Using this incident, Ledy Vankavage has swooped into Champaign and threatened that police officers and their employers will be sued if they attempt to shoot menacing dogs. Why is Vankavage so interested in admonishing police to not shoot aggressive dogs that are mauling our pets? Because they're usually pit bulls doing the mauling and normal dogs getting mauled to death.
From 2008 to 2012 Elgin police were forced to shoot 23 dogs and 20 of those were pit bulls. In the same time span, Aurora police were forced to shoot 8 dogs and 5 or 6 of those were pit bulls.
By way of example, she shares a completely irrelevant lawsuit with police officers to scare them. She cites a famous suit following a police raid on Hell's Angels' homes in which they shot and killed three dogs. The Hells Angels won a settlement from the city. The issue in that lawsuit was that police knew the dogs were present when they were planning the raid and made no plan to safely isolate the dogs. That has nothing to do with encountering a dog with no warning while conducting police business or with trying to save a dog being attacked by a pit bull.
The Champaign police chief has vowed to implement new policy that will force police officers to stand idly by and allow a pit bull to turn a small friendly dog into a a puddle of blood and guts.
Police would have been forced to stand idly by if non lethal measures were ineffective while these innocent pets were attacked by pit bulls under Champaign's new policy:
Nov 01, 2012 Off duty cop kills attacking pit bull
Feb 21, 2012 Elgin police kill pit bull after it attacked dog
Sep 13, 2010 Dog Attack Prompts QPD to Shoot and Kill Pit Bull
Oct 10, 2007 Pugsly dog attacked by pit bulls dies; charges uncertain
Read more:
News Gazette Accessed: 2013-05-06. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6GPAjKsYH)
