Town pays $40,000 after cop shoots pet
http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/judgment-day-after-cop-shoots-family-pet/
Witnesses said dog was chewing on rawhide bone when slain
Published: 11 hours ago
The move by the town of Erie is the latest development in a long string of such shootings on which WND has reported.
ABC's affiliate in Denver reported the decision to make the payment to Brittany Moore for the shooting of her German shepherd, Ava, ended four years of litigation.
The dog was shot by Erie police officer Jamie Chester when he went to her home after she reported a threatening telephone call.
Charges were not filed against the officer because the Boulder County prosecuting attorney found the officer "justified in using deadly and physical force."
But ABC said, "Lawyers for Moore said three witnesses to the shooting agreed that Ava did not show any aggressive behavior toward the officer at any time and still had a rawhide bone in her mouth when she was shot."
Moore told ABC, "This case has never been about the money. I have spent the last four years working to make positive changes in police procedures that work to everyone's benefit."
In fact, officials say the police agency has launched training for officers and provided equipment, such as poles, to deal safely with family pets.
"Brittany has been steadfast in her determination to protect the public and their animals since she lost Ava," Jennifer Edwards, attorney and founder of The Animal Law Center, told ABC. "Because of Brittany's efforts, the Erie Police Department has adopted new, nonlethal procedures for handling canines while conducting police business."
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That was in New Jersey, when an officer was dispatched to a call for assistance and went to the wrong house.
NJ.com reported the shooting of Otto, a German Shepherd, prompted one commenter to suggest the slogan, "Paws up. Don't shoot," a reference to the "Hands up. Don't shoot" slogan that arose from the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.
In New Jersey, Igor Vikobratovic's dog was shot and killed by officer Kyle Ferreira while he was investigating a burglary report. But the report came from the house across the street from the Vikobratovic home.
Police Chief Benjamin Fox said the officer knocked when he arrived and then opened a gate at the end of a driveway. The dog came out of a window in the home and the officer shot and killed him.
Across the street, the neighbors who were waiting for police told NJ.com they watched Ferreira arrive at the wrong house, go into the yard and shoot the dog.
See the local report:
The growing rash of animal shootings by police officers nationwide has law-enforcement agencies running for cover and has prompted calls by state legislators about greater accountability.
WND reported police in Utah shot a family's dog while searching for a lost boy, prompting hundreds of pet owners to protest last June 28 in front of the Salt Lake City Police Department headquarters. They carried signs demanding "justice for Geist," a 110-pound Weimaraner shot by a city cop within the dog's fenced-in backyard. The "missing" boy was later found sleeping in his home.
Watch video of the man whose dog, Geist, was killed by Salt Lake City Police:
Other reports have surfaced in West Virginia, Maryland and California.
The West Virginia incident happened June 24 in a rural area of Mason County. A paramilitary unit scoured the woods bordering the property of 32-year-old Ginger Sweat. Her dog, a 6-year-old beagle-basset hound named Willy Pete, woke up from an afternoon snooze on his porch to the sound of eight officers coming out of the adjacent woods. Willy Pete scampered off to investigate. Sweat, who was putting one of her two young children down for a nap, looked out the window and saw an officer with a police dog on a leash emerge from the woods and ran out outside pleading with the officers not to shoot her dog, begging them to let her bring it inside.
The officer shot once, missing Willy Pete but sending the dog, which had arthritis in its back legs, running back toward Sweat, she told the Charleston Daily Mail. Three more shots were fired. Willy Pete fell dead in a pool of blood behind Sweat's mobile home.
Richard Bruce Rosenthal, general counsel and co-founder of New York-based the Lexus Project, said police across the country are trending toward less tolerance and less respect for people's pets, which he sees as part of a larger trend toward more aggressive policing tactics in America.
"It is a growing problem and part of it is, post 9/11, our judicial system has basically trashed the Constitution under the mantle of security, and personal rights cease to exist," Rosenthal told WND.
"All over the country we have cops shooting dogs for no other reason than they can. And our courts and our elected officials, rather than protecting the citizens and the Constitution, simply see it as a way to take more power and more money. I think it's a civil-rights violation. I think it's a constitutional violation."
A list of shootings:
http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/judgment-day-after-cop-shoots-family-pet/
Witnesses said dog was chewing on rawhide bone when slain
Published: 11 hours ago
The move by the town of Erie is the latest development in a long string of such shootings on which WND has reported.
ABC's affiliate in Denver reported the decision to make the payment to Brittany Moore for the shooting of her German shepherd, Ava, ended four years of litigation.
