Mya

Mya’s owner called the police because of a family disturbance.

When they arrived, Mya ran down to the edge of the yard, barking. An officer pulled their gun and fired.

Mya, shot and scared, ran into her owner’s arms. Police approached the dog and unloaded their weapons.

“I have 3 girls, and with Mya, it definitely made me feel like I have 4,” Mya’s owner said, adding, “Man, what if my girls had been around?”

The family has set up a GoFundMe, though no amount of money could make up for their loss.

SOURCES: MyFoxTwinCities, CityPages, Justice 4 Mya

Nala

Nala went missing on a Saturday, and after looking for her all day, she found out from a neighbor that Nala had been killed by police. But the circumstances of this killing were unique.

Officers had responded to a call that a dog had bitten a woman and, upon discovering Nala, restrained her with a pole around her neck. One officer remarked, “I’m going to gut this fucking thing.”

He then pulled out a knife and slit Nala’s throat.

In this circumstance, the police did not race to defend the officer. Everyone admitted it was not according to protocol. But, of course, blaming the actions of a single officer for an act that — while uniquely heinous — bares many similarities to other tragedies, reduces this pattern of behavior to a series of individual acts.

“She was just scared that day and through all of those events — scared and lost, thirsty, hungry,” Nala’s owner said.

SOURCES: Justice for Nala, CNN

Cowboy

An officer responding to a report of a burglar alarm jumped a fence, with a clearly visible “Beware of Dog” sign, and approached a residence. Once he was on the person’s property, he was approached by two dogs, which he claimed “charged in an aggressive manner.”

He drew his fire arm and shot one dog, at which point the second dog ran off. The shot summoned the resident from her home (there was no burglar), and told the officer, “They’re not even vicious!”

“He came right at me, ma’am,” the officer said, attempting to excuse his actions.

“He came right at you, but not to hurt you.”

Her dog writhing on the ground, she was overcome by sympathy and asked the officer to “shoot him all the way.”

“Do you want me to kill the dog?” the cop asked.

“You already killed him,” she said, and she cursed the cop and added, “They know not to come on my property. I’ve called a million times to have someone…”

“I gave you a call,” the cop replied.

She looked at her phone and said, “No.” The dog was still suffering, so she said, “So kill him.”

And the officer raised his gun and fired a second bullet, killing the

The Sheriff defended the officer’s actions, saying he “was calm and did everything right.”

The Sheriff says that a body cam video shows that the officer acted as he should, but you can judge for yourself.

SOURCES: Examiner, Inside Edition, Justice for Cowboy

Amoré

Amoré was 15 months old when he was killed, described as a “sweet, friendly boy” with “no history of aggression towards people.”

Officers claim that Amoré and another dog attacked and bit them, but after they shot Amoré, the other dog ran away. Could a warning shot have sufficed?

Additionally, the officer “did not indicate if the bitten officer’s skin was broken or if the officer required medical treatment.”

Jill Posener of Paw Fund, an East Bay nonprofit, said, “It was a tragedy,” adding, “He was a good pup.”

SOURCES: Patch.com, Contra Costa Times

Blossom

This one I heard about in a private email. According to to Megan Hood, she first heard of the death of her beloved Blossom through a phone call from a man at Jonesboro City Hall. He told her that her dog had been hit by a car, and that the Texas Department of Transportation had incinerated the body.

Later, she received a phone call from a private investigator, who told her that her dog had not been hit by a car, but had been shot by the Jonestown Police Department.

“Above playing, dancing, eating, hiking, and cuddling, she loved everything with her small, yet beautiful heart. However, she had the appearance of a Coyote, which the officers found a threat, and reason to murder her.”

This happened on September 6, 2013.

Source: Private Email

Geist

Cops were responding to a missing child report when they entered the yard of Sean Kendall and shot his Weimaraner.

The missing child was later found sleeping inside his home.

The owner of the dog, Sean Kendall, drove to his home and confronted the cop about killing his dog. Be careful watching this video, it is brutal. “So I get to bury my dog because an officer couldn’t back up and close the fucking gate,” he asks.

And a protest was organized, “Justice for Geist”:

The local police chief — of course — defends the officer’s actions. “I haven’t seen this type of public outcry when certain human beings have lost their lives,” he said. The dog — he argued — was simply too close to the officer: never mind that the officer entered the backyard without the permission of the owner.

“Something’s got to change,” Kendall said. “It’s running rampant.”

He’s right. It is. You can sign a petition to demand that the officer be held accountable for his actions and that all officers be trained to deal with dogs. But the problem isn’t just that cops don’t understand how to deal with dogs: this is just one manifestation of American police overreach.

