Police shoot and kill a puppy for no reason

[Mister Twister]

http://wcrz.com/police-officer-shoots-family-puppy-community-wants-justice-video/

[AkSaber]

Well that's... bizarre.

I'd like to know why the officer was there and what was he thinking when he decided to shoot the animal.

[Mister Twister]

The puppy was shot MULTIPLE times before it died at the hospital. The police officer needs to be given the death penalty as far I'm concerned.

[dead0man]

Someone has "police" and "no reason" permanently stuck in their Google search bar.

[後援会]

The puppy was shot MULTIPLE times before it died at the hospital. The police officer needs to be given the death penalty as far I'm concerned.

What the flying . This is the stupidest thing I've ever read on this board.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

This is one of the most bizarre threads I've ever seen

[John Dibble]

1. An 8 year old dog is not a puppy. (age stated in the video in the article) It was a golden retriever, so it's a medium sized dog. I get that you don't like the police, but please at least get your facts straight.

2. If the dog did attack the officer then it's not 'no reason'. Given the size of the dog and the number of shots fired (seven, but with only two hits) it's likely it was a panic reaction, not a calculated one.

Here's the police report, btw - http://ftpcontent.worldnow.com/wnem/WNEM/Police%20Report%20Dog%20Shooting.pdf

3. If the officer's account is at all true, then he still made some poor decisions. Police officers are not equipped to deal with animals - too often we forget that dogs are animals and do not always react rationally. Once the dog was contained in the back yard of the residence this occurred at he should have made effort to notify the residents about the dog so they would stay inside or claim ownership and then call animal control if they were not the owners. At the very least he should have had his pepper spray in hand when approaching the dog as he could not be sure if the dog would be friendly to him or not. This poor decision making probably stems from lack of training and procedure in dealing with this kind of situation.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

You'd never think a dog in an unfamiliar situation, cornered by a stranger ... would react strangely...

If he was genuinely concerned, all he had to do was disable it... not shoot it multiple times...

The puppy was shot MULTIPLE times before it died at the hospital. The police officer needs to be given the death penalty as far I'm concerned.

What the flying . This is the stupidest thing I've ever read on this board.

FTR, I don't endorse the conclusion.. but I do think excessive force or cruelty to animals is criminally under-punished.

[dead0man]

wait wait wait...the "puppy" was 8?  The OP needs to find a freaking dictionary.

[Mechaman]

Yeah, eight years old isn't a freaking puppy.  Sh*t, for a dog that size it's probably old enough to collect Social Security.

But, before you read this and burst a blood vessel, I do agree.  This was an uber rookie mistake and at the very least the cop in question should've been suspended.  What is really disturbing to me in this instance is how the Police Department has come out in defense of this guy, instead of admitting it was a screwup.  Frankly, I think they need to fire a few captains.  Of course saying "THEY NEED TO BE SHOT!" is kind of hyperbole.
According to the Police Report the dog was running after the guy and trying to bite him.  Granted, the Officer probably had a panic reaction but I figured that given how loud and scary guns are he could've at least just shot a few rounds into the air to see if that scared the dog away.  Unless you are facing GodDog who is afraid of nothing (which, this being a Golden Retriever I severely doubt) the sound of loud gunshots should scare most anything.
Really though, this just hammers in the need for effective training when dealing with possible hostile animals (yes pretty much what Dibble said).

[Brittain33]

There's a guy who tracks stories of police who shoot dogs.

http://www.theagitator.com/?s=puppycide

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Wow. At first I thought this was a parody.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Why is this even a thread?