Police violence against family pets: when will it end?

And now, another topic I thought I was done writing about for a good, long while. The last time I wrote a couple of posts about senseless violence against pet dogs by police officers, I had thought they were just a couple of isolated incidents. Now, it appears that is not the case and I can’t ignore this trend any longer. Especially not after reading these three stories:

The first takes place in the greater Detroit, MI, area (Saint Clair Shores). Officers responded to a call about a barking dog at the home of Brittany Preston. Brittany’s grandfather was in charge of taking care of the dog while Brittany was working. He had let the dog out by mistake, and she was barking to get back in. The dog turned around to bark at the police officers (seriously, what dog wouldn’t freak out when surrounded by a bunch of strangers). The cops say the dog attacked at them, and that’s when they shot her eight times. Another part of the story says the dog was cowering against the building according to witnesses; if so, this would make the cops out to be liars, which would not surprise me one bit. In fact, I’d have to see the dog actually jumping at the officers on video for me to believe the cops might possibly be in the right. Absent that video, my conclusion from the facts is that the officers saw the opportunity to shoot up a dog and quite possibly get away with it. Disgusting, and conduct unbecoming of a law enforcement officer.

That’s bad, but the second story is many times worse. This incident occurred in Staten Island, NY, where the cops in this case barged into a house without a warrant under dubious circumstances. On top of this, as can be discerned from the title, it’s not even a dog they kill for no reason, it’s a parakeet, a small bird with absolutely no chance against someone determined to end its life. There’s no reason at all for anyone to feel threatened by a parakeet. And yet, these cops brutally killed a parakeet by crushing and stomping, just because they could, and worse, they even said in as many words, “fuck your bird!” before doing so. Even worse, the criminal conduct by those sworn to uphold the law didn’t end with the death of the parakeet. The house was vandalized by these badge-wearing animals, including a door that was smashed in half and windows that were shattered. One resident and one guest were assualted (by the cops), with varying degrees of visible injuries (only one is pictured in the story). They sprayed an asthmatic daughter with pepper spray, nearly causing her to suffocate. On top of this, they filed charges against the family, which were (thankfully) dropped.

The third is the worst one in a way, but it’s about some filmmakers who had planned to bring this sad state of affairs to light in a documentary called “Puppycide.” Unfortunately, it appears the Kickstarter project for this movie did not meet its goal. After reading the first two posts, I definitely still want to see Puppycide or a movie like it produced and distributed. Michael Moore and others have proven that documentary films do work for raising awareness, and this is an issue that needs awareness.