And on the other side of the coin --- from a link on that page:
>> Round Rock, TX ā According to an unofficial count done
by Ozymandias Media, an independent research group, a dog is shot by law enforcement every 98 minutes.
It is an undisputed fact that cops frequently kill dogs.
One heroic cop in Round Rock, Texas, however, shattered that paradigm by showing true courage when he was bitten by a family dog.
According to
KVUE,
Geoffrey Wightman was at home with his 4-year-old son and mother-in-law when he called police to report a disturbance in his neighborhood. During the call, he said he told the dispatcher that there was a dog at his home.
āShe [the dog]is an Australian Shepherd, and sheās really protective of the family,ā Wightman said.
According to the reports, the dispatcher sent out officer Randall Frederick, who responded earlier than expected. His early arrival did not allow Wightman to put their dog, Jillaroo, out of the way.
When Frederick knocked at the door, Wightmanās 4-year-old son ran to answer it. Thatās when Jillaroo went into protective mode.
āThe dog immediately jumped between him and the officer, and thatās when it was a little bit nerve-racking, because I was watching the dog bite him,ā Wightman said.
Jillaroo tore into the officerās leg twice, piercing the skin.
At this point, 999 cops out of 1,000 would have likely pulled out their pistol and shot this dog, and all 999 of them would have been justified by their departments. But Frederick did something else,
he showed compassion instead of violent escalation. He began to calm the dog down and showed Jillaroo that he was not a threat to the boy.
Round Rock Police Cmdr. Jim Stuart explained that Frederick was applying their newly adopted tactics of how to
de-escalate rather than kill.
....
After controversy arose in May of last year, when a Round Rock cop shot and killed a Rottweiler named Bullet inside a home, the department surprisingly took proactive measures.
After Bulletās tragic puppycide, all Round Rock police officers were put through a mandatory eight-hour training period with an experienced dog trainer to learn how to handle situations involving aggressive animals, according to KVUE. <<
This is what sorely needs to happen, not just with dogs but the whole perverted knuckledragger attidude of violent escalation and the "might makes right" mythology. So perhaps there is a sliver of hope.
"De-escalate rather than kill". What a concept.
