"I see a dog that is walking around blindly," says Sturgeon, Missouri police officer Myron Woodson. " I don't know the dog is blind." And then: "I don't enjoy shooting dogs." When challenged by the dog's owner, Nick Hunter: "What am I supposed to do we don't have freaking animal control?"
Woodson had just shot dead a blind, 13-pound shih tzu, and it wasn't even resisting. Here's the department making excuses:
"On 5/19/2024 at 1717, the Sturgeon Police Department ("SPD") received a call out for an injured animal at large. An Officer with SPD arrived and located the animal. The SPD Officer immediately noticed the dog was behaving strangely and displaying signs of possible injuries and/or what the officer perceived to be rabid behavior. The SPD Officer also noticed the animal did not have a collar or tags. The SPD Officer made numerous attempts to capture the dog using the catch pole. Based on the behavior exhibited by the dog, believing the dog to be severely injured or infected with rabies, and as the officer feared being bitten and being infected with rabies, the SPD officer felt that his only option was to put the animal down. It was later learned that the animal's behavior was because the animal was blind. Unfortunately, the animal's lack of a collar or tags influenced the SPD Officer's decision to put the animal down due to his belief that the animal was injured, sick and abandoned."
Cops kill dogs in staggering numbers: more than ten thousand of them a year. It comes from their training, which is to escalate violently in pursuit of a notional safety that exists mostly to justify that use of violence. And it comes from their inclination: the job attracts angry, violent people who are always looking for that unsafe place.
Woodson killed the dog in front of the children it had not hurt, attacked or otherwise menaced:
In the letter, the resident said, "neighborhood children were in the side yards playing and my family was within close perimeter" when the weapon was fired. The resident said their 17-year-old daughter witnessed the dog get shot by the officer.
Regina Adams-Miller, a Sturgeon resident, said she was concerned that the officer discharged his firearm at all but especially without warning in a resident's backyard.
No need to pussyfoot around: the most likely reason Woodson killed the dog is because the circumstances allowed him to get away with killing the dog.
Previously: Cop shoots self while trying to shoot dog
• Cop shoots dogs attacking man at golf course, and the man
• Cop shoots aggressive tortoise
