Cheye Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic lived in a nice suburban house with two black Labs. One of the reasons they chose their house was for the big back yard where the dogs could run.

They were relaxing in their home when armed thugs broke into their homes and shot their dogs. The thugs were not poorly dressed – they wore pretty blue uniforms. They were cops who had a standard warrant, not a no-knock warrant, but they weren’t about to be bothered by such a trivial concern. In Yet Another Drug raid they burst in and immediately shot and killed both dogs. One dog was running away when it was shot.

Link.

I have a mostly lab mutt. He’s very large and very friendly, and if you come to my house and I don’t have a chance to lock him away in another room he will jump on you, excited by the prospect of a new friend. You’d probably be annoyed. But I’m guessing you wouldn’t respond by blowing him away. But I’m convinced most cops would.

Judging from news reports, shooting dogs is standard procedure for most police departments. Google any variation of “cop shoot dog” and you’ll find hundreds of thousands of articles about these “peace” officers shooting dogs. A few of the stories will be about cops reacting to an attack, but most of them are about cops blasting away at the family pet just because they can. Dogs on chains, dogs fenced in a yard, dogs in cars – it doesn’t matter. Dog = Free Target Practice.

A few years ago, in my neck of the woods, the Schenectady cops during a drug raid (of course) shot a 13 year old Chihuahua that pissed itself before running to hide in the bathroom. The brave police officer followed the dog into the bathroom and shot it.

Yes, something should be done about this outrageous misuse of power. But in a country where cops are regularly acquitted for murdering citizens, what chance is there that they’ll be penalized for killing pets?

A good start would be to remove any pets they own from their home and place them in a less violent household. Let the ASPCA show up at their door, remove their pets, and explain to their crying kids that daddy is too much of a thug to be trusted with an animal. Of course, this would only work for cops who owned pets, but it would be a good start.