A small town Missouri cop responding to a loose dog call killed the pet after making minimal efforts to catch it. The dog was blind and deaf. It wasn’t aggressive. Its name was Teddy. The bodycam footage went viral. I chronicled the incident here.
The mayor resigned. The cop was fired. The dog’s owner, supported by an animal defense fund, is suing the city for “more than $1 million,” not for violating the dog’s rights (it’s questionable whether dogs have rights), but for violating the owner’s constitutional rights (read story here).
Dogs and other animals should have rights. A life is a life, and others’ lives aren’t ours to take for the taking. But the way our laws work, the unjustified killing of a pet is a tort committed against the pet owner.
Killing a dog can be expensive. The lawyers representing this pet owner obtained a $750,000 settlement in another case of police killing a dog (see story here).
If you were on the jury, what would you award Teddy’s owner? $5,000? $50,000? $500,000? The keys to city hall and all the police vehicles?