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Off-Duty LAPD Cop Shoots Pet Dog near Downtown Film Set (Updated)

This story was updated May 28, 2017.

As an episode of the Hulu series “Chance” was being filmed on a downtown Los Angeles street the morning of May 26, something horribly dramatic happened off camera. An off-duty LAPD motorcycle officer, who was working as a security guard on the film set, shot and killed a pet dog.

The unidentified cop was working on South Main Street when he got into an argument with Emry Zumreet and was attacked by his “aggressive” Pit Bull — or at least that’s the story from LAPD spokeswoman Jenny Hauser, according to the Los Angeles Times.

LAPD Sgt. Barry Montgomery concurs with Hauser. “A dog belonging to that suspect became aggressive and attacked our officer, and it was at that time that an officer-involved shooting occurred,” he told CBS Los Angeles. The officer was taken to a hospital for minor injuries.

But Zumreet’s attorney and an apparent eyewitness to the shooting tell quite a different story.

“I live in the building above where this happened, the officer was completely fine,” wrote camjameson in a comment on the L.A. Times story.

“At least 100 people from the surrounding buildings were yelling about the incident, having seen it themselves, and everyone claims the officer was not attacked, but that the dog was just growling,” according to camjameson. “This is some cover up if I’ve ever seen it. Your gun should never be your first option in a threatening situation, there are so many other options, especially against a mid-sized dog and a super scrawny dude in a wife-beater with no visible weapons. Shameful.”

According to Ben Meiselas, Zumreet’s attorney, this is what happened:

As Zumreet drove down South Main Street, the LAPD officer stopped traffic due to the TV shoot. Zumreet got into some kind of argument with the officer, and the officer opened the car door. When Zumreet stepped out of his car, the officer pulled out a handgun. Zumreet’s dog jumped out of the car through the open door, and the officer shot him.

“He executed the dog because it was a Pit Bull,” Meiselas told the Los Angeles Times. He said witnesses have come forward to say the shooting was unnecessary.

Another witness, Nelson Aguilar, told KCAL9 he heard two men yelling and then two gunshots. He recorded the rest of what he saw on his cell phone.

“And I saw the dog, and the dog had been shot, and it was squirming on the floor,” he said. “And I saw the owner, and the owner was yelling, talking about, ‘You killed my dog.'”

Aguilar said the Zumreet was arrested after he kept going into the roped-off area, “hugging his dog.” Meiselas told the Times Zumreet called the LAPD for help before he was arrested. According to KCAL9, police haven’t decided whether any charges will be pressed against him.

Hopefully security cameras in the area recorded what really happened. Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Coincidentally, the series “Chance” that was filming near the shooting is about a forensic neuropsychiatrist (Hugh Laurie) who’s pulled into “a violent and dangerous world of mistaken identity, police corruption and mental illness,” according to Hulu.

Preventing ‘Puppycide’

To prevent this, some police departments are training their officers how to deal with scared or agitated pets in non-lethal ways.

In response to the shocking, viral 2013 video of a Hawthorne, Calif., police officer shooting a Rottweiler named Max as his owner begged him not to, spcaLA began offering the class, “Dog Behavior for Law Enforcement” to all police departments in California.

In 2013, Colorado became the first state to pass a “Dog Protection Act,” which requires similar training for law enforcement officers. Two years later, Texas enacted a law that required the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to establish a statewide comprehensive training program in dog encounters.

These programs are a good start, but as those sad statistics make clear, teaching law enforcement officers how to humanely deal with dogs should be required in every state.

Photo via YouTube

GRRR: 2 Hero Dogs Who Apprehended NYC Mugger Euthanized by Shelter

When a teenager snatched a woman’s purse in Queens, N.Y., earlier this month, two stray dogs — a German Shepherd and a Pit Bull — took off after the thief. They pinned him down in nearby Springfield Park and bit him.

Even then, the four-legged crimestoppers were treated very poorly by officers from the NYPD’s Emergency Service Unit. The two dogs were pepper-sprayed, beaten with batons and shot with tranquilizer darts before being transported to Animal Care & Control of NYC (AC&C).

