Court rules dogs can be shot when they bark at cops
This might make police happy, but not too many dog owners.
Three Michigan police officers, who shot two dogs for lunging and barking at them during a drug raid, were once again justified in their actions — this time by a federal appeals court.
Mark and Cheryl Brown of Battle Creek, Mich., filed suits over unreasonable seizure of their property and a violation of their constitutional rights for the deaths of their pets.
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According to the Battle Creek Enquirer, officers shot and killed the Browns’ pit bull terriers during an April 2013 operation, with Emergency Response Team members claiming one lunged at them and that the other barked as they executed a search warrant for drugs.
“The standard we set out today is that a police officer’s use of deadly force against a dog while executing a search warrant to search a home for illegal drug activity is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment when … the dog poses an imminent threat to the officer’s safety,” wrote Judge Eric Clay in the decision that saw the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati side with the U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids’ dismissal.
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