By Elisa Black-Taylor
I see a different mentality between cat and dog owners in this country. Well, around the world as some of my friends live in other countries. I want to explain what I’m seeing and I’d like for the readers here to give me their own opinion. I apologize for being a bit long on this article.
I first noticed this in the past few weeks, as I’ve covered a lot of family dogs shot by police articles for my writing on dogs for Examiner.com. I’m currently #4 Dog Examiner in the U.S. and I’m doing well because there are so many cases to cover. I never run out of writing ideas. I’m even studying landmark cases and forcing myself to study a lot of legal court records. Michael, I don’t know how you did it! I need a book titled “Dogs Wrongly Killed for Dummies.” There are “dummy” manuals for everything else these days. I’ll either gain a bit of legal intelligence or drive myself a bit more insane. My focus is on past cases where dog owners sued the police (or city) and won a cash settlement.
Dog owners here are tired of police either busting into their homes or being at the wrong address and their family dogs pay the price. My most recent article was about a police officer killed when he pointed a stun gun at a dog owned by a horrible individual. The officer had been ordered by the chief to “kill the dogs” at which time the owner killed him. This article has received a lot of comments about how he was a good man and left behind a wife and two small kids.
The comments on these dog articles can be upsetting. I see a lot of people who think the officer “got what was coming to him.” On the dogs killed articles I see comments saying they hope the officer “burns in hell” or “spends the rest of his life in jail”. The officer shot had several comments praising his death.
I even admit myself if someone pointed a gun at my dog, I’d take a dive toward my dog or the officer. I consider it a “mothering” instinct more than a dislike of police officers. My article about the slain officer was to warn people there are a lot of crazy people out there. I’m surprised I’ve only found one case leading to death.
I don’t see this type of hatred on the cat sites. I see major disagreements sometimes. There are a few extremist groups who have commented in the past on PoC that fit the mentality of these dog owners who leave negative comments. I received a lot of feedback on my PoC abuse articles, where cat lovers state they want maximum punishment for the abuser. But I don’t see the raw hatred that’s in the comments on my cat articles that I do on the dog articles I write.
Just about everyone who comments on the dog sites is like our notorious cat hater who calls himself “the Woodsman” who Michael has such a cat and mouse game going with. Only it’s towards the police instead of the animal. Which may be justified since almost all of the dogs shot were innocent and not a big threat. Certainly not enough for the dog to be killed.
I almost titled this article I’m writing now “Could You Kill A Cop Who Threatened Your Cat?” That would be a bit insane because I can’t picture a police officer being afraid enough of a cat to kill it. A cat-hating officer may kill a cat then hide that fact. The cat would disappear and no one would be the wiser. I just can’t picture a cat as being the same threat and openly shot in front of its horrified owner. A few cats have even been known to scare off burglars (Gwen Cooper’s little Homer of Homer’s Odyssey fame is one).
I picture most cats as lazy laid-back. That may be the difference. Affectionate dogs are often misjudged as aggressive. I recently did a story of an officer who killed an 18-pound dog. I have CATS almost that size! I have a problem with an officer killing a dog that couldn’t reach high enough to even bite him on the knee.
We have a big problem in this country with police shooting and killing any family dog who walks toward them. People became upset months ago, then angry. Now they’re infuriated and fighting back. They’re also condemning police without judge or jury. Some officers deserve this. In fact, most of them do. I handle the stories I believe I can make a difference in. Anything to get laws made to protect dogs and punish those responsible for senseless killings.
Michael recently did an article about the women who killed or injured a spouse when the spouse threatened to kill a cat. It’s at https://pictures-of-cats.org/Killing-Would-be-Cat-Killers.html. I did a similar one for my dog column and the response was overwhelming. I’m giving you the link to that article so you can check it out. Feel free to check out some of my others while you’re at it. It’s at www.examiner.com/article/would-you-kill-your-spouse-to-protect-your-dog
Perhaps I’m too involved in this, as I love dogs and cats equally, although for different reasons. Are dog-only owners of a different mentality than cat owners? I see cat owners as more relaxed. Earth-friendly and nurturing. Sometimes. Unless you make them mad and they come out with their claws ready for a fight.
