Crazy dog shooting out of Australia

About a month ago, a family in Australia came home to find all three of their dogs missing. After a thorough search, it was suggested they contact police. When they did, they were horrified to find out what happened.

The dogs had been kept in the family's yard but got out. They had electrified, invisible fencing that failed. The three dogs wandered up a driveway where, in the yard, some goats lived. The owner of the goats called the police. Please to be remembering that the dogs never actually attacked the goats or people.

When the police officer arrived, the dogs approached her vehicle. She pepper-sprayed all three dogs. The dogs were not attacking and they backed away after they were pepper-sprayed.

Here's the part that breaks my heart: When animal control arrived, the dogs happily jumped into the back of his vehicle. He drove the dogs to another location, shot the two huskies point-blank in the head and then, because he felt "sorry" for the border collie did the correct thing and took her to the shelter. He dumped the two dogs bodies into a lime pit. I'm sorry, but if you have three aggressive dogs, they aren't going to jump happily into your vehicle. And even if the dogs *are* aggressive, once you have them safely confined, use the nifty device known as a catch-pole to transfer them from the vehicle to the shelter. You don't just shoot them in the head.

While the dogs did not have collars and tags, they DID have microchips. Apparently, the animal control officer thought he could just bypass the whole scanning of the dogs and kill them literally an hour after they had gotten loose because "The animal control officer had no reason to believe the dogs were microchipped". I'm with the family - that's pure rubbish.

I don't know what the laws in West Tamar are, but I can safely say this case was handled abhorrently. It's sue-worthy, in my opinion (at least in the US, it certainly would be). Even if the dogs were running loose, the moment they were safely confined is the same moment that shooting them in the head no longer becomes an option. I'm just appalled by how this was handled.