Cisco

Cisco and his person, Paxton, were playing Frisbee in his backyard. When Paxton went to grab something from his truck, a police officer arrived, drew his pistol, and pointed it at Paxton. (He was responding to a domestic disturbance a few doors down but had been given the wrong address.) Cisco ran toward the officer, who shot and killed him.

The following exchange was recorded by the police camera:

Paxton: “Why did you shoot my dog?”

Officer: “Why didn’t you get your dog when I told you to get your dog?

Paxton: “I didn’t know! I just came around the corner. You pulled a gun at me and told me to put my hands up. What was I supposed to do?

Officer: “Okay, but you knew your dog was back there, correct?!”

Paxton: “I didn’t know anybody was here. I was just walking to my car.”

Officer: “Oh my Gosh.”

When Paxton went on KLBJ-FM’s “Dudley & Bob Morning Show” to discuss the issue, the officer called in to apologize.

The Austin Police Department issued a statement, saying, “There are several pieces in the process right now that we are looking at.” Hopefully, this will end in something other than the typical “the officer was following protocol.” Hopefully, but not likely.

Paxton: “My best friend. You killed my f—ing best friend”

Sources: ABCNews (audio of event), Statesman, KXAN

Ava

According to the Facebook page Justice for Ava, Brittany Moore called the police to report threatening phone calls.  A police officer then came to her home, decided her dog was being threatening, and shot her. According to Brittany, this was the officer’s second time to kill a dog.

Both Brittany and a neighbor claim that the dog didn’t do anything wrong, with the neighbor saying

“I remember that her tail was wagging as she walked towards the officer”

but the Boulder County District Attorney has decided that the officer was not in the wrong with his decision to use deadly force.

“I keep reliving the sound that she made when he shot her and then Ivy, our golden retriever, went and was trying to help her up,” Brittany said.

Bucky

“He shot pop, pop. The dog was down then pop, pop, pop. I said, ‘Man, you just shot my dog.’ And he said, ‘You [expletive] idiot. You let your dog out.’” – Fox D.F.W.

Bucky was shot five times in front of his owner’s children. The family has created a Facebook page, Justice for Bucky.

Unnamed Belgian Malinois

On May 5, another police Belgian Malinois died after being left inside an Alameda officer’s personal sport utility vehicle as the officer attended a use-of-force training exercise.

After several hours, the officer returned to his vehicle – which had at least one window down for ventilation – and found his dog near death. The dog died at a veterinary hospital. The officer was not charged.

Never leave a dog alone in a vehicle.

Deano

The bullet went through his nose and broke his teeth on the right side.

Karen Gentry raced Deano to the Skyline Animal Clinic, fearing for his life because of how much blood he had lost. The police officer that had came to her house had been looking for a “Haskins,” but Gentry had lived at that home since she was 17, and there had never been a Haskins. She had stepped back inside, and the officer had shot her dog.

Neighbor Tiffany Hayes had seen the whole thing:

The cop was here, and Deano was coming around the corner. He was just coming up to greet him.

The officer claims that the dog was attempting to bite him.

This story at least has a happy ending: Deano did survive, and the sheriff’s office has offered to pay for all of the injuries. Still, says Gentry, it doesn’t make up for what they did.

[Technically, this one doesn't belong on this blog, since Deano didn't die, but I figured the blog needed one ray of sunshine.]

Jake

The Charleston County Sheriff’s office believes that their officer followed proper protocol for the situation, but an outside investigator has been called in to pursue a more in-depth investigation.

Another “in-depth investigation.” Ho-hum.

Cammi

Cammi was accused of being vicious, and shot by this officer of the Lagrange Police Department.

This video is quite graphic, but if you watch it, judge for yourself how vicious this dog is.

Rosie

Rosie escaped from her yard. A neighbor called the police, worried that the dog would get run over because some children were chasing it. Police showed up, Tasered and chased the dog, which got away and ran into Lora Petty’s yard. She closed the gate behind the dog, effectively trapping him.

Twenty minutes later, the police showed up, opened the gate, came in, and — according to YesBiscuit! — this is what happened next:

At this point, the officers all agreed that the dog was a threat to public safety and to them personally so one of the officers put a bullet in her.  She fell to the ground, her eyes rolled back in her head and her breathing was labored.  Apparently still deeming the dog to be a public threat, the officer put a second bullet in her.  At that point the dog began to yelp.  Apparently the dog was still a threat to public safety so he shot her a 3rd time.  After that shot she struggled to sit up, trying to move away.  Apparently the officer felt she was still a threat and so put a 4th bullet in her which killed her.  Then he poked her with a stick to make sure she was dead.

Lora Petty, the owner of the yard where the dog was killed, says that the dog was scared, not aggressive, and said:

“It was quick. They already had their mind set on what they were going to do. Their main concern was shooting the dog.”

Additionally, she said that a police officer came into her house afterwards, giggling about shooting the dog. After that, she set up a memorial in her front yard:

Sources: Highline Times and Seattle DogSpot

Patton

“He’s the gentlest dog that I’ve ever been around. He’s like Sooby Doo. He wasn’t mean at all.”

Mom, Dad, and their 17-year-old son were asked to step out of their vehicle and kneel down on the ground. Dad had left his wallet on the top of his car at a gas station, and through some sort of mix-up, the police thought that he had stolen the car. He asked if they would close the doors of their car so that their two dogs would not escape, but the police refused.

The dog ran outside and was seen “romping on the shoulder of the Interstate, its tale wagging. As the family yells, Patton first heads away from the road, then quickly circles back toward the family. An officer in blue uniform aims his shotgun at the dog and fires at its head, killing it immediately.”

As usual, the Police Chief issues the statement:

“I know the officer wishes that circumstances could have been different so he could have prevented shooting the dog,” Terry wrote. “It is never gratifying to have to put an animal down, especially a family pet, and the officer assures me that he never displayed any satisfaction in doing so.”

The mere fact that it must be stated to the public that a cop doesn’t get pleasure from killing a family pet shows what sort of depravity we’re willing to accept from our police forces.

This video is — like all of these videos — extremely graphic, not for the murder of an animal it depicts (which, as usual, is blurry and difficult to make out), but for the screams and wails of a family that knows their beloved friend has been killed for no reason.

Source: CNN

Ciarra

The alarm company called Elizabeth Fletcher to tell her that her alarm had gone off. Their house-sitter had gone out for breakfast, so they called 911. Soon, they reached the sitter, who arrived at the house around the same time as the officer.

Fletcher talked to the officer over the phone, joking. He had been the same officer who had come out a few months ago when her car had been broken into. The officer said he was going to take a look around and make sure everything was safe.

Then he went into the backyard and shot Ciarra. Neighbors Ashley Derrick and Alison Grounds rushed the dog to the vet, but she couldn’t be saved. In an email to the East Lake Neighbors Community Association, Derrick wrote:

“I asked why [the officer] had to shoot her. He could give me no answer.”

Fletcher said they were speaking out for one primary reason:

“We don’t want this to happen to anyone else.”

Source: Atlanta-Journal Constitution