Baltimore Sun : DOJ Officer Shoots Dog... While Fenced In at a Dog Park...

[Ellis]

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/mutts/blog/2010/08/cop_kills_bearbear_at_arundel.html

Here's the full story of Bear-Bear that I wrote with Sun reporter Brent Jones, online now and set to appear in tomorrow's Sun, print edition. It's been getting a lot of attention online. Lots of folks appalled not only that this dog was shot in a dog park, but that police aren't going to charge the cop that shot him -- or even let the public known his name. Please share what you think:

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’s about three 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.

Bear-Bear, who belongs to Rachel Rettaliala, died of his injuries a few hours later.

“I’ve been bawling my eyes out since 7 p.m. last night,” Retalliala said. “It’s grief mixed with anger. We’re so angry this guy was able to take our animal for what we feel was no reason at all.

“We still don’t believe that he’s gone. We just want so badly to be diligent about this. [The officer] has to pay some sort of consequence for his foolishness.”

A spokesman for Anne Arundel County Police Department said no charges will be filed and investigators found no evidence of criminal activity.

Rettaliala adopted Bear-Bear about two years ago from a Husky rescue. He’d been seized from a Delaware home where people had tied him up outside, largely leaving him to fend for himself in the elements.

Tiffany Greco, who fostered the young Bear-Bear and placed him with the Rettaliala family, said the Husky had led a hard-knock life, starved and neglected, with mats in his long fur the size of softballs. But even though he was mistreated, she said he never became aggressive around people or dogs.

“He was a very lovey-dovey happy go lucky guy,” Greco said, adding that Bear-Bear at least had a little taste of a good life with the Rettalialas. “All this dog wanted to do was curl up on top of you.”

She said that Huskies have a rough way of playing that, to people who don’t know them, can seem intimidating.

“They have a much different play style than other dogs,” she said. “They’re a rough and tumble breed. They’re mouthy. Often people interpret that as being aggressive when it’s really them just playing.”

In the Quail Run community of townhomes, a number of residents have dogs that they walk over to the community dog park. Neighbors with dogs say the park is generally an easy-going place where well-mannered dogs play with one another.

Bear-Bear was a regular there.

Tarnna Hernandez saw Bear-Bear all the time. She lives two doors down from the Rettalialas and Bear-Bear plays with her children and Marshmallow, her year-and-a-half-old Dalmatian/Australian Shepherd mix.

“I’ve never personally seen him be aggressive toward any dog or human or anything, for that matter,” Hernandez said. “My two very young children love Bear-Bear and would attack him every time they saw him with hugs and love.”

She can’t believe Bear-Bear would ever do anything to deserve being shot.

“I have not seen that dog hurt anyone. Or snarl. He’s never even barked,” she said. “His only way was to get out a gun out and shoot him? Uh-uh. It’s completely unbelievable.”

Dorothy Pearce, the homeowner’s association manager, was appalled that someone would fire a gun in the community dog park — at dinner time.

“This is tragic,” she said. “A community of homeowners with children playing around should not have gun-crazy, off-duty policemen shooting in their area, especially a dog in a controllable situation.”

Rettaliala said after the officer shot Bear-Bear, the dog didn’t yelp or cry, he lay down in the grass, bleeding heavily. “He just went and laid down,” she said. “I just can’t get over it and I don’t think it’s being taken seriously because it was an animal involved.”

Carolyn Kilborn, chairwoman of the organization Maryland Votes for Animals, based in nearby Annapolis, thought the authorities, at the very least, should be investigating the case thoroughly.

“The killing of the dog in Severn is a sad situation that should be investigated carefully to determine if the incident was caused by a dangerous dog or a dangerous person,” she said. “Generally, our society has laws in place to deal with dangerous people --- although the grieving owner of the dog who was shot will likely not get justice nor proper restitution for his terrible loss.”

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the cop just gets away with it.:mad:

UPDATE: Now the incident is receiving a more thorough investigation and more questions are being asked. Charges against the DOJ officer will be persued, if warranted.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/anne-arundel/bs-md-ar-dog-shooting-20100804,0,3761982.story

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8/14/2010

UPDATE : http://wjz.com/local/bear.husky.dog.2.1859302.html

[codeorama]

wow, that really sucks

[Teller]

Aaaaaaaand we're going to take the opinion of the owner, with a fwuffy picture thrown in for sentimentality, and assume the cop was wrong, even though he wasn't charged, or apparently even spoken to for the article.

Typical.

For the record, I love the worst dog more than the best people, generally speaking, but there's no attempt to be objective here.

[SteveFromYellowstone]

I really doubt the officer just shot the dog without cause, there has to be more to the story.

[Destino]

Aaaaaaaand we're going to take the opinion of the owner, with a fwuffy picture thrown in for sentimentality, and assume the cop was wrong, even though he wasn't charged, or apparently even spoken to for the article.

Typical.

For the record, I love the worst dog more than the best people, generally speaking, but there's no attempt to be objective here.

They refuse to identify the officer. How does one contact an anonymous person? Why haven't they released the investigation to the public? Why the **** did an off duty cop shoot a dog in a designated fenced in area? Why do people have to put up with this kind of **** from public employees? They should be running to answer the public outcry. I don't know if anyone did anything wrong and I should. As it stands there is never a shortage of cops getting away with things that you HH would see serious jail time for.

