I don't know, the owner acted completely without thinking. I get that he was scared and stressed, but still.

I would have either walked my dog out tightly by the scruff or picked him up and carried him. There was no need to let a known dog aggressive dog out loose like that.

Jessica,
You're right - I carried in Florida full-time, as there were far more predators there.......of the two legged type.

Makes me glad I spent and spend the time training my Zoey to where she is great off leash will stay by mt side with "close" super recall even off rabbit chases.
I think it would be to stressful having a dog that wasn't trained.

 Quote: Lisa Brazeau

The difference here is the THE COPS put themselves (and their K9) in the dangerous situation.

I was always under the impression that the bad guys start the dangerous situations, the cops are reacting to it.

Personally, I don't know many cops that would run a search on your house or property for no reason in hopes of finding something or someone. I'm sure there's a few that would love to be able to indiscriminately search without probable cause, but I digress.

Yes, but the guy with the pit wasn't 'the bad guy'.

He didn't start out being the bad guy, but after his uncollared, unrestrained dog attacked a member of law enforcement he became one. Being stupid may not be a crime, but it sure leads to a lot of them. Bottom line, the guy didn't train his dog and didn't plan for an emergency situation to move his dog and that led to a crime. Assulting a K9. The cops didn't want to search for a dangerous person roaming the neighborhood with a gun, they did it because it's their job and the fact that this guy was an idiot (maybe a nice one, but dumb all the same) probably hampered their ability to do so. His actions prevented them from dealing with the original safety issue.

 Quote: Amy VandeWeerd

He didn't start out being the bad guy, but after his uncollared, unrestrained dog attacked a member of law enforcement he became one. Being stupid may not be a crime, but it sure leads to a lot of them. Bottom line, the guy didn't train his dog and didn't plan for an emergency situation to move his dog and that led to a crime. Assulting a K9. The cops didn't want to search for a dangerous person roaming the neighborhood with a gun, they did it because it's their job and the fact that this guy was an idiot (maybe a nice one, but dumb all the same) probably hampered their ability to do so. His actions prevented them from dealing with the original safety issue.

:shocked:

So, a bad guy runs past my house, cops want to search my yard, and my previously restrained, but now ordered to be unrestrained dog attacks and it's my fault?

This dude knew he had an aggressive dog and *was* taking proper precautions until ordered to do otherwise.

Turbo is usually great with a recall, but this could very easily been his same reaction.

And no, at home in my yard, I don't have a leash and collar on him.

No, but even if he weighed 80 pounds,I'm sure you would have picked him up to keep him under your control. It could be my dog too. My Bella does not have a reliable recall, but all 5'3" of me would hoist her up until she could be put somewhere that she would not be in danger (a car, a neighbor's yard, someone with bigger arms )I guess maybe I should ease up on the guy. I do feel badly that his dog was killed. It just doesn't occur to me sometimes that not everyone who owns dogs, has a leash in their car, garage, and by every door in the house.

Yeah, but that is assuming that the cops said to the guy, “Oh, your dog is aggressive? We don’t care, let him lose with all of us standing here, all these kids running around and all this chaos. We don’t care if he does not have a collar, we like agro pits running around loose. We order you to put us all in danger.”

It was more likely they said, “We need to search your yard for a guy with a gun. We can’t do it with your agro dog running loose in it. It is unsafe for you to go into the house at this time, so grab your dog and let us do our job.” The dude, being pissed that the cops want to search his yard, and probably rightly quite frustrated, said “Fine!” and opened his gate. Whether it was in anger, malice, or his overestimated ability to control his dog, his dog was now lose to attack the K9.

The cops want the scene contained and controlled. They wanted the yard cleared of the dog BECAUSE the dog was there, they didn’t want it running the street lose causing even MORE of a threat.

I don’t blame the dog, it was doing what dogs do. I don’t blame the cops, they were doing their job (and let’s not forget this wasn’t just a random “we want a look” they had an ARMED bad guy that they were trying to catch, and he WAS in the yard), and I feel real bad for the owner. He had to watch his dog get shot, directly or indirectly because of his irresponsibility and a crazy, dangerous set of circumstances. My point is this should not be an “F the COPS!!!” thing, or a “I am suing the police department” thing. It should be a horrible situation that is a sad set of circumstances that teaches all of us the importance of controlling our dogs, especially those that are aggressive. Not a blame game.

What it has turned into is a media frenzy that tugs at the heart strings of the pet loving population and make the cops look bad. It is a story that sells.

 Quote: JessicaKromer

It was more likely they said

Right. Assumptions.

It probably did go down this way.