The dog was shot by Erie police officer Jamie Chester when he went to her home after she reported a threatening telephone call.
Charges were not filed against the officer because the Boulder County prosecuting attorney found the officer "justified in using deadly and physical force."
But ABC said, "Lawyers for Moore said three witnesses to the shooting agreed that Ava did not show any aggressive behavior toward the officer at any time and still had a rawhide bone in her mouth when she was shot."
Moore told ABC, "This case has never been about the money. I have spent the last four years working to make positive changes in police procedures that work to everyone's benefit."
In fact, officials say the police agency has launched training for officers and provided equipment, such as poles, to deal safely with family pets.
"Brittany has been steadfast in her determination to protect the public and their animals since she lost Ava," Jennifer Edwards, attorney and founder of The Animal Law Center, told ABC. "Because of Brittany's efforts, the Erie Police Department has adopted new, nonlethal procedures for handling canines while conducting police business."
<broken link removed>
<broken link removed>
That was in New Jersey, when an officer was dispatched to a call for assistance and went to the wrong house.
NJ.com reported the shooting of Otto, a German Shepherd, prompted one commenter to suggest the slogan, "Paws up. Don't shoot," a reference to the "Hands up. Don't shoot" slogan that arose from the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.
In New Jersey, Igor Vikobratovic's dog was shot and killed by officer Kyle Ferreira while he was investigating a burglary report. But the report came from the house across the street from the Vikobratovic home.
Police Chief Benjamin Fox said the officer knocked when he arrived and then opened a gate at the end of a driveway. The dog came out of a window in the home and the officer shot and killed him.
Across the street, the neighbors who were waiting for police told NJ.com they watched Ferreira arrive at the wrong house, go into the yard and shoot the dog.
See the local report:
The growing rash of animal shootings by police officers nationwide has law-enforcement agencies running for cover and has prompted calls by state legislators about greater accountability.
WND reported police in Utah shot a family's dog while searching for a lost boy, prompting hundreds of pet owners to protest last June 28 in front of the Salt Lake City Police Department headquarters. They carried signs demanding "justice for Geist," a 110-pound Weimaraner shot by a city cop within the dog's fenced-in backyard. The "missing" boy was later found sleeping in his home.
Watch video of the man whose dog, Geist, was killed by Salt Lake City Police:
Other reports have surfaced in West Virginia, Maryland and California.
The West Virginia incident happened June 24 in a rural area of Mason County. A paramilitary unit scoured the woods bordering the property of 32-year-old Ginger Sweat. Her dog, a 6-year-old beagle-basset hound named Willy Pete, woke up from an afternoon snooze on his porch to the sound of eight officers coming out of the adjacent woods. Willy Pete scampered off to investigate. Sweat, who was putting one of her two young children down for a nap, looked out the window and saw an officer with a police dog on a leash emerge from the woods and ran out outside pleading with the officers not to shoot her dog, begging them to let her bring it inside.
The officer shot once, missing Willy Pete but sending the dog, which had arthritis in its back legs, running back toward Sweat, she told the Charleston Daily Mail. Three more shots were fired. Willy Pete fell dead in a pool of blood behind Sweat's mobile home.
Richard Bruce Rosenthal, general counsel and co-founder of New York-based the Lexus Project, said police across the country are trending toward less tolerance and less respect for people's pets, which he sees as part of a larger trend toward more aggressive policing tactics in America.
"It is a growing problem and part of it is, post 9/11, our judicial system has basically trashed the Constitution under the mantle of security, and personal rights cease to exist," Rosenthal told WND.
"All over the country we have cops shooting dogs for no other reason than they can. And our courts and our elected officials, rather than protecting the citizens and the Constitution, simply see it as a way to take more power and more money. I think it's a civil-rights violation. I think it's a constitutional violation."
A list of shootings:
- <broken link removed> .
- Newton, Iowa, family wants answers after officer shoots dog, June 24.
- Woman upset after police shoot dog in Topeka, Kansas, June 20.
- <broken link removed> .
- <broken link removed> .
- Baltimore police officer accused of slitting the throat of dog, June 14.
- Police officer cites aggression in killing homeless man's dog June 14.
- Police officer charged after shooting friendly dog in Sulphur, Louisiana, June 11.
- Beverly, New Jersey, cop shoots dog at close range, June 10.
- <broken link removed> .
- Round Rock, Texas, police shoot, kill family's dog inside their home while responding to false alarm, May 30