[Teller]

I don't know if anyone did anything wrong

[NoCalMike]

Just another example of unequal protection under the law. If anyone of us did the same thing, justified or not, there would certainly be an investigation just into exactly what happened.

[wantarace17]

That makes me so angry...you shoot my dog and i will shoot you back

[aREDSKIN]

They refuse to identify the officer. How does one contact an anonymous person? Why haven't they released the investigation to the public? Why the **** did an off duty cop shoot a dog in a designated fenced in area? Why do people have to put up with this kind of **** from public employees? They should be running to answer the public outcry. I don't know if anyone did anything wrong and I should. As it stands there is never a shortage of cops getting away with things that you HH would see serious jail time for.

Insert Joe Q Public as the shooter instead of the "officer" and I guarantee you the police have a different take on this and the story is just a bit different. Surprise surprise.

[Redskins Diehard]

Just another example of unequal protection under the law. If anyone of us did the same thing, justified or not, there would certainly be an investigation just into exactly what happened.

The article said there was an investigation into exactly what happened here. Is your claim of unequal protection based on something else?

[squatch66]

Aaaaaaaand we're going to take the opinion of the owner, with a fwuffy picture thrown in for sentimentality, and assume the cop was wrong, even though he wasn't charged, or apparently even spoken to for the article.

Typical.

For the record, I love the worst dog more than the best people, generally speaking, but there's no attempt to be objective here.

hh i have nothing but the utmost respect for you and for law enforcement officers. with that said if anyone shot my dog it would be me in a jail cell. there is no reason that there should not be a full investigation being done on this situation. this is yet another instance of saying oh well it was just a dog.

[Redskins Diehard]

hh i have nothing but the utmost respect for you and for law enforcement officers. with that said if anyone shot my dog it would be me in a jail cell. there is no reason that there should not be a full investigation being done on this situation. this is yet another instance of saying oh well it was just a dog.

The article said there was an investigation done.

Does everyone just assume the investigation isn't being done to their satisfaction? Is any investigation that doesn't end up with the mean policeman in jail sufficient?

[TimmySmith]

There is absolutely no attempt at objectivity in this article.

[Mark The Homer]

This isn't gonna make Huly happy.

[Chachie]

Aaaaaaaand we're going to take the opinion of the owner, with a fwuffy picture thrown in for sentimentality, and assume the cop was wrong, even though he wasn't charged, or apparently even spoken to for the article.

Typical.

For the record, I love the worst dog more than the best people, generally speaking, but there's no attempt to be objective here.

Aaaaaaaand your knee jerk reaction is no different.

[Redskins Diehard]

Aaaaaaaand your knee jerk reaction is no different.

A knee jerk reaction talking about objectivity? H_H didn't jump to the officer's defense. His description of the characteristics of the article is accurate. What causes you to claim they are "knee jerk"?

[Chachie]

A knee jerk reaction talking about objectivity? H_H didn't jump to the officer's defense. His description of the characteristics of the article is accurate. What causes you to claim they are "knee jerk"?

If it weren't a police officer involved, H_H would be calling for his head like everyone else.

[#98QBKiller]

They refuse to identify the officer. How does one contact an anonymous person? Why haven't they released the investigation to the public? Why the **** did an off duty cop shoot a dog in a designated fenced in area? Why do people have to put up with this kind of **** from public employees? They should be running to answer the public outcry. I don't know if anyone did anything wrong and I should. As it stands there is never a shortage of cops getting away with things that you HH would see serious jail time for.

+1

I'm guessing that we won't get any more details on the story and the cop will get a week of paid leave.

Standard for police cowardice and corruption. Kind of like the DC cop that pulled his gun during a snowball fight. And people wonder why so many police get shot to death. Too many of them have a premature "gun pulling" problem.

[Destino]

It's getting to the point where it's hard to trust local police agencies to investigate themselves and states to hold their police officers accountable.

[Botched]

The only conceivable reason I can see for an officer to draw his gun in a dog park is if a person is being brutally attacked. Unless every witness is lying through their teeth as part of an anti-police conspiracy, that wasn't the case.

If that SOB shot my dog I'm not sure what I would do, but ironically, it would most likely end up with me going to jail.

[aREDSKIN]

Insert Joe Q Public as the shooter instead of the "officer" and I guarantee you the police would have a different take on this and the story would be just a bit different. Surprise surprise.

[Botched]

Insert Joe Q Public as the shooter instead of the "officer" and I guarantee you the police have a different take on this and the story is just a bit different. Surprise surprise.

Here's the headline for that scenario:

"Crazed lunatic murders family pet in bloodthirsty rampage"

[Skin'Em84]

I really doubt the officer just shot the dog without cause, there has to be more to the story.

I hope so. Something is wrong if the officer did not get charged, and a swift kick (or two, or three) to the husky wasn't the option between the owner not reacting and the cop shooting the dog.

[Thiebear]

Discharging a weapon in the city?

Killing a dog in a "dog park", not on your property or in the woods...

Freedom of information act should be easy to get on this one: No national security concerns.

[Mooney]

It's obvious that the Husky was armed and posed an immediate threat to the officer.