Cops are meant to be the servants of society. They prevent guys doing wrong. Nowadays, I sense that there is a tendency for the police to also prevent decent people doing right. This drift in standards affects animals detrimentally because they are the most vulnerable in society. Cats have been caught up in this.
The perceived shift in culture that I am referring to concerns Canada but I sense there is a similar change in the UK and the USA – signs of a police state in a democratic society. In fact, it may be a worldwide phenomenon.
What made me consider this article is (a) a story by Elisa not long ago when kittens were shot by a “humane officer” and (b) police using inured animals for target practice and (c) a more recent story of a cop who insisted (on threat of arrest) on exercising his discretion to shoot a deer that had been hit by a car. But the deer, a fawn, had no discernible injury except for two scratches. Giving a police officer discretion to kill an animal is a dangerous thing.
The deer could well have been simply shocked and unable to walk for a moment. What makes the whole episode particularly unpleasant it that other drivers had stopped and made arrangements for a veterinarian, or some other sort of skilled help, to attend.
At the very least the policeman should have allowed the deer to have been checked out and then made a decision based on the welfare of the animal. There would have been no downside to that decision. The decision was not based on animal welfare. It was a biased and distorted decision.
It is one of those stories that is doing the rounds on the internet about cops being too hasty to kill animals. Are they enjoying it? Are they happy to encounter a situation where they can exercise their discretion under the law to “euthanize” by bullet an animal in distress? Are they just keen to use the gun because it is hardly used?
I’ll add some detail to the deer shooting story. Both the driver of the car that hit the fawn and another drive, who seems to have been following, stopped to help the fawn. The driver following carried the fawn to the roadside and his wife checked out the animal. She was experienced with animals we are informed.
When the police officer arrived he insisted that he had to shoot the deer. It appears to have been an immediate decision, without taking into account any relevant factors. Indeed the wife of the driver who placed the deer at the roadside pleaded with the cop to not shoot the deer. She pleaded so hard that the cop threatened repeatedly to arrest her. Was she committing a “breach of the peace”, an all encompassing reason to arrest someone who does not deserve to be arrested? Frequently, police create breaches of the peace all on their own allowing them to then arrest and shut up anyone who disagrees with what they are doing.
Another disturbing element in this sad story is the daughter of this kind lady was present. The daughter was distraught and the cop was cold, issuing a final warning before arrest, to her mother.
The end result of all this mayhem? The young deer was dispatched with a bullet to the head by this cold-hearted police officer and life goes on for some. No one was arrested but the the vehicle owned and driven by the kind lady’s husband was impounded by the police officer because his license plates were a day out-of-date. Well done.
This seems to be an example of belligerent animosity by the police officer who had decided he was the master of society rather than its servant.
Search results on PoC for “police animals“.
Some public servants are total A**holes. The pictured jackass shooting the fawn is surely one of them and I hope some criminal puts him out of his misery or he dies a slow cruel death from cancer. Shooting kittens is another example of the same type of total moron. Most kittens are adopted. If I had seen it I probably would have taken action. Once again I wish morons like that the worst possible fate.