“The dogs were still lingering, looking to get him,” a police source told the New York Post. “They were set up to continue their mauling.”

The 15-year-old boy was treated for bite wounds at a local hospital. He was charged with petit larceny and will live on to hopefully not steal more purses.

But if he does, those two hero dogs won’t be around to stop him. Even though George Petruncio of Sewell, N.J., let AC&C know he wanted to adopt the German Shepherd and Pit Bull, the two dogs were euthanized yesterday because they were allegedly too aggressive.

“They never gave the dogs a chance,” Petruncio told the Post. “They did a good thing and this is how you repay them? It’s garbage.”

Polices officers in Queens’ 105th precinct also did their best to spare the lives of the two dogs. They offered to help AC&C place them with a rescue group.

“The dogs deserved a second chance because of how they helped out,” a police source told the Post. “It just doesn’t seem like justice was served for these dogs.”

AC&C has a troubling reputation with animals, and not only dogs. Earlier this week a bull that escaped from a slaughterhouse — and was promised to be released to a sanctuary — died after being shot with multiple tranquilizer darts. In December, a beloved deer that lived in a Harlem park died from stress after it was captured by AC&C.

However, it wasn’t the AC&C, but the NYC Department of Health that issued death sentences for the hero dogs.

“After a comprehensive assessment by an animal behavioral specialist, the two dogs that mauled a teenager were determined too aggressive to be placed at rescue organization or put up for adoption,” spokesman Julien A. Martinez said yesterday. “They were humanely euthanized today.”

The heartbreaking tale of these two hero dogs makes me all the more thankful for groups like BAD RAP and Best Friends Animal Society, who took in and rehabilitated some other famous dogs that were also deemed too aggressive to ever be adopted: the survivors of Michael Vick’s dog-fighting operation. Many of those dogs went on to become therapy and service dogs — and even earned the title of ASPCA Dog of the Year.

Good thing the AC&C’s animal behavioral specialist and the NYC Department of Health didn’t get to Vick’s dogs first.

Photo credit: FastPhive

A Dog’s Purpose Is Not to Be Abused, So Boycott This Movie

Many dog lovers have been anticipating the Jan. 27 release of the movie “A Dog’s Purpose,” a tear-jerker about a reincarnated pooch who teaches people how to love and laugh.

But disturbing behind-the-scenes footage posted today on TMZ.com shows that the filmmakers have a lot to learn about love and compassion for animals. Anyone who does care about animals should scratch “A Dog’s Purpose” off their must-see list — or, for that matter, their ever-see list.

The video shows a visibly terrified German Shepherd being forced to go into a pool as the dog tries to get away and claws at the edges. Eight outboard motors were used to create strong waves so the pool would resemble a rushing river, TMZ reports.

When the German Shepherd was finally forced into the pool, he or she was submerged — which may not have been in the script. Someone shouts “Cut it!” and handlers rescue the poor dog.

The trailer for “A Dog’s Purpose” shows the German Shepherd in the water.

A dog’s purpose is not to be mistreated by humans. Please see my Care2.com story for updated information about this incident and join me in boycotting “A Dog’s Purpose.”

Photo via YouTube

Jerk Ticketed for Transporting His Dog in a Ridiculously Dangerous Way

The dangerous ways in which some people choose to transport their pets is downright mind-boggling — inside the trunk of their car, for example (which is legal in California!), or chained to a flatbed on a busy freeway (which is legal in Texas!), or on the roof of a station wagon (as Mitt Romney famously enjoyed doing).

If a Darwin Award was handed out to people who cause their pets’ deaths due to their own stupidity, one of this year’s contenders would be a knucklehead from Flagler County, Fla. This person thought it was a good idea to put a kennel filled with dogs on a trailer attached to his SUV, tether a Pit Bull with one measly rope to the top of the kennel, and then go speeding 70 miles per hour down Highway 95 this week.

The poor dog, whose name is Zeus, can be seen crouching on top of the trailer in a video posted on Facebook by Brenna Cronin that’s been viewed over 1.7 million times.

