Cop shoots pet dog that bit him (after entering owner's backyard)

KHOU ^ | 5.27.05

[ambrose]

Cop shoots pet dog that bit him

06:52 PM CDT on Friday, May 27, 2005

By Wendell Edwards / 11 News

Click to watch video

A southeast Houston homeowner is angry that a Houston police officer shot his dog after walking into his backyard Friday morning.

The officer was responding to a burglary alarm call on Parliament when he encountered the dog.

"The officer was completely caught by surprise, you know. He was just responding, more or less to a routine alarm call," said HPD Lt. E.W. Harris. "And the dog was just in his backyard and the officer walked in and the dog attacked him."

The dog bit the Officer K.K. Miller on his left wrist so he shot him in the leg.

The dog's owners were devastated when they learned what happened.

They say the Great Pyrenees named J.P. has been part of their family for nearly a decade.

"...It's a loveable dog, but it's here to protect my family," said Franchelle Forgy, the owners' daughter.

Forgy said J.P. was on a long leash that allowed him to move around the backyard. She said the dog was only doing it's job.

"It's a pet, but it's like a human being. It has protected my family," Forgy said. "Years ago, we were robbed and, you know, in this neighborhood right now they need all the protection they can get."

Officer Miller drove himself to the hospital where he was treated and released.

The dog was critically injured and lost a lot of blood. The family says he may have to be put down.

The family took the dog to their private vet. Police cited them for failure to release the dog to animal control as required by law.

[Nov3]

My fav is still the tennessee dog shooting, where a family was mistakenly (crimial negligence for anyone else) arrested, cuffed and placed on their knees with their van door left open in spite of pleas to close it.

That was a classic. The guy left his wallet on top of the car and money blew out while they were driving. The cops somehow came to the conclusion that they had robbed someone and were throwing the money out (for some unexplained reason) and did a felony stop on them! The cop had previously shot some other peoples pets in their backyard. He was a real loser. To tell you how much he got fired over it which is unheard of!

The best part was the new face of FR who violently contested that the cop was right to shoot the dog in front of the family while it was wagging its tail!

[beltfed308]

I would bet that the dog was on a yard walk leash. If anything a bad guy was not going to get past the dog anymore than the cop. So why did the cop not go to the front door?

The officer must have been blind and deaf thereby creating the incident in my opinion.

[watchin]

Yeah, that caught my eye, too. Trespass, shoot the family dog, and then have the audacity to cite them. I might - might - let them slide on the first two, given they apologize profusely. But the citation would prompt the call to a lawyer.

[garybob]

When looking for bad guys, cops should always loudly and clearly announce where they are at all times.

Unless the burglary alarm was going off at the residence where the dog resided, the police had no business trespassing into the backyard without the owners permission.

Furthermore, if the officer is too blind to see a dog that size running toward him, he should seek another line of work.

[ambrose]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/819436/posts

[eastforker]

It is not required by law that animal control be given the dog, taking it to a private vet where it can be quarantined is sufficeint. Do they just make it up as they go along, sheesh.

[Mr. Mojo]

The best part was the new face of FR who violently contested that the cop was right to shoot the dog in front of the family while it was wagging its tail!

Gov't bootlickin' Freepers are legendary. ....ain't that right SolidSupplySide?

[darkangel82]

The best part was the new face of FR who violently contested that the cop was right to shoot the dog in front of the family while it was wagging its tail!

Yes, we have more than our share of statists and jackboot lickers on here.

[mmercier]

So the coppers shot a mutt.

I presently have two; one of them delivering me 12 stitches to the hand while trying to break him of a particularly annoying behavior trait.

His hole was dug, and this one handed "murderer" was ready to cap him and bury him quick...

Mom "saved" this mutt, only because she promised I would go to jail if I did him in... BTW, her (my mother's) father killed dogs and cats, and mink, and ground hog, and weasel, and swine, and sheep, and bovine, and fisher, and coon, and squirrel, and opossum..... like I kill steamers and hens.

Never harass any person that kills a dog after bitten, especially a copper or a watermetereader. >>Click to watch video << Skip it. I'll make my own later...

[AlexW]

Over last 5 to 10 years I have noticed a distinct change in
the makeup of one's local police, at least in my part of west Tennessee.
What use to be the friendly good old boy policeman has been replaced by the jackboot jerks that are on an ego trip.
Even in the small rural towns, they now dress like they are on a swat team, run constant speed traps in sleepy little towns, and basically have a real nasty attitude, as if YOU are there to serve them.
At times, I think they are a bigger threat then the criminals.

[ambrose]

Many cops are little more than criminals with a badge. Same exact mentality, but they just took a different career route.

[SolidSupplySide]

Unless the burglary alarm was going off at the residence where the dog resided

According to the TV station, the burglary alarm was going off at the residence where the dog resided.

