids were outside when it was outside and it never once tried to attack any of my kids," said Tawny Glenn, a witness to the shooting.

"The dog might have been a friendly dog at one point but again, we were called to that location for a vicious dog," said Officer Leland Ashley with Tulsa police.

When two Tulsa police officers got to the scene they found the dog on a porch after a few minutes of more barking neighbors heard three shots fired.

"They could have put a sheet over the dog and pinned it down. They could have brought a pole out and caught it with a breaker pole. There are a million of other things they could have done instead of shoot it in front of people," said Glenn.

Some of the neighbors are upset that the dog was shot in front of young children, they say without warning.
"They here three to four shots and they bust out crying, wondering why it's happening," said Daniel Bass who also witnessed the shooting.

But TPD said the officers did what they had to do for safety.
"Actions were taken at that point that officers felt needed to be taken. And unfortunately, if someone viewed it who didn't wish to view it, that's unfortunate, but as an officer you're first thinking of your safety and the safety of others," said Ashley.

Neighbors told FOX23 they tried to tell security and officers they could get the dog to calm down but were repeatedly told to stay away.

FOX23 also found out Tulsa animal control was not dispatched to the scene.
http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story/Tulsa-police-shoot-and-kill-dog-at-north-Tulsa/I7GNAs30uU-rGphDk_mHHg.cspx

Cellphone video shows police mulling for several minutes on whether or not to shoot the dog.



Sad situation, because everyone knows it's cats you have to watch out for:
http://www.fox23.com/mostpopular/story/Cat-interrupts-live-shot/0xOX0esge02uESqvkXiSZw.cspx

[heironymouspasparagus]

And Dobermans.

I want one of those Doberhuahua's....they look like the ideal dog!  Well, after Beagles, of course!

[Vashta Nerada]

Maybe there is justice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkDN66XBm2I

[patric]

Shot 2 more the following Monday:
http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story/Tulsa-police-shoot-and-kill-dog/an358IUPjkmR3SsfEGcudg.cspx

Does Tulsa just not have a functioning Animal Control department?

[heironymouspasparagus]

Shot 2 more the following Monday:
http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story/Tulsa-police-shoot-and-kill-dog/an358IUPjkmR3SsfEGcudg.cspx

Does Tulsa just not have a functioning Animal Control department?

I lived near 56th North and Harvard many years ago, and animal control would never come out to deal with any animal situation.  Luckily, several in the neighborhood had .22's and would have "dog pack parties" in the evenings when it got too out of control....shoot 2 or 3 and the pack would divert to another area for a while before coming back....then, it's party time again!!

One of my dogs got out once and went to another neighborhood where they were having their dog pack party - he go hit but survived.  Dumb dog - name was Bozo, after the clown!  

And no, I didn't blame the guy for shooting him - I worked hard to keep that dog in, but he did get out that once....didn't do it again, either!

[patric]

Under fire from pet owners and even U.S. officials, local police departments join a move toward better training, nonlethal control methods

About 95 percent of officer-involved shootings are deemed justified by law enforcement agencies, according to Dr. Randall Lockwood, senior vice president of ASPCA Forensics Sciences and Anti-Cruelty Projects.

"The standard is very low," said Lockwood, who has studied the issue for 15 years. Untrained officers are likely to feel more threatened than those who are familiar with dog behavior and armed with tools and techniques to de-escalate situations, Lockwood said.

A 52-page U.S. Department of Justice report in 2011 stressed the need for agencies to train officers in nonlethal methods of dealing with dogs.
"Law enforcement officers must advance beyond automatically using their weapons when encountered by a dog," Bernard K. Melekian, director of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, wrote on the first page.
The report says the risks of failing to curb unnecessary officer-involved dog shootings include erosion of public trust and significant financial costs from judgments and settlements.

A state law requiring all Tennessee highway patrol officers to be trained in dog behavior stemmed from a 2003 incident, when an officer shot a North Carolina family's dog.
The dog got loose because officers didn't heed the family's request to shut their car door after they were handcuffed outside the car. The family was stopped after someone reported a possible robbery at a gas station; it turned out there was no robbery.
The family received $77,000 in an out-of-court settlement.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/03/02/3057358/working-to-curb-dog-shootings.html