Please take a moment to sign the petition at http://CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com/animals to protest the cruelty of the unnecessary killing of pet dogs by police during encounters with citizens.
Our first story comes to us by way of the Associated Press (click to watch the video). A 62-year-old grandmother in Washington, DC tells AP that police came to her home serving a drug warrant for her 28-year-old grandson. The grandma asks to put her dog in the back yard or the bathroom. The cops tell her the bathroom would be fine. Later, the cops open the bathroom door, claim this 13-year-old dog named “Wrinkles” attacked them, and they shoot it multiple times. By the way, the grandson hasn’t lived in the home for a dozen years and the only drugs cops found were what they claimed was “drug residue” on some baggies, which the grandma contends is the residue of fortune cookies.
Our second story is just this video, which was uploaded to YouTube on June 10, claiming to be the Lagrange, Missouri, police department shooting an calm dog they had already gotten into a noose and immobilized.
In the beginning of the video you can see the dog calmly hanging out in front of the family home. At 1:53 we see an officer enter the frame, then back off because of the dog, which is eight feet away and never makes a threatening move. Another officer approaches at 2:10 from the front, so now officers are to the dog’s right and fore.
Dog-killing cop petting the dog that was so aggressive, he had to shoot it twice.
The dog is barking, but is on a chain. At 2:26 the 2nd officer approaches the dog and bends over and scratches its head – the dog seems to not be threatening the officer. He spends nearly 45 seconds ensuring the chain is on the dog’s neck as he gets the rest of the length of chain into his hands to lead the dog. The 1st officer at 3:00 appears to be taking a cell phone camera picture of the dog.
As the two officers surround and restrain the dog with the chain, it seems to not be aggressive or threatening. At 3:16 the 2nd officer unholsters his pistol. At 3:40 they lead the dog out of frame.
Officer Doug Howell, the he-man, Lagrange Missouri cop who shoots unaggressive restrained dogs (his latest victim under a blanket over his shoulder)
When the officers return to frame, we’re looking at another angle. At 3:43 they’ve got the dog out in the street as 2nd officer approaches with the stick-noose that animal control will use to keep an animal at bay. The dog is still on a chain, which seems to be fastened to the bumper of one of the patrol cars. The dog is frightened and trying to escape, but still not aggressive toward the officers. When the cops aren’t approaching the dog, it is literally standing absolutely still (see 4:34). At 5:27, the dog just sits down calmly. At 5:47 it lies down in the middle of the road, still on a chain, presenting no visual evidence of being threatening or aggressive.
Dog-killing cop faces serious danger from dog he petted earlier now that it is secured by a noose at the end of a ten-foot-pole.
At 6:24 the 1st officer is looking at the dog in the road and furtively looking around the neighborhood to see if anyone is watching. The 2nd officer comes into frame, apparently talking on his cell phone. At 7:12 2nd officer comes back into frame with the stick-noose and the dog gets up and backs away defensively. At 7:39 he appears to secure the noose on the dog, which then quickly runs through the frame. 1st officer reacts to 2nd officer and dog off frame and runs across while drawing his firearm.
Finally, after a chain, a noose, a pole, and two shots from a police firearm, the dog-killing cop is once again safe!
The dog resists the stick noose and the 2nd officer holding the stick noose comes back into frame. When the dog stops, 2nd officer pulls his gun, 1st officer covers his ears and steps back out of frame, and 2nd officer shoots the dog while still controlled by the stick-noose (at 8:17). The dog falls onto its side, but it is still alive, flailing a tail or leg (hard to tell), until the 2nd officer fires a second shot into the dog’s head forty seconds later, killing it.
The Hannibal Courier-Post reports:
The officers were responding to a call from LaGrange resident Mary Coleman that the dog had acted threateningly toward her and her daughter as they walked to a school bus stop.
“It was growling at my six-year-old,” Coleman testified. “I wanted my kid to be safe and myself to be safe.”
[The dog's owner, Marcus] Mays pointed out that the dog could not have been too angry because Coleman chained it at her home while [Officer Doug] Howell [the "2nd Officer"] and [Officer Jason] Powell [the "1st Officer] went to get special equipment used in handling animals.
The video shows that at one point, the dog laid down on the street and remained motionless for a time.
Howell testified that the dog growled as he tried to load it into a truck, that it later broke free from a chain tied to the vehicle and eventually charged as he tried to capture it with a six-foot catchpole.
Powell described the dog as “aggressive” and “vicious.” Both officers had electroshock weapons, but did not use them because they said the effectiveness would have lasted only five seconds.
Howell said that he felt the only option to protect the safety of neighbors was to shoot the dog.
Howell fired one shot to the chest, which felled the animal. On the video, the dog can then be seen wagging its tail. Howell said he fired a shot to the head “because I didn’t want the dog to suffer.”
How much threat to the neighbors can the dog be when two cops have it in a noose at the end of a pole?!?
Contact your elected representatives and urge them to 'Stop Arresting Marijuana Smokers'. 
