Why the Missouri Dog-Shooting Incident Endangers All Dogs

By now, you've probably heard about the dog who was fatally shot by a SWAT team in Missouri. But you may not realize what this has to do with you and your dog.

Here's the story: When a SWAT team raided the Columbia, Missouri home of Jonathan Whitworth back in February, they were greeted by two dogs and they opened fire, shooting several times into the dark home until the pit bull was dead and the corgi was injured. Whitworth was arrested while his wife and 7-year-old son looked on. He was charged with possession of marijuana and second-degree child endangerment. (If one grinder, a pipe, and a small amount of marijuana equal child endangerment, then what do you call opening fire into a home where a child is present?)

Police Chief Burton defended the shooting,  saying that the pit bull "acted aggressively toward a SWAT member as they pushed into the home" and "after being shot, it moved to attack." Now, I wasn't there, but if you have the stomach to listen to the video, there are no sounds of aggression. You can hear dogs barking (what else are they supposed to do when a SWAT team busts down the door?) and a lot of pain after the shots were fired. I'm also skeptical because, as I've written before, there's an epidemic of police reacting to dogs (especially pit bulls) with gunfire.

Last week, Deputy Chief Dresner further explained to the Columbia Daily Tribune that dogs can distract SWAT members as they work to secure the area. "You can't give verbal commands for dogs to retreat," he said. "Dogs are acting instinctually. When bottled at the door, you have to get through." So, because they invade the dog's home and don't know what to do about the expected response, it's okay to shoot?

The Missouri incident is a shining example of how out-of-hand the war on drugs has become. The military-state attitude was bad enough for the people involved, but to kill the family dog over misdemeanor drug charges is absurd. How can they justify taking a life over a bag of pot?

I wish that I could say this was an isolated incident, but it's not. In another high-profile case, a SWAT team kicked in the door of a Maryland Mayor, because someone mailed his wife marijuana, and shot the two family dogs, killing them both. Several other stories have been reported in recent years of dogs being shot when police weren't even at the right address.

SWAT raids are getting to be so common they're practically treated like routine traffic stops these days. According to Americans for SWAT Reform, SWAT teams were only deployed 3,000 times in 1980; today, there are more than 50,000 SWAT operations per year. Know what else has increased since 1980? The number of households with dogs. More than 43 million American homes have dogs, which means there's a pretty good chance that all these SWAT teams running around are going to encounter more "distractions." And one small  mistake — either theirs or yours — could cost your dog his life.

For more on how this incident relates to the war on drugs, and if you'd like to watch the video that has sparked the current uproar, check out Colin Asher's post over on the Criminal Justice blog (warning: the video doesn't show much, but the sound effects are disturbing).

Photo credit: Tim McAteer