“I was just completely outraged and appalled,” Cronin told ABC News. “I couldn’t believe it.” The dog, who has the letter “S” seared onto its leg, “stood up and was looking at me so sad,” she said. “I had to do something.”

When the dog saw her, Cronin told CNN he stood up and looked scared. “You know when dogs are happy, they have their tail wagging and a big smile. He was terrified,” she said.

On the other hand, when the driver of the Chevrolet Tahoe saw her recording the video, he flipped her off.

According to a Flagler County ordinance, dogs transported in the open beds of pickup trucks “should be in a pen or restrained by a minimum of two tethers or some other similar method,” KTVU reports. Zeus only had one tether.

Flagler County Animal Services has tracked down the dog’s owner, who — surprise, surprise — doesn’t want to be identified, and ticketed him, but would not indicate the charges.

The owner doesn’t think it’s any big deal. He told WTLV it was an “okay” way to transport dogs and “how everybody transports.”

“Everybody?” I’m 100 percent sure that no responsible dog owners or anyone in their right mind would transport their pets that way.

Here’s a photo of Zeus taken by another driver on the interstate. He looks miserable. Is there anything remotely “okay” about this?!

And what about the “S” on Zeus’ leg? Such branding is common for dogs forced to fight. The owner insisted Zeus is just a hunting dog who goes after hogs. He claimed the “S” was there when he got Zeus as a puppy.

Flagler County Animal Services is currently conducting a wellness check, according to WTLV, and will turn their findings over the the sheriff’s department. Here’s hoping Zeus is taken away from this jerk and rehomed with a much better owner — which shouldn’t be too difficult at all.

Photo via Facebook

LAPD Cop Shooting Dog at Busy Venice Beach Also Shoots Woman

On a summery day like yesterday in Los Angeles, crowds of tourists flock to popular Venice Beach. Despite putting these visitors at risk, an LAPD officer opened fire in the middle of the afternoon on a Pit Bull who he said bit his hand. The bullet passed through the dog and hit the leg of a woman who was riding by on a bicycle.

The woman was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where she was in stable condition yesterday. The dog did not survive.

The unidentified officer who somehow thought it was a good idea to use his gun on a crowded boardwalk has been assigned to non-field duties as this case is being investigated. He will “have to be able to articulate why they used the force they did, and why they did not use other options if they were applicable at the time,” Detective Meghan Aguilar told KTLA.

There’s currently no video available of the shooting incident. It happened after two mounted LAPD officers told a group of people who were blocking part of the bike path to move their belongings. A couple of people in the group became belligerent, and the dog became agitated. When the officers got off their horses, the dog allegedly bit an officer’s hand.

“I heard a struggle, and the next thing I knew, I heard a shot. And I saw the dog laying there,” Tara Borris, a witness, told KCBS. “I think the dog was just protecting his owner. I didn’t hear any growling.”

Terah Clark, a woman in the group, told KCBS the dog’s owner was holding the dog back by his collar when the officer fired.

This case was described by KCBS as “very unusual” because an innocent bystander was also shot — but these cases are not unusual at all. In June 2015 a 4-year-old girl was shot by a cop who was aiming for her family’s dog. Three months before that, a woman in Iowa was killed by an officer’s bullet intended for her dog.

The KCBS report shows the owner sobbing as he holds his dead dog, who Clark said he’d had for 10 years. One person in the group was arrested for an outstanding warrant and another for resisting arrest, but the dog’s owner wasn’t one of them.

Preventing ‘Puppycide’

It’s a horrible statistic, but more than 10,000 pet dogs are shot by police officers in this country every year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. There’s even a term for it: “puppycide.” To prevent this, some police departments are training their officers in non-lethal ways to deal with scared pets.

These programs are a good start, but as those sad statistics make clear, teaching law enforcement officers how to humanely deal with dogs should be required in every state.

Fortunately, many police officers inherently know the right way to handle frightened animals. Just last week, two deputies in Florida saw two scared, stray Pit Bulls in the middle of a street. While that LAPD officer would likely have shot both of them, Deputy Boggs and Deputy Reed with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office stayed with the dogs, comforting them until animal services arrived. Good cops, indeed.

Photo via YouTube