Officers right to put safety first when facing aggressive dogs

By J.R. Labbe

jrlabbe@star-telegram.com

Most of the Facebook reaction to a Star-Telegram report of a Labrador retriever being shot by a Parker County sheriff's deputy after the dog charged the officer showed immense sympathy for the dog and condemnation of the officer.

Labs are sweet. Labs are loving. Why did he have to fire once, much less six times?

In truth, any breed of dog can be aggressive. And in a confrontation with a law enforcement officer, the dog is going to lose. Every time.

Police officers don't want to harm anyone or anything when they do their job. But they also don't want to end up injured because they lost focus or were bitten by an aggressive animal.

Officers are trained to neutralize threats. And the harsh reality is that the tool used to do so when an officer is threatened is a gun. The decision to use force -- whether the threat is an armed assailant or an agitated and noisy dog -- is sometimes necessary.

The sheriff's deputy made that decision last week while responding to a resident's complaint that two large, aggressive dogs were off leash on her property and she was afraid to leave her home. When a deputy went to the woman's home, a large yellow Labrador initially jumped on the side of his truck, prohibiting the officer from getting out. The dog eventually ran off, and the deputy spoke to the woman, who said she thought the dogs belonged to someone who lived about a quarter-mile away.

According to Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler, the deputy requested a tranquilizer gun and went to the home of the dogs' owner, Sheyenne Knox.

As the deputy approached the house, the Lab, named Johnny Cash, charged.

"This 100-pound dog was hellbent to eat him up, coming at him, charging at full speed," Fowler told a Star-Telegram reporter.

The deputy was caught between the house and his truck, with an aggressive animal coming for him.

The officer fired, killing the dog.

"I think it was excessive," Knox said. "I realize we were in the wrong by not keeping him contained. But he didn't deserve to get killed."

It's sad that the Knox family lost a pet. But officers don't have the luxury of negotiating with a dog when they enter these situations. What alternative did the deputy have? Wait to see if Johnny Cash was a biter as he sunk his teeth into the deputy's leg?

Let us not forget that taxpayers pick up the tab for an injured officer's medical care and rehabilitation. They also foot the bill for workers' compensation benefits the officer receives. Then there's the lost work time that a healing officer must take.

God forbid the result is more serious than a dog bite.

The first undercover drug bust I witnessed involved a forcible entry on a condominium from which the owner had been buying and selling illegal drugs. An undercover female officer, wearing a wire, was part of a reverse buy -- the police were selling the drugs to the suspect.

Hours passed before the buyer, a confederate of the condo owner, arrived with the money. During the long wait, those of us on the outside listening to the undercover officer's every word heard a sliding door open, followed by the familiar sound of dog nails clicking on a tile floor.

"What kind of a dog is Blondie?" the undercover officer asked at one point.

"A pit bull," replied the owner, who had bragged that he'd once beaten a man with a Louisville Slugger. The narcotics sergeant got on the radio to the SWAT team waiting down the block in a van: "First man through the door shoots the dog."

Blondie survived when the officers entered with a flash-bang device and a battering ram. She ran.

But few would have argued the wisdom of a different outcome had she charged the officers.

Jill "J.R." Labbe is editorial director of the Star-Telegram -- until Friday. 817-390-7599

Twitter: @jrlabbe55

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