This is one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever watched. It made me absolutely furious & sick to my stomach!! I am so tired of the cops who are on a power trip, cops who think that their badge gives them the right to do whatever they want to people, animals etc! And this woman who called the police because she was.supposedly scared of this dog…so scared for her & her kid that she took the time to chain this dog up at her own home!? WTF!? She is just as guilty for this wrong doing as the two cops who tortured & killed the poor dog. What a disgrace these people are!
What an assanine comment. Christians are the love that is found in the world. It is comments like yours that bred these repressive idiots to go out and kill.
I’ve worked with animals for over 20 years. Where was animal control. Secondly the dog never became aggressive. He only became fearful when they got out the catch pole. I have never seen a dog not fearful of something going at them that they are not familiar with. After they shot the poor dog it was wagging his tail. That is the most stupid thing I have ever seen. I thought the others were bad. I think this takes the cake.
My human wrote a blog post about this.
Terrorists Dressed as Police Shoot Dogs with Impunity Across USA
[...] I could literally find stories of police shooting harmless dogs all day, but I’d get really depressed if I did. However here is one more, from June 2010. This one is so incredibly ridiculous, and yet it shows the profound contempt, disrespect, hostility,… [...]
Oh, George, I was so ready to publish your comment until you used the derogatory f-word epithet for gay men. Sorry, homophobia don’t fly here.
Nothing like giving another psychopath a badge to protect him from being responsible for his actions. As a society we need to let law enforcement know we do not approve of tactics like this.
It seems plausible that law enforcement could easily use non-lethal means of calming dogs while protecting themselves by using pepper spray for animals. http://bit.ly/dxdtzp
“Its revolutionary citronella formula halts low- to medium-level aggression from dogs, cats, snakes, racoons, opossums, etc., without the harmful side effects of pepper spray. It also won’t injure you if it accidentally gets into your eyes.”
That was a disgusting sight (almost worse than the Missouri swat shooting). These fucking cops think they have the right to do this. Where is animal control isn’t that what we are paying taxes for the humane treatment of animals, but apparently we paying all our taxes for the god damn cops to shoot a scared defenseless dog which allowed one of the officers to put a leash on him. It wasn’t till they brought out that pole with the noose on the end did the dog become frightened. That poor sweet dog. FUCK those cops and I hope they get whats coming. How are these officers able to look at themselves in the mirror much be able to go home and look at there families after doing such horrible acts such as this.
[...] was another heartbreaking dog killing by police in Lagrange, Missouri, caught on video that you can view on our NORML Stash Blog. This incident did not involve a drug warrant, however. Instead it was a report of an aggressive [...]
To Protect and Serve huh?
Wanna guess what happens to anyone who would dare to attempt to protect an innocent animal from these bloodthirsty thugs?
WE NEED TO START A REVOLUTION AGAINST THE POLICE!!!!!!
when will we stand up foor ourselves and our pets?
the only kind of person that could kill such a helpless and odviously loving animal is someone who is insane, or has a very very small dick.
this is evidence of the massive egos and power trips our government has legally allowed the very people who are supposed to serve and protect us to act on.
I would never do this, infact I am a peaceful stoner veggitarian<3 but if I did I believe I would be prosecuted as a criminal, just as this man should!
this man is a COWARD!
The cop with the pole started the dog’s aggression. Poor thing,,,, i would act the same way if someone had me by the neck with a poll. It’s no wonder so many people disrespect the police.
Mr Obama, tear down this wall! We’re supposed to be free people, but this stuff looks like East Berlin back in the cold war. Close down the drug gulags, too.
You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!!! The guy had the dog restrained! Then he just shoots it! Looks more like animal cruelty to me. More than once does he shoot a nonviolent, restrained dog!!!!! He should be charged himself. WTF! There is a special place for people like him. Maybe it would be one thing if the dog was running free but at no point did it seem like that dog was a threat, maybe because he had it on a pole the whole time. Right now I can’t even fathom what I just saw. We as people should be ashamed of ourselves. We let this happen. All of us. We allow these people with no heart, or compassion to “protect” us? Cops don’t care. Most of them are bullies or cast outs from high school who’ve got something to prove, as you can see. I’ll never be the same after what I just witnessed.
3 words.
FUCK. THE. POLICE.
Nuff said.
i too would like to put bullets into the fuckin gestapo for such a cruel vicious lame assed thing they did
For those who are still Christian or know Christians please show them what our police are doing to us. The Christian friends I know are highly educated, good and moral people… yet they are 100% oblivious to the horrors of prohibition and the [apparent] police state we now have in America.
To those outside of the US, if America falls the world falls. In America 75% of its citizens are Christian. Therefore Christians make ALL the laws. It’s my observation that Christians do not care one tiny bit for the welfare of others… as long as they get what they want.
DIRTY BUMS WITH BADGES!!!! as the cali marijuana report says, I love that term and I use it religously now!
