# Just found this disheartening article



## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

Family mourns loss of Siberian husky after it's killed by police following it getting into a chicken coop | MLive.com



> HEMLOCK — Allison Haremski didn't expect to hear her Siberian husky Roxi had been shot after getting loose from her house on Jan. 5.
> 
> “Its hit me a couple times pretty good,” the 20-year-old Hemlock resident said. “I've had pretty rough days because of it.”
> 
> ...




I can't even tell you how ANGRY it makes me that the cops and animal control CONTINUED to justify themselves, as though they made the right decision!!! I'm FURIOUS!!! And to say that "if the animal was better taken care of"?!!! WHAT THE HECK!? The animal was on a lead and managed to slip off!


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## KlaMarie (Dec 30, 2010)

So before I get into my opinion on whether the cops and AC made the right decision, obviously you think they didn't. So what do you think they should have done differently? They couldn't just let the dog run loose (he had already killed other pets), and according to them, they couldn't get close enough to tranquilize it. So what are you suggesting they should have done?


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

KlaMarie said:


> So before I get into my opinion on whether the cops and AC made the right decision, obviously you think they didn't. So what do you think they should have done differently? They couldn't just let the dog run loose (he had already killed other pets), and according to them, they couldn't get close enough to tranquilize it. So what are you suggesting they should have done?


How would you have liked it if this were your dog? Siberian Huskies are KNOWN for their high prey drive, and it's instinct that led this dog to kill the chickens. Are you trying to condemn an animal for what they're naturally built to do? The cop made no efforts in capturing the dog, and it was posing absolutely no threat to anyone else by the time he arrived on the scene. The dog was simply running away. The dog slipped it's lead, and you know what? I know, from experience, how easily a dog can get off a leash. I had a snap-buckle collar for Amaya a long time ago, and I was at Petsupermarket talking to Rachel (Rannmiller) when Amaya pulled at the leash and the snap-buckle just POPPED open and she took off. There's faulty hardware that people can't do anything about, and many Siberian Huskies are able to slip out of even the tightest of collars due to their heavily furred necks preventing the collar from being tight enough to prevent it from slipping over the head. The officer was trigger happy. The dog was no longer harming anyone, and the owner could have been held responsible for the property damage (because it wasn't pets that were killed, it was livestock). Chickens laying eggs only cost $15-25. I wouldn't mind paying $100 for the life of my dog.


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## KlaMarie (Dec 30, 2010)

xxshaelxx said:


> How would you have liked it if this were your dog? Siberian Huskies are KNOWN for their high prey drive, and it's instinct that led this dog to kill the chickens. Are you trying to condemn an animal for what they're naturally built to do?


Nope. Not at all. The prey drive of the dog has nothing to do with it. I have a dog with high prey drive, they require a little more attention but I don't condemn the dog at all.



xxshaelxx said:


> The cop made no efforts in capturing the dog, and it was posing absolutely no threat to anyone else by the time he arrived on the scene. The dog was simply running away. The dog slipped it's lead, and you know what? I know, from experience, how easily a dog can get off a leash. I had a snap-buckle collar for Amaya a long time ago, and I was at Petsupermarket talking to Rachel (Rannmiller) when Amaya pulled at the leash and the snap-buckle just POPPED open and she took off. There's faulty hardware that people can't do anything about, and many Siberian Huskies are able to slip out of even the tightest of collars due to their heavily furred necks preventing the collar from being tight enough to prevent it from slipping over the head.


I also know from experience how easy it is for a dog with heavy fur to slip a collar. Just because it was an accident, doesn't change the fact that the dog was loose and killing chickens. When owners make mistakes, or even if it was pure accident, sometimes crap happens. 



xxshaelxx said:


> The officer was trigger happy. The dog was no longer harming anyone, and the owner could have been held responsible for the property damage (because it wasn't pets that were killed, it was livestock). Chickens laying eggs only cost $15-25. I wouldn't mind paying $100 for the life of my dog.


