15-Year-Old Dog Shot in Police Raid Gone Wrong

Dog shootings by police are a national epidemic, according to a national group, Dogs Shot by Police, which strives to eliminate unjustified shootings of dogs by police & other law enforcement officers and animal control officers. (Photo courtesy of Dogs Shot by Police)

________________

When she was shot in the face by police, a 15-year-old dog named Chloe had the misfortune of being in the right place at the wrong time.

She survived, but not without three surgeries to remove bullets from her head. She lost part of her tongue, and a canine tooth, too – all because of a police mistake, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Royal Oak lawyer Christopher Olson, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Olson is representing Erica Morena and Katti Putnam of Flint, whose “Heinz 57” variety dog was shot by a state corrections officer who was looking for a fugitive on the lam.

“This is their family dog. …She’s not a menace to anyone. She just happened to walk into her back yard at the wrong time,” Olson told The Detroit News. Chloe survived, but Morena and Putnam are “obviously devastated,” Olson said.

Tell Us:

• Should police be trained to better interact with family pets, especially when no-knock warrants are served?

The mix-up occurred June 18 when a team of officers mistakenly raided Morena and Putnam’s house during the manhunt for the fugitive, who actually was hiding out in a house next door.

Chloe heard the commotion and went to investigate, walking out an open back door and into the yard, where she was shot by a Michigan Department of Corrections investigator.

Chloe wasn’t aggressive or barking, and she was wearing a collar, a witness said. The dog doesn’t have a history of biting.

“They really had no right to be there,” Olson told the Free Press. “The police went to the wrong house and shot these folks dog in their own back yard ... They turned the situation into a violent one.”

Hells Angels Raised Fourth Amendment Argument

In the lawsuit, Olson alleges his clients’ Fourth Amendment rights were violated when police officers unreasonably destroyed or seized their property – the dog.

It’s not the first time Olson has made that allegation, and he’s not the first lawyer to raise the Fourth Amendment argument.

The San Jose, CA, chapter of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang sued police in 2005 after several dogs were killed in a 1998 raid, ultimately winning a $1.8 million judgment after a 10th U.S. Circuit Court judge ruled “the Fourth Amendment forbids the killing of a person’s dog… when that destruction is unnecessary.”

Olson is pursuing several other cases involving police officers’ conduct while dealing with dogs, including one in St. Clair Shores where police shot a dog 15 times that has been covered nationally.

A necropsy on the St. Clair Shores dog showed she was shot several more times when in police custody, according to a post on CNN. He said it looked like someone used the dog “for target practice” once animal control officials took custody of her.

“Before this case, I wasn’t a dog shooting lawyer, but I am now,” Olson told TIME magazine last month.

Justice Department: Police Need Training

In the St. Clair Shores case, a dash-cam video recorded an officer saying that he didn’t like dogs and planned to shoot Lexie, the Labrador mix, when officers responded to a barking dog complaint last November.

Although no agency keeps count of the number of killings of dogs every year, media accounts suggest dozens, and possibly more, every year, TIME said. One indicator of the breadth of the problem is found on a Dogs Shot by Police Facebook page, which has nearly 15,000 “likes.”

Olson joins animal activists in deploring the conduct of police and said he wants to be a “change agent” and “whatever it takes to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Training videos are available online. Olson said that if police had followed the suggested protocols, Chloe would never have been shot.”It’s too bad not only for my clients and the dog ... but this is something that is a nationwide epidemic,” he told the Free Press. “It’s a big problem and it’s something that doesn’t necessarily have to happen.”

Body Language Critically Important

A 2011 Department of Justice report on dog-related police incidents indicates Olson’s concern is not ill-placed. Because dogs are such an integral part of American society, local police departments need to train officers on how to interact with dogs without killing them.

“It is critical that police departments not only develop effective departmental strategies advocating for the proper handling of dog-related incidents and encounters, but also proactively create tactical-response strategies, ensuring humane treatment of dogs and safety for the public and officers,” the report said.

Ledy Van Kavage, an attorney for the advocacy group Best Friends Animal Society told TIME the problem goes deeper.

“It’s much more likely that a cop is going to encounter a dog than a terrorist, yet there’s no training,” Van Kavage said. “If you have a fear or hatred of dogs, then you shouldn’t be a police officer, just like if you have a hatred of different social groups.”

Connecticut professional dog trainer and author Brian Kilcommons, who has trained more than 40,000 dogs, told TIME that police too often send aggressive signals to dogs without intending to antagonize them.

“Police officers go into a situation with full testosterone body language, trying to control the situation,” he said. “That’s exactly what will set a dog off.”

St. Clair Shores is now requiring its officers to undergo animal control training, according to TIME.

________

Have a news tip? Email beth.dalbey@patch.com. Our platform has changed, so click here to learn how to post news, events and announcements; comment using Disqus; or add photos to the Instagram feed along the top of the home page.