They can come to our homes and shoot and kill our dogs but if we harm their K-9 Dogs we can be charged with Murdering a police officer.This Country needs to wake up and realize the Cops of this Country and the Gov don’t give a damn about our Rights as citizens and people.What kind of Man shoots a dog that didn’t harm anybody? A coward!! Most cops are in my experience.They breath and eat off of other peoples mistakes and bad times this i what makes this Country what it is.There is a good part of this Country that Makes their Big incomes off of the Criminal Justice System its better that the stock market from what i hear.While the other half of us Just want to live in peace with are homegrown meds.
FYI to anyone with the time and skills to set up a web site… the domain CopsShootingDogs.com is available.
I have been saying for awhile now that cops are not our friends.
Read the article, the person that claimed the dog was threatening her child chained the dog up at HER home then called the cops.
i understand how messed up it is that they shot the dog but people your missing the point they should not have even been at this ladies house, the grandson didnt live there, then the cops opened the door to the bathroom the lady asked to put the dog in, and as for being attacked i didnt see a vicious dog i saw a cop who had a gun and wanted to look good for his officer friends, i believe there should be something done about our so called protectors yes they put the so called bad people (including pot smokers) in jail but who is supposed to protect us from those above the law
I just sent a link to the video to the ASPCA with a letter saying that I would no longer contribute money to their organization. I also said that I would encourage my friends and family to not support them until they made an official statement condemning the actions of law enforcement.
Maybe everyone else can do the same.
They stop getting donations they they will know why.
Can we start a site which would have a count of the number of dogs killed by police? As the list grows longer maybe America will start to wake up. I am so ashamed to call myself an American at this point in time. American principles are being destroyed systematically by all the branches of government. Until Americans start to vote in record numbers NOTHING will change. We have to vote out these people who are bigoted and willing to do anything for the almighty dollar.
I cannot believe this.. This is so disheartening. In the video, you can clearly see that the dog was not hostile to the officers, but frightened. Now it seems like every week I am reading a new story pertaining to police brutality not only to suspects whom they are apprehending, but their pets as well. I honestly am crushed, horrified beyond words.. I cannot even begin to fathom how these pet owners must feel, for I know I would be beyond devastated if a law enforcement person abused their power by unholstering their weapons, and extinguishing the life of my dog. Something needs to change, and people must be made aware of this! Honestly, I do not know what is more depressing to me… The fact that law enforcement officials are actually getting away with these heinous acts of cruelty and murder; or the fact that there are many people who consider it justifiable due to the fact that the majority of these attrocities are committed during drug raids, or are otherwise too apathetic to even show the slightest modicum of interest or concern! This is so upsetting to me, I know not what to think of these individuals anymore. Regardless, I appreciate NORML for highlighting these issues, and making the public aware of such attrocities.
This is one of the most disgusting things i have ever seen, next to the abuse on cows and chickens.
Really? REALLY?!
how stupid and bloodthirsty can a stranger with a gun be?! and this stuff happens daily too. this video with put a potato in those “not in America” ignorant snob’s tailpipes!
the only way this could be worse if they cooked and ate it after words….
That was sick. Disgusting. Horrendous. That bastard should be shot, twice. I can’t believe the so called “Defenders” can get away with cold blooded murder. I bet he kept his jab and rank too. Sick. Sick. Sick.
If that dog’s life consists of it being tied up in that same place for weeks on end, then I’ve no surprise it was agressive. That’s basic lack of empathy, an epidemic in our current society, even in the police department, where empathy and justice are supposed to be paramount.
This is one of the many reasons I say I HATE 99.9% of COPS! They Lie and make up their own truths to save each other, in truth they only care about themselves and not protecting and serving the rest of us! WTF are they getting their thrills shooting dogs, they cant shoot citizens so they are shooting dogs? I dont get it, how is this helping or keeping the community safe? They both should be locked up for murder!
Are we all DONE with this crap, is there any reason left not to step out and fight for ending this madness?
They better be glad that was not my home or dog because they would both be arrested & imprisoned for their inhumanity. Any moron can tell the dog was not aggressive but was acting on instinct to protect itself. If you were chained to a car and chased by 2 beings twice your size you would be scared enough to yell or growl too. How stupid do you have to be to wear a badge. If the government does not fix the way their police act and react to things then this society will break down and fall apart. I can not believe that people let this happen much less that some moron actually hired and trained these guys. This sickens me. The days of truth, love, and happiness are over and we have officially manifested our worst nightmares. To protect and serve no longer applies. Now its “I’ll do what I want and you will sit back and take it or we’ll arrest you for no reason and then shoot your dog just for fun.” What happened to proving things before you kill a family member? DOGS ARE FAMILY TO THOSE WHO CARE FOR THEM! They are both heartless monsters and should be put down themselves.
That’s not right. A beautiful exaple of corruption. A full grownman, had to shoot a dog once. Then look it in the eye. Being shotm wagged his tail, and took another. Put that cop on a pole and cap his twisted ass,