Buffalo narcotics officers shot and killed two family pets in a drug raid. One dog was a 5-yr-old boxer/pit bull mix who was shot three times for jumping off the couch. The other dog, a 4-yr-old pit bull, was shot from behind as he ran away from officers.
The raid was for hydrocdone pills, like vicodin and apparently was SO very important that officers just had to storm the house, kill the dogs and then scratch their heads in wonderment when, surprise!, no pills were found. This was a case where the owners could have been given ample opportunities to secure their dogs. Instead, some trigger-happy officer blew away two family pets.
Police officials claimed that "these dogs are trained to kill".
Oh, really?
Like this cattle dog in Maryland who was shot to death during a no-knock paramilitary raid on a home....for a person who hadn't lived there for three years? Or this Dalmatian in Florida who was shot during a drug search for barking at an officer while securely enclosed in her backyard? Or maybe these two Labs in Maryland were also trained to kill? Afterall, they were running away from officers during a paramilitary (SWAT) no-knock raid. Running away is now the new "trained to kill" behavior. Or maybe it's the four dogs shot and killed by police in Omaha all during drug raids; with one exception, none of the dogs attempted to eat anybody.
I just cannot imagine ALL of these dogs are trained to kill, especially when many of them are in homes where no drug activity occurs. As to the recent Buffalo case - is the possibility of finding vicadin pills really worth an automatic death sentence for two beloved pets? Not to mention the valid fear that the officer could have misfired and hit the owner of the dogs sitting five feet away. Or that the house was in a residential area and the guy was shooting with a large shotgun. The officer's response seemed excessive, at best, criminal at worst. Sadly, it's doubtful the officer will receive any proper training on how to interact with dogs and their owners or any fines or jail time for killing two family pets.
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