Puppycide

Radley Balko | September 23, 2008

Police serving a search warrant in Haltom City, Texas say an officer had no choice but to shoot and kill an "aggressive" Jack Russell terrier.

More on why "they always shoot the dog" here.

Comments

Not a jack russell|9.23.08 @ 11:52PM|#

but close

(btw, don't let the snark hide the fact that Radley continues his magnificent batting average of leaving me pissed off after he posts.)

ktc2|9.23.08 @ 11:58PM|#

So if they shoot a chihuahua puppy and say they were afraid for their life who will call bullshit? I mean whom that can actually do something about it. Nobody of course.

Now as if we didn't have enough armed adrenalin junkies running amuck in our cities Radley has this:

http://www.theagitator.com/2008/09/23/um-6/

How convenient one month prior to election day!

Meh|9.24.08 @ 12:16AM|#

Well the cop might have been bit, and that bite might get infected...so the cop really didn't have a choice but to shoot the dog.

And lets not forget that Jack Russell Terriers are a favorite of drug dealers and other thugs. They are after all bred to be aggressive.

Naga Sadow|9.24.08 @ 12:22AM|#

ktc2,

To be fair, chihuahua's are quite possibly the most vicious animals I have ever met. And I've had a run in with a bear before!

LarryA|9.24.08 @ 12:24AM|#

This should solve the cops' problem.

Seer|9.24.08 @ 12:26AM|#

Jack Russels are highly, highly territorial animals. Small, but nasty.

Jim Dangle|9.24.08 @ 12:27AM|#

Larry-
Are they assless?

The Wine Commonsewer|9.24.08 @ 12:38AM|#

Just four days earlier, police had arrested Dustin Keeble at the house on suspicion of stealing a car, evading arrest and possession of a controlled substance.

Keeble, 20, has nine convictions ranging from theft to assault with bodily injury dating to February 2005, according to Tarrant County criminal court records. He was last sentenced to six years in prison in April 2007 for unlawful possession of a firearm, theft and burglary, records show.

Here's your problem.

Sentenced to six years in prison in 2007, arrested four days ago for car theft, yet, inexplicably, he's out of jail in 2008 and creating more mayhem.

ktc2|9.24.08 @ 12:47AM|#

TWC,

Well you know they got to make room in prison for all the potheads somehow!

|9.24.08 @ 1:57AM|#

Another blow struck in the War on Terrier.

(too obvious?)

|9.24.08 @ 2:38AM|#

Has anyone ever seen that Mark Wahlberg movie "Shooter"? There's a part where the Wahlberg character insists he knows that the government officials chasing after him are wrong because "They SHOT my DOG!"

It's crazy to think that just a year to two years ago people unquestioningly assumed that killing dogs in "the line of duty" was a laughable offence... now no one questions it at all! It's practically protocol!

Jonas|9.24.08 @ 2:39AM|#

.

|9.24.08 @ 2:52AM|#

Just so you know, cops in Dallas and Ft. Worth are some of THE most aggressive I have ever seen. Even the Transit cops will frisk someone for not buying a train ticket. I actually witnessed that tonight.

|9.24.08 @ 2:52AM|#

Shooter was a really, REALLY bad movie all around.

Ranilen|9.24.08 @ 7:13AM|#

As someone who has worked around dogs, I have a MUCH easier time buying a story about an aggressive Jack Russell than about an aggressive Labrador Retriever. The little dogs are always the nasty ones.

ed|9.24.08 @ 7:17AM|#

They shot Eddie! Those bastards!

|9.24.08 @ 8:41AM|#

It would be cool if the cops busted someone keeping an endangered species as a pet, and they shot that one, thus violating federal law. Then we'd see some action on this front.

Though there's probably much more reason to fear for your life from a Komodo Dragon than from a terrier...

|9.24.08 @ 8:51AM|#

Well, the cops want to shoot somebody, and if the humans present don't provide a target through armed resistance, the dog gets the lead. I mean, why do a raid if you aren't going to shoot something?

wicker man|9.24.08 @ 9:17AM|#

This thread is just another example of 9/10/01 thinking. How did the officers know whether the dog was wearing a bomb belt under its cute little doggie sweater?

"We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf." -- George Orwell

|9.24.08 @ 9:52AM|#

Sure, sure, the Jack Russell was aggressive.

So what? That's a capital offense? For those who have never met a Jack Russell, they are about a foot at the shoulder and weigh about fifteen pounds.

Any cop who can't handle a dog that size without gunning it down should be fired. On the spot.

JMR|9.24.08 @ 10:12AM|#

Now I feel safe.

emmajane|9.24.08 @ 10:18AM|#

Code Monkey Steve wins. But everybody knows that the cops get extra points for every dog they kill!

|9.24.08 @ 10:22AM|#

What RC said. You don't need to shoot it; you could just wring it's neck!

Abdul|9.24.08 @ 10:31AM|#

My mother once called me and the cops because she found a possum in her kitchen eating the cat food. By the time I arrived, the possum was doing what discovered possums do--being absolutely still. One of the cops was standing on a chair like the frightened maids in Tom & Jerry cartoons.

Luckily, they didn't open fire, and I was able to wrangle the possum outside.

DR|9.24.08 @ 10:50AM|#

I am not saying that the cop should have shot the dog, but did anyone else notice the article stated that the jack russell terrier was 40 punds? That's a HUGE jack. I'm calling bullshit on the size or breed of the dag.

|9.24.08 @ 10:51AM|#

I mean, c'mon. I've owned pit bulls for twenty years. In that time, I've had to sort out two dog fights (one pit was just a bad actor that my ex-wife wanted to adopt, the other was started by the neighbor's extremely stupid German Shepherd; I would have just let my dog just finish the Shepherd, but my wife and the neighbor were standing right there).

If an out-of-shape lawyer can handle a fighting mad ninety pound pit bull, a cop should be able to handle a fucking fifteen pound Jack Russell.

|9.24.08 @ 10:52AM|#

Or a forty pound Jack Russell.

A|9.24.08 @ 11:23AM|#

Police have responded 65 times to the house since March 2003, according to Haltom City police records.

|9.24.08 @ 1:47PM|#

Assuming the cop carried common police ammo (.40S&W Hydroshok), how was there enough left of the dog to know the breed?

Also, can we come right out and officially declare that a cop who fears for his safety from a yapping rat should have the phrase "complete pussy" added to their employment record?

|10.3.09 @ 6:27AM|#

I was there when it happened. The cops used unnessasary force when handling all of us that were there. The dog they shot was a very sweet dog. He wasent aggressive, he was scared. Hell, even my pitbull was scared. The only reason she didnt get shot is because she ran away. Haltom city cops are the most crooked cops i have ever seen in my whole life. They will assult or shoot when ever they can get away with it. They need a whole new force.

S R|10.20.09 @ 7:41PM|#

Would the cop also shoot a 2 year old child wielding a knife? Unless I'm stupidly mistaken, a 2 year old child weighs much more than a jack russell...

Besides, although neither of my 2 jack russells have ever bitten anyone or anything, I'm sure they'd be well within their right to if some stranger came barging into their home waving a gun and screaming at them and me...even if they were a cop. Anyway, I'm sure his ankles are not a source of certain death, considering thats about as high up as a Jack could bite, I think the cop is fairly safe.
PS...when it gets down to it, couldn't he have just kicked it away if it attacked rather than killing it?