Cruel Intentions or Coward?

Yesterday I learned of a police officer shooting and killing a neighborhood dog in Danville, VA. When I first heard the news my mind immediately created the scene I predicted I’d read about: A tense situation, perhaps a chase on foot, running through somebody’s yard, adrenaline high, and the stakes too. Maybe the cop was chasing an armed assailant. Suddenly a large, intimidating dog (maybe a guard dog) was running towards the officer, full frontal attack imminent, or maybe someone set the dog on the man. It was self-defense.

Then I actually read the story and watched this video. I was very surprised by the actual scenario, it was nothing like I imagined. There was no tense situation, well, not by police standards anyway, the guy was serving two warrants to a neighbor of the dog owner.

There was no armed assailant. In fact there was no large intimidating dog. Instead, there was an 11-year old, slightly rotund Mini-Dachshund who was doing what many of his kind do, growling at a stranger. Yes, this little dog’s name was Killer, but come on! It’s irony people, plus the police officer didn’t know the dog’s name.

From what I understand Killer was a reasonably friendly neighborhood icon. I do believe the officer’s account in which he says the dog lunged and attacked him, but there is no mention of injury to the officer at all, and really, how much of an attack could it have been?

There are many questions here: Why was Killer roaming free, unsupervised off of his property? Did the officer truly feel threatened? Is the officer afraid of dogs? Why did the police officer choose his handgun as his first line of defense when according to the story he could have also used his pepper spray? Surely that would have tamed a senior wiener dog. How could this crazy, would-be-comical-if-it-weren’t true situation have been avoided? What kind of dog-defense training do police officers get? Are they subjected to regular stress and personality tests? I am sure the man was startled, but surely that kind of thing happens to police officers all the time.

It’s too late for little Killer and his family. Such a terrible shame. My heart goes out to them for their loss.