Posted on 06/18/2012 11:34:26 PM PDT by Altariel
Michaela McCowen says she was sitting inside her house Thursday morning when she heard two gunshots in the yard. When she ran outside, she saw her dog lying in a pool of blood.
"She's on the ground and she's been shot and she's bleeding," said McCowen while standing outside her home in Athens, LA.
McCowen's 6-year old Golden Retriever, Tera, later died. She was shot twice by a Claiborne sheriff's detective.
"He saw the dog coming at him full speed, and showing his teeth. He told me he thought he was fixing to bite him," said Claiborne Sheriff Ken Bailey.
Sheriff Bailey says authorities were tracking some men who'd just tried to rob the bank in Athens when the shooting happened. Bailey says the detective felt threatened by the dog. McCowen says Tera, who was wearing a shock collar at the time, wouldn't have hurt a flea.
"She was so well-trained to stay inside of her area. She knew if she left her area for anything, she was getting shocked," said McCowen.
McCowen says what made the heartbreaking situation even worse is authorities showed no remorse. The sheriff says he couldn't be more sorry.
"I told the McCowens and I apologized for what happened, It's just an unfortunate incident. I hate it," said Bailey.
The sheriff says the shooting is being investigated. Michaela McCowen says she'd like to see more training when it comes to handling animals.
Former Navy Seal was the sole survivor of a mission in Afghanistan. He wrote a book about it.
I think you realize that the true tragedy here is not the dog being killed, which is terrible, but that the police/Sherriff will just rule that it was all on the up and up. If the LEO would be held to the same standard as any other citizen was held to then it would be ok. Unfortunately LEOs are held to less of a standard and you all watch after your own. If this happened then people would truly believe and support the police.
Your police department needs to spend some time at the post office finding out how they are able to deliver mail without antagonizing dogs or having to shoot them. Most departments have canine corps — don’t they teach officers how to handle dogs??? Invite the dog whisperer to hold a seminar. Any police officer who can’t handle a canine situation without shooting the canine should not be on the police force, and any officer who can’t tell a pit bull from a golden retriever should be sent to the pound.
One of the reasons I wouldn't want your a@@ around my place, nor any other LEO POS.
You and your kind are gradually alienating citizens of this country.
I doubt anyone loves dogs more than I do. That said, there are some dogs (and their stupid owners) that ought to be shot. My wife has spoken to two police officers concerning a loose, dangerous dog next door, but the police are powerless to preempt the problem before someone gets mauled. Our neighbor has a huge Great Pyrenees that keeps getting out of their yard (we suspect the neighbor actually lets it out to run). It roams around threatening people. On several occasions, it has run up within two feet of me or my wife in our yard, barking and acting like it means to kill us. I finally went to the neighbor (black with an attitude) and asked why he can’t keep the dog confined to its yard. I was dumbfounded by his utter lack of concern. He said, “The dog don’t bite, the dog is fine”. To make a long story short, I replied to him that “Well, I’m not fine, my wife is not fine, and we are terrified of your dog biting us. Dogs are still unpredictable animals and there is no guarantee that he won’t bite someone, like a child”. I further told him that if the dog does bite us, I would sue. He just turned and walked away. Until someone is bitten or mauled, the police will do nothing, because we have asked for help. My wife asked the police if I could shoot the dog if it came onto our property and threatened to bite us. They said no, that would be a Federal crime. Huh? Is that true? When minutes count, our county animal control is an hour away from when they are called.
Your city sounds like mine. Here in Ohio we have an ordinance ‘dog at large’ and we can summons the owner if their dog is running the neighborhood. I have issued alot of those. I don’t know how things are in Texas (if that is where your from) but I would check with your city or county law dept. and find out what the ordinance or state statutes are for dog at large. You may have just had a lazy cop show up at your door.
The woman that used to live 2 doors down from me was a convicted drug dealer. Her drug dealer boyfriend bought her 2 rottweiler puppies. She kept one, named “Kilo” which, when full grown, she let roam the neighborhood. The dog came after one of my kids and my wife.
I had asked her as a neighbor several times to keep ‘Kilo’ and her other dog, which constantly dumped in my yard, on leashes. She didn’t. I ended up having warrants issued for her arrest.
Neighbors in the area came to my house about the matter on several occasions wanting me to do something about it. Which I did.
Little did I know, if I had only checked FR first I would have known that I was supposed to gun down the dog and the neighbors. I can get away with it afterall.
My city, which is severely short handed at the police dept. did away with the ‘dog catcher’saying they had no money. Yet the mayor gave his cronies pay raises.
We are now forced, if we can’t get the county dog warden to come out, to shoot vicious dogs. Generally we use shotguns. It is just a matter of time before an errant shotgun pellet strikes somebody. Some of the officers have already hit some cars. Many of us have spoken out about this but our complaints fall on deaf ears.
The unions for awhile would not let us use the dog catchers equipment because it crossed union bounds.
I actually quit the union.
An officer I’m friendly with is getting sued in federal court. A pit bull was attacking a man and his son, who were on a bike. The officer, not wanting to take a chance on shooting and hitting them, drove his car at the pit bull. Although not injured or struck by the police car, the man is now suing the police dept. for scaring him, his son and causing him psychological injury. He thanked the officer for getting between him and the dog afterward but an ambulance chasing attorney evidently talked him into filing a lawsuit.
He’ll probably get several thousand dollars.
.....And if you *do* support your local police, they’ll promise to shoot some other dog instead.
What’s the point of my post? Amusement. Once in awhile I get a kick out of chatting with all my FRiends.
We’re coming for your guns too.
LOL
We live at the edge of Houston, but in the next country actually. My wife was speaking to HPD officers where she works, not at our house. I’ll look into the “dog at large” angle, thanks.
Somewhat like our local fire department.
They don’t *insist* that you “donate” but they remember if you didn’t.
I bet IN cops suddenly become much more polite and constitionally aware.
“but in the next country actually”
Let’s try that again....next county...
and at the same time proving Sarah Silverman’s wisdom.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.