The dog was never harming anyone, he was killing chickens. So saying that the "dog was longer harming anyone" doesn't even matter. Obviously if the dog was keeping away from the AC, he wasn't ever a threat to people. 
And loose, he still had the potential to kill chickens. It's pretty ego-centric of you to make the determination on whether those chickens were someone's beloved pet or not. If they were someone's pet, they had just as much value as the dog. But even if they were just livestock, people have a right to protect their livestock from what appeared to be a stray dog. 

If this had been a coyote killing these chickens, would you have had such a big problem with the officer killing it? It's the same threat, and almost the same situation. 

You still haven't given a reasonable solution to the problem of a loose dog, who is killing livestock, and will not let AC approach. So they can't capture him, and he's too far away to tranq. What do you do?


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

As somebody who keeps chickens (as pets that I love very much, NOT livestock) I'd be incredibly angry, upset and absolutely heartbroken if a dog got into my coop and killed my birds. 

As an animal control officer, it's my opinion that since the dog was not an active threat to anybody/anything at the time of the attempted capture, something else could have been done to remedy the situation....probably a number of things. 

The dog owners should have had their dog licensed and should have had identification on the dog. At least then the officers would have known the dog was owned and not some ill stray. The dog owners also should have called police dispatch and animal control to report their dog missing. Then perhaps the owners could have been called out to help catch the dog. 

In most states, if not all, it's perfectly legal to shoot any dog or cat that is chasing, harassing, threatening or causing harm to somebody's livestock. Unfortunately, I've seen many people abuse that and kill practically any animal that looks in the general direction of their property. Half the time it isn't even reported. Don't ever join any kind of livestock or poultry forum if you don't want to read about SSS (Shoot, shovel, shut up). Peoples' pet dogs and cats - many that never attempted to harm livestock, but just wandered onto the neighbors' property one too many times, various wildlife, birds of prey, FEDERALLY PROTECTED birds of prey...you name it. They're all fair game, even more so in rural areas and it's often encouraged by AC or the DEP. (Though I'm sure they wouldn't be too keen on the protected bird deal.)


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## KlaMarie (Dec 30, 2010)

Let me just clarify, I'm not saying I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that the officer acted appropriately, and that there were no other options but shooting the dog available. 
I'm saying that I WASN'T THERE, so I'm not going to pass absolute judgment that this was just a case of a trigger-happy cop looking to get his dog killing quota in for the day. Because there are times when there is no other option but to shoot the dog. Was this one of those times? None of us can know that for sure. 
This situation does not sound like trigger-happy cop anyway. The AC was involved, and they explored alternate options but killing the dog. They reaching a decision passed on the situation in front of them. It might not be the best decision to some, but it wasn't trigger happy.

And looking at it from the cops perspective, it's a skinny, ill-looking dog with no ID tags or collar, which = stray. xxshaelxx mentioned earlier that the chicken owners could have just been compensated. Well, the chicken owners would only get compensation if the dog actually had an owner. So this dog looked like a stray. Is it worth the risk of this dog getting away while AC makes attempts to capture it, so the dog can go and kill other livestock, costing the livestock owners more money because they wouldn't get compensation for their dead animals?



RachelsaurusRexU said:


> In most states, if not all, it's perfectly legal to shoot any dog or cat that is chasing, harassing, threatening or causing harm to somebody's livestock.


This is very much the case in rural places in my area. My aunt owns a small ranch a couple hours north of Houston. Stray dogs are all over the place in that area. AC does not have the time or money to respond to every call of these dogs harassing livestock. If you're out in the country around here, and a dog is bothering your stock or killing them, you can call AC...but they're just going to tell you to shoot it. 

I don't really like this kind of policy, but if it were my livestock or pets, I would protect them with whatever means necessary. And I'm sorry if it ends up being a pet that got loose, but I'm not going to sacrifice my animals because you lost control of yours.


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

*“The problem is that the dog didn't have a collar, was skinny, looked like it was starving and killed some chickens, then it took off when the (chicken) owner came home,” said Richland Police Chief Robert Dalton. 

He said the decision to shoot the dog happened after a discussion between animal control and the officer about the dog's weight and the fact that when they approached the dog, it would run from them and lay down in a nearby field.

“It just laid out near the field,” Dalton said. “Rather then worrying about the dog doing more damage it was dispatched.”

