New at HuffPost: Puppycide, the Slide Show
Friday, April 27th, 2012In case you needed a kick to the groin this Friday afternoon.
It took some bourbon to get through this one.
Late Morning Links
Thursday, February 16th, 2012- I’d like to see the new White House video game czar develop a video game that encourages players to spend taxpayer money wisely and frugally. But then, that would probably mean not having a White House video game czar.
- The species barrier has been broken, as a non-dog wins Westminster.
- The entertainment industry continues to insult its customers.
- Arizona.
- Man spends time in jail after refusing to license his dog.
- Police chief arrested on drug charges.
- This is not a repeat of the link directly above.
- A+++++ seller. Would buy again.
- New ONDCP ad: Smoking pot isn’t cool. It’s dangerous. You know what is cool and not dangerous? Jumping off of buildings.
Morning Links
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012- Your latest Hollywood-colluding-with-government copyright outrage.
- Amazing photos from an abandoned New York leper colony.
- British court rules that composing a photo the way someone else has could be a violation of copyright.
- Here is a dog jumping on a trampoline.
- Red State founder and CNN commenter tells radio audience that watching someone he disagrees with politically writhe in pain until the guy requires hospitalization is “made of awesome.”
- Despite promises from politicians, NYC continues with its ridiculous pot arrests.
- “Why more than a dozen teenage girls are exhibiting Tourette’s-like symptoms.”
- Headline of the day.
- Dahlia Lithwich on how Illinois awful recording cops law might affect this year’s G8 summit in Chicago.
- Good post on leash law Tasering: “‘Protect and Serve’ does not mean “you have to win every argument ever.’”
Lunch Links
Friday, August 27th, 2010- Scientists bring a Steven Wright joke to life.
- Redesigning Addis Ababa.
- Somehow I missed that yesterday was National Dog Day. Here’s a gallery of photos.
- Montgomery, Alabama to poor people: We’re going to demolish your house, steal your property, and give the land to rich developers. Oh, and we’re going to bill you for the demolition costs. This isn’t even eminent domain. It’s much eviler.
- Shorter Eric Holder: It might be nice to do something about prison rape, but it’s just too darned expensive. I can see his point. Better that we pay wealthy people to get SUV’s with better gas mileage.
- Man arrested, falsely charged after filming police making an arrest, calling them “Nazis.” Yeah, he’s an asshole. Barring an actual crime, being an asshole shouldn’t get you arrested.
Federal Cop Shoots Dog at a Dog Park. No Charges.
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010I’ve been to many a dog park. I’ve seen lots of dogs scuffle at those parks. It happens. Most owners pull the dogs apart and, if they can’t get along, one or both dogs leave the park. The possibility of someone pulling out a gun and shooting a dog has never really even crossed my mind. But maybe that’s because I’m not a cop.
Stunned dog owners and residents of a Severn neighborhood are shocked that authorities won’t be charging a federal police officer who shot and killed a Siberian husky Monday night at a community dog park.
Bear-Bear, a brown and white husky that was about 3 years old, was playing in the Quail Run dog park at about 6:30 p.m., running off leash inside the fenced-in area, when the officer and his wife arrived with a German shepherd, who was kept on a leash. When the dogs began to play roughly, the federal officer asked Bear-Bear’s guardian, his owner’s brother, to call off the dog. But before he could do anything, the officer pulled out a gun and shot Bear-Bear, according to the husky’s owner.
Bear-Bear, who belongs to Rachel Rettaliala, died of his injuries a few hours later. County police did not name the federal officer.
The article points out that huskies have a rough style of play, so it’s likely that this cop, like plenty of others, mistook non-aggressive behavior for an attack. (Huskies are also an especially gentle, non-aggressive breed.) The fact that the cop had his dog on-leash at an off-leash park is more evidence that he doesn’t know much about how dogs behave. That’s never a good idea (most parks don’t allow it). It invites an altercation.
But that’s all really beside the point. I’m certain that if I (or anyone else who isn’t a cop) pulled out a gun and shot a dog at a dog park in a residential area, I’d be facing criminal charges. And rightly so. Even if the dogs were fighting, there’s no justification for shooting one of them, particularly around other dogs and people. It’s reckless, trigger-happy, and dangerous. It’s also safe to say that if this had been anyone other than a cop, the local police department would have no qualms about releasing his name to the press.
MORE: Baltimore radio station WBAL interviews Rachel Rettaliata, the owner of the dog, here and here. According to Rettaliata local animal control officials said neither animal had any scratch or bite marks.
Afternoon Links
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010- To hell with your standard poodle. It’s all about the Brooklyn Mutt Show.
- Cop’s dash video differs from police report in alleged police brutality case. Naturally, they fought like hell from releasing the video to the guy filing the civil rights suit.
- More fun with Barack Obama’s Facebook feed.
- Omaha trial of CSI investigator accused of tampering with evidence begins.
- IRS sends agents to harass car wash owner over a four-cent tax bill.
Morning Links
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
Puppycide in The Daily Beast
Monday, July 20th, 2009I have a piece up at the The Daily Beast looking at the cops-shooting-dogs phenomenon.
Snippet:
If dangerous dogs are so common, one would expect to find frequent reports of vicious attacks on meter readers, postal workers, firemen, and delivery workers. But according to a spokesman from the United States Postal Service, serious dog attacks on mail carriers are vanishingly rare. Bites do happen, but postal workers are given training on how to distract dogs with toys, subdue them with voice commands, or, at worst, incapacitate them with Mace. Mail carriers are shown a two-hour video and given instruction on how to recognize and read a dog’s body language, how to differentiate between aggressive charging and playful bounding, and how to tell a truly dangerous dog from a merely territorial one.
Few police departments offer this kind of training, though groups like the ASPCA and the Humane Society say they’d be more than happy to provide it. “New York is the only state I know of that mandates formalized training, and that’s during academy,” says Joseph Pentangelo, the ASPCA’s assistant director for law enforcement, who also served 21 years with the NYPD before retiring in 2001. “There are some individual departments in other parts of the country that avail themselves of our training, but not many. Not enough.”