Radley Balko notes that there’s a growing trend for cops to shoot dogs in their botched drug raids, even when it’s a neighbor’s dog in a yard they’re cutting through:
When the target of the raid and the dog’s owner proves to be innocent, a low-level pissant offender, or a medical marijuana patient (and there are multiple examples of all three), there’s generally no apology or compensation from the police department for needlessly pumping the famiily dog full of lead. What’s worse, most courts the monetary value on the loss of a pet at zero. So should the neighborhood SWAT team erroneously break into your house and kill your dog, you can forget about a lawsuit.
On a slightly lighter note, I relayed my “they always shoot the dog” observation to a colleague here at Cato. He told me he’s discoverd something as he’s given interviews and speeches over the years about the Waco massacre.
Apparently, people who think that perhaps the government acted properly in invading and burning down a house of largely innocent (but admidetly weird) people get really pissed off when they learn that the federal government also slaughtered the Brand Davidian dogs. Women and children? Meh. Weirdo cultists probably deserved it. But…
“They killed the dogs? Aw, man. That’s bullshit.”
Which begs the question: Where’s PETA in all of this?
Well, apparently they only get outraged if the cops put the dog on a grill or the owner has underfed the poor canine.
sucker, ʟʟᴄ