Do dog owners just have a different set of problems to worry about concerning ownership? Or is their general outlook on life totally different than cat-only people? What do the readers here see as the most important difference between cat people and dog people? Or do you see a difference at all?
Also, do any of you believe the Woodsman likes dogs, or does he hate animals in general? Hi Woody Woody! Care to comment?
Comments are much appreciated on this one. I’m going to pass this article around to my dog sites, so be prepared for some new faces on here. I hope someone appreciates this topic enough to take the time and comment. It’s often hard to judge the articles that will go over well and the ones that just take up internet space.
Horror. I guess they didn’t grant bail because they were Swiss (they’d go home) which put an obligation on them to deal with it as you say. A quick fine for repairs and an overnight stay in a police cell. What you describe is unjust and probably close to being illegal. It is certainly not civilised, fair or sensible. It is probably vindictive behavior from the police.
This is a story of a policeman who bludgeoned an injured cat to death: https://pictures-of-cats.org/its-ok-to-bludgeon-an-injured-cat-to-death.html – horrendous and brutal.
It was in the news here recently that 2 drunk swiss guys on holiday in new york dented the bonnet of a cop car because they were a bit drunk and on it I guess. You can’t iagine the punishment they got so far – they were immediatly thrown in jail and have a hearing in April (this happened in January so 2 or 3 months in jail with no hearing) and a – get this – 10,000 dollar fine. It bears no relation to reality in any way. Its horrible. It was in the news here and people were in shock. Here you would be fined the cost of repair and spend a night in jail while you sober up. In the US it’s 3 months and 10 grand before you even get to the hearing. Disgusting.
Scary stuff, American police. What with Elisa and barking dogs being shot and your story it puts me off going to America. I remember being interrogated by border control in the USA once and being insulted by them for no reason whatsoever. An abuse of authority. You just keep quiet and bow to them otherwise who knows what will happen. Although I feel like doing the opposite.
Ruth (Monty’s mom) knows about American police. I hope she comments.
I base it on personal experience too – in Canada, and England. I know you might not see it that way and there is alot of corruption in the UK police but they have 100 times more respect for you and the law than they do in Canada. In Canada they do whatever they want whenever they want and they don’t answer to anyone because the whole system seems corrupted. It cost me 10,000 dollars to get charges dropped because a police officer broke a whole bunch of laws arresting me for something i didn’t do. For those who can’t afford to pay a lawyer the law is incredibly corrupt and ironically: unlawful, – if I hadn’t had the somebody to get me out on bail and been able to pay a lawyer I would have been in jail for months. The crime was committed by the person I happened to be with (at another time, they came to get her after the fact) and they decided they just didn’t like me and would have a bit of fun throwing me in jail too. I believe the police system in north america is very ‘us and them’. In england you can go ask a police officer for directions, in america or canada you are too scared to go anywhere near them. In England they treat you more like a human being than in North America. I was shocked at how many rules they break just for a laugh. I only just finished paying off the money it cost me to get through all of that. I will never go back to canada or the US again and I will give up my US passport as soon as I find a safe way to do it (they want their citizens to file tax even if they have never lived in the US and pay tax in the country they live in so it’s tricky, you can’t just tell them to f**k off because not filing your taxes in the US is, get this, a jail offence.)
I sense you are not very keen on cops ;). Neither am. My views are based on personal experiences (a very few I hasten to add!).
I have never seen it that way before as an example of the differences between dogs and cats. A nice observation.
Don’t worry Howard. I’m studying legal sources before I write anything. I’m working on a story about that wildlife commission laying traps that are killing dogs and cats as well as predators. Have’t gotten enough of a grasp on that one yet but its important also.