Update IV on Dog-Shooting Story: Police pattern of dog executions

US MD: FBI to Review Raid That Killed Mayor’s Dogs
An attorney came forward yesterday to allege a possible pattern of animal abuse by the sheriff’s department. Michael Winkleman said he is representing another family whose dog was shot by sheriff’s deputies in November, along with a woman who is suing the department for searching her home without a warrant and threatening to shoot her dog.

In the first case, Winkleman said, sheriff’s deputies arrived at the Accokeek home of Frank and Pamela Myers with a warrant for another house on their street. After the couple informed the deputies of their error, they continued to question the couple and looked around their home.

As they spoke, the couple’s 5-year-old German boxer began barking in a yard, out of sight. Soon after, according to Winkleman, the couple heard gunshots, and they found the dog shot to death. He said the family is preparing to file suit.

In another case, Upper Marlboro resident Amber James has filed a $4 million lawsuit accusing sheriff’s deputies of searching her home without a warrant in May 2007 while looking for her sister, who lived in Capitol Heights. According to the suit, deputies falsely claimed to have a warrant and searched every room of the home. When they did not find the sister, the suit alleges, they threatened to return the next day and search again, saying that if they did, James’s dog would be dead.

Some lawyers and leading law enforcement groups said deputies should have known to do everything possible to avoid killing Calvo’s dogs.

Courts across the country in recent years have ruled that it is almost always unacceptable for police to kill pets in the course of searching a home. Cases in three federal circuits have found that killing pets amounts to unreasonable seizure.

Killing dogs is considered a “last resort,” said John Gnagey, executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association, a group that provides tactical training for police departments and is advocating a national accreditation system for SWAT programs.

Uh-huh, sure it is.  A commenter on the story at DailyKos points out:

Killing the dogs is standard operating procedure in SWAT raids. It is intended to terrorize the “perps”, SHOCK and AWE them into absolute and immediate submission. The message is, “Yeah, that’s right, I killed your dog, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. We have the authority and power to do this and if you don’t STFU and do exactly as I say then you’re next.”

Any claims to the contrary are bullshit.