The decision to not use a tranquilizer gun was made by animal control, said Dalton. He said the animal control officer felt they couldn’t get close enough to the dog to use it and because it was lacking a collar and looked thin, they decided to kill it.


*

Sad, just sad... They approximate its weight and health from a distance that is too far to use a tranquilizer gun? I know from personal experience that a halfway decent tranquilizer gun will fire accurately at 50 meters. If you're competent with it which IMO animal control should be 65 meters is completely feasible. Personally I feel that killing the animal wasn't called for.

As far as living in the country and killing an animal for harassing another animal bah, thats life, I could have killed dozens of chickens, pigs, horses, and dogs if that were the right thing to do. In fact 3 large chickens were in my yard scratching today does that deem it okay to kill them as they are harassing my plants?


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## werecatrising (Oct 15, 2010)

Where I live there are signs posted everywhere that dogs caught harassing livestock will be shot. I raise chickens. I have a lot of time. money and love invested in them. I hate to think of somebodies dogs coming through and wiping them out.

I realize mistakes happen. My last dog, Angel, was an escape artist. I tried my hardest, but there were still a few occasions when he ran off. I always feared he would be shot by somebody protecting their animals. I would have been devastated, but would not have been angry with anyone but myself. I can't expect somebody else to value my animals over their own.


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## wags (Jan 31, 2009)

Sounds to me from the story that the cops took matters into their own hands and decided since they couldn't control (handle) the situation they would just kill the animal. They decided it was skinny eating chickens so gee I will shoot it put it out of its misery and be done with the whole thing! Sad how different people view life. Sad how people with authority take advantage of a situation such as this and lord it over on others. Some cops need to step away from the duty just walk away and go for another type work! 
My two dogs got out of my gate when I had roofers over re~roofing my home (they accidentally left it open of course!!!). They ran across the street and I had not put their collars on them from the night before. Gee had a cop been around would the cop have shot them even though they were just running checking things out! Hope not! Good thing no cops were around !!!


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Thats one reason my dogs are NEVER without their collars. 24/7. They fit snug to minimize getting caught on something and to prevent the dogs from slipping out of them. I can barely slip 2 fingers under the collar. It's been that way all my life and I never had an incident because of it.


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## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

I don't think it was handled properly. What happened with this woman and her dog was a mistake and I feel for her loss as well as the people who lost their chickens. Whether they were pets or livestock, it's still tragic, and death by dog isn't ever a pretty sight. 

If they weren't close enough to get a shot with a tranquilizer I wonder how they were able to determine that the dog had no collar or tags? Or even a microchip...Uhm, hello? If the dog was heavily furred, which it was, and it was night time, how were they able to get such a great view of it's neck? I think they were in fact being trigger happy with the wrong gun. I'm positive if they had put a little more effort into this the dog could have been saved. 

My grandfather shot one of his own dogs for killing a goat. I'll always be at odds with him over it, we'll never agree on how you should raise and care for a dog. The fact is, it was his fault his dog got off of its chain and killed the goat, it wasn't the dogs fault. This though was a complete accident, this woman was taking care of her dog by walking it and it got off its collar...It could have happened to anyone. People who live in rural areas and feel they have the right to shoot an animal over it "trespassing" on their property are sick in my opinion...I know what it's like to lose a pet duck to a dog and I also know what it's like to forgive and let live. I certainly won't forget, but there are other ways to go about things rather than to just shoot everything you fear.


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## 3Musketeers (Nov 4, 2010)

Just the mere fact that they are trying to use the dog being "thin" and not having a collar (which could have been there and just hard to spot under all that fur anyways) as a justification to have shot it, makes me lose all respect for those police. 

And they also try to say that those two things are due to the owner being bad?
More than likely that dog was in great shape. 

So, they wouldn't shoot a fat, less cared for dog because it obviously belongs to someone? Urgh.


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

Yeah, I really don't see how shooting the dog would be warranted even if it were a stray. We've picked up thousands of roaming dogs, many in some pretty dicey and scary situations, and never once have we even thought about having one shot because it would run away from us.


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