I'm sure the anti-police posters on FR would complain if the cop simply left the residence because noone answered the door. How was the cop supposed to know that the burglar hadn't tied up the family in a home invasion? Was he really supposed to leave because he couldn't get permission to search when noone answered the door? I believe the burglarly call required the cop to search.

Just like there are anti-military reporters at Newsweek and elsewhere in the MSM who are willing to believe the worst about our fine soldiers and marines, there are anti-police posters on FR who will blame the cops no matter what they do.

[Old_Mil]

Unless the burglary alarm was going off at the residence where the dog resided, the police had no business trespassing into the backyard without the owners permission. Right you are. And you'd think that the police would be a lot smarter than this considering in many cases when they enter private property they don't have home field advantage and are very likely to be outgunned.

[AlexW]

"there are anti-police posters on FR"

Don't be silly...
We are not anti police, but anti arrogant police actions.

Your attitude seems to be one of "kill anything that moves, then sort it out later"

[SolidSupplySide]

We are not anti police, but anti arrogant police actions.

What was arrogant about this cop's actions? He responded to a burgarly call, searched the back yard of the residence, was attacked by a dog (who the owners claim is there for protection -- not a docile dog), and defends himself. Where is the arrogance?

I bet the cop faces no disciplinary action. Primarily because he did nothing wrong.

What do you think of Lt. Pantano? Is he arrogant, too?

[TheCrusader]

"Yeah, what the hell was the cop doing responding to a burglary call without getting on the loudspeaker and announcing it to the whole neighborhood?"

Ahem, how about letting the family know he's there? It's their house that was supposedly being burgled. That way the cop gets to see if they're alright, if they need any help, AND he gets the dog put safely out of his way. Did this cop have Mace??? That's all they give to letter carriers who have to do this sort of stuff every day of their lives. Frankly, I'm very weary of cops just doing as they please these days and morons backing them up no matter how far over the top they go, or no matter how fast and loose they are with their guns.

[thoughtomator]

I see this as a stupid homeowner problem. If you have a dog for protection and a burglar alarm, exactly what do you expect the dog to do when someone comes to check out the alarm?

[CA Conservative]

I have to disagree with you. The article clearly says that the dog was on a leash, so the officer did not need to shoot the dog to "protect himself". All he had to do was move out of the range of the leash. That he shot the dog anyway makes it sound more like vengeance than self-protection.

Any time someone enters a private yard unannounced, whether police or private citizen, they take upon themselves the responsibility for any injury they sustain, IMHO. If the homeowner had heard the shot and killed the officer in question before he realized who it was, it would be the officer's fault, not the homeowner's.

[Pedant]

The point is NOT that the dog's life is either important or unimportant, the point is that the cop, unannounced, entered private property, and damaged valuable private property (the dog) and endangered innocent lives by discharging his firearm in a residential area.

<not sarcsasm>Police should always clearly and loudly announce their presence when entering an unknown situation.</not sarcsasm>

This is department policy in any good police force!

If the cop had peeked in the window and been shot by a citizen who thought that he was a burglar - which is probable, given that the alarm had been triggered and that the cop was sneaking around, unannounced (as burglars do, and as good law enforcement professional do not - then the citizen would likely have been charged with some crime: homicide, murder or manslaughter, and have his gun taken away forever.

One of the reasons to have a dog on the premises is so that nobody, including the police can be there unannounced.

The police in most areas of the U.S. have become thugs, the good ones quit, because they don't like the direction the department is headed, and new recruits are indoctrinated into the 'Blue Wall/ Code of Silence/ We-are-all-brothers-behind-the-badge/ "There are 2 kinds of people in the world: Cops and perps-and-victims" ' mentality.

I think it's a very telling thing that a search for "Police Riot" on google returns 1,690,000 results, "Riot Police returns 1,790,000.

2,260,000 for "Beaten by Police" 838,000 for "Cops Suck" 708,000 for "Police shoot dog" 260,000 for "unarmed man shot by police"

"Police commmendation" returns 17 results, but 161,000 for "Police fired misconduct".

25,600,000 for "Need more police" 13,900,000 for "Need less police" apparently pro-police-slanted stories are becoming less effective at convincing Citizens that we need more police...

"Police in riot gear" + "nonviolent protest" returns 68... this is a very focused search, yet there are quite a few stories, the meme "Police Riot" meaning a riot-caused or exacerbated by the presence of armed-and-armored police (or soldiers acting in concert with or representing themselves to be Police) has spread like wildfire in recent years.

260,000 for "unarmed man shot by police" 595,000 for "unarmed police" ... seems the public is beginning to wonder whether it is good to employ armed men who consider themselves to be the embodiment of the law or even above the law.

As a security proffessional for several years, I have noticed that people are more willing to do the right thing if they don't feel that they are being coerced, or forced at gunpoint. The Secret Service Presidential Protection detail doesn't arrive on the scene swaggering in body armor and helmets... and also don't tend to provoke the citizenry.

Over-armed and undisciplined police are a danger to themselves, to their community, and a threat to lawful order and discipline.