Source: Fox News, The Free Thought Project

“Dog”

Kelsey Markou was walking her family dog, named Dog, when a pitbull attacked. She tried to get the pitbull off of Dog, and a man walking by called the police.

When the pollice officer arrived, Kelsey told the officer which dog was hers and which was the one who attacked. Kelsey’s mother describes what happened next:

“He got 5 to 6 feet away from the dogs and just started shooting at them.”

Kelsey estimated the police officer fired eight shots. The pitbull was taken to the vet. Dog was dead at the scene.

Kelsey’s mom explained:

“I want them to be accountable and really look at the way the situation was handled. We’re traumatized, and I have a daughter that’s going to be traumatized the rest of her life. She’ll never forget it. She hasn’t been sleeping. That’s a hard pill to swallow.”

SOURCE: News Gazette

Chloe

“After the first shot, the dog is captured by the animal control officer on the catch pole. But, after it is captured, a police officer fires four more shots at Chloe, killing the dog.” I don’t need to describe much more because it’s all on video.

However, in an unbelievable turn of events, the officer who killed this particular dog is actually being tried for a crime! He faces charges for animal cruelty. Why? Because of the video included above. The police department had initially avoided any responsibility. However, once this video was posted to the Internet, people reacted in shock.

“This video came out and changed things,” said Animal Lew Center lawyer Jennifer Edwards. She says that this case is a “turning point in animal law.”

SOURCE: 9news, 9news, Denver Post

Unnamed Dog Stomped to Death

I couldn’t find a photo for this pooch, but this has got to be the worst story I’ve heard yet. I am going to just except the first three paragraphs of the LA Times article about it, because I don’t think I have the strength to write about it myself:

In a case that has shocked Arizona animal activists, prosecutors have decided not to charge a Flagstaff police officer who in a gruesome incident this summer used his baton, boot and a cable to kill an injured dog after a fellow officer accidentally hit the animal with his car.

In August, Cpl. John Tewes was called after another officer hit a loose dog with his car about 2:30 a.m. Tewes and the other officer decided the dog needed to be euthanized, but Tewes was concerned about using his gun in the neighborhood.

Prosecutors said Tewes repeatedly tried to bludgeon the dog to death, but it didn’t die. He then tried to jump on the dog’s head and cave in its skull, but that too failed to kill the animal. Eventually, after some 20 to 30 minutes of trying to kill the dog, Tewes used a hobble, which is like a metal cable, to try to strangle the dog. It took several tries before the dog died.

The officer later resigned. I think this is going to have to be my last update today. Simply too depressing to continue reading about this. Please share this, and other articles, with friends and family. This will help affect change, and hopefully stuff like this will stop happening, or at least stop happening as often.

SOURCE: LATimes, AZFamily

Scout

Neighbor Lori Walmsley saw everything: she called her neighbor’s dog, Scout, over to play, and then Scout ran back into his own yard. A police officer showed up. He asked if the dog was hers. “No,” she said, but she assured him Scout wasn’t dangerous.

The officer began to try and catch the dog, whistling and saying, “Come here, pup.” He eventually cornered the dog. That’s when Walmsley heard the shots. The dog’s owner ran out and screamed, “What are you doing? He’s just a puppy!”

Lori says that the officer was not provoked.

The officer tells a different story. This is how he depicts the shooting in his own report:

At this time, I whistled at the dog and said “Come here pup” and the dog jumped off the deck and ran at me. I began backing away as fast as I could in a backward direction. I immediately noticed the dog was showing its teeth and I could hear the dog growling very loudly. I kicked at the dor in an attempt to put space between me and the dog and to get it to stop coming at me. I missed my first kick however the dog tried to bite my leg as I kicked it. I repeated this again kicking at the dog and again the dog tried to bite me. At this point the dog was within three feet of me and I was running in a backwards circular motion so as not to turn my back on the dog. At this time I pulled my service weapon and rapidly fired seven shots while backing away from the dog as quickly as I could. I believe I missed most of my shots, due to shooting while backing away however I did hit the dog at least twice. One shot in the back legs and once possibly in the mouth. The dog was no longer a threat to me and I holstered my weapon.

[The owner] came out of the residence and was screaming at me “You shot my fucking dog, good job mother fucker you did your job.”

I don’t understand this logic: antagonize and corner animals until they show aggression, attack the dog and further provoke it, and then — having exhausted all other options (except closing the gate or leaving or asking the owners or witnesses present for assistance) — executing the animal.

The existence of dog-murdering protocol allows this to continue, and allows officers to feel that such behavior is morally permissible. Please share this story to show them that it isn’t.

SOURCE: WNEM.com, the Police Report