For over the last year I’ve been compiling video footage and evidence of police overreaction to situations and circumstances that involve dogs. Many of these incidents show a quick and unnecessary overuse of force towards the many animals unlucky enough to be caught up in a scene that has, for whatever reason, brought out a trigger-happy police officer. Beyond the force issue lingers others, like contradicting testimony from involved people, trespassing claims, civil rights violations, and further, what really seems like the following of generic scripts in the aftermaths of such tragedies playing out. Things like “protocol” and anything else that will serve to justify the questionable act after the fact is almost always rolled out as a way to put the blame on the dog and label them as “vicious” or “threatening,” and thus “deserving” of the amount of force that so many other people seem to have a problem with.

My goal is to put something together that will show a sampling of these situations, with the bigger goal of continuing the conversation about what is an appropriate response vs. what is the opposite. This is in no way meant to be an anti-police effort, as the police are made up of countless individual people, but rather a public acknowledgement of the wrongs being done in the names of the many good police officers around the country. I’m quite sure that many of them have just as much of a problem with the overreactions as you or I do. The populace simply wants accountability and transparency, and to live in a world where we can hope to not have our family pets killed at the hands of someone who should know better, and who has the ultimate ability to be better.

In closing, I’d like to draw attention to Baltimore cop Dan Waskiewicz and his brilliant way of responding to a “dangerous dog” call. He is an incredible example of doing the right thing, and then going the extra mile on top of that.