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.
Police are supposed to serve and protect, but many are just on a power kick. It used to be you could always trust a police officer, they were just beyond reproach. Not so anymore– so many are very corrupt or just plain bad and they don’t lose their jobs. The union protects them. If I got caught drunk driving I would lose my teaching job. No doubt about it. I’d be fired immediately. But we have cops who drive drunk (off duty) and keep their jobs. That’s not right.
With the deer, I think the officer may not have had a choice. We have chronic wasting disease around here affecting the deer and the DNR won’t allow a deer from an area affected by that disease to be brought in and treated. They would just have insisted the deer be put down. It happened recently here. A fawn was being cared for by a rescue group and because the fawn was from an area infested by chronic wasting, the DNR euthanized her. I don’t know if they even tested whether she actually had chronic wasting disease or not, or maybe the deer could still be a carrier. It seems like a drastic response, but the disease is a serious issue. It could be the officer had no choice.
But even so, it’s all in how you handle it. Show empathy. He could have stated that he felt really, really badly about this, but because of DNR regulations, stupid as they may be, he didn’t have a choice. If the officer had taken time to listen, really listen, not only would the people involved have felt better about the outcome, it might have given the deer a chance to recover, get up and walk away, and the whole issue of whether it could be brought to a vet or not would have disappeared. Do officers sometimes have to shoot injured animals, even if they would rather not? Yes, probably, and that’s a distasteful part of their job. But isn’t good public relations part of the job too? Isn’t avoiding needlessly upsetting people part of the job? I think officers need a lot more training in basic people skills. There should also be more careful psychological testing and screening. People who are just on a power kick or who have violent/cruel tendencies should not be part of a police force.
lol Woody – that’s simply not true, but it sounds good.
If this happened in Canada it doesn’t suprise me. The Toronto police force are a bunch macho jocks.
When I read things like this I’m always glad I don’t live in a country where all police are armed and seem to shoot animals indiscriminately.
It seems they have the power to decide without having any knowledge about animals and if their injuries are serious or not and that policeman was determined to show he knew more than the kind lady.
Most of our local police are decent and caring people even though they have to put up with a lot of abuse from those who know how far they can go without being arrested.
One of our Neighbourhood PCSOs who called one day on Neighbourhood Watch business had just got a little kitten, we had a lovely ‘cat chat’ session lol
I think as with every other profession there are good and bad police so maybe we are just lucky here.
I think you hit on the “problem”. If police are armed they have the ability to instantly “euthanise” an animal. That easiness of it encourages it. While in the UK a policeman would not have acted like this. I am not saying British police are better I am just saying without a gun they’d have to call for help such as the RSPCA or a vet.
I think that individuals who work in public service and are trusted authority figures should be required to undergo psychological assessments at least every 2 years. Plus, assessments should be mandatory any time an officer draws a gun and/or makes a life/death decision of any kind.
Power is so easily abused. I believe that it can, sometimes, be a precursor to a distorted sense of entitlement and grandiose delusional thinking (a god complex).
I don’t believe there is enough scrutiny and screening of public servants.
My thoughts exactly. The mentality has to be correct if a person is serving the community and the police definitely should be listening and acting in a way that pleases the people they serve: the general public. I am sure the great majority of people would disagree with the behavior of this police officer.