It's never safe to ignore the dog.

PZ has a brief post up commenting on an article on the Lippard Blog about a "dog" target that is routinely shot by DEA agents training for raids. Both link to an article that provides a list of numerous cases where police have killed pets. I think my take on the situation is a bit different from either of theirs, probably because of my past EMS experience.

At the start, I want to be clear that I am in no way shape or form endorsing the routine slaughter of pets. I am also not endorsing or excusing the examples of violence against animals that were given in the reason.com article. There is no doubt that police brutality exists. There is no doubt that it is more common than it should be. There is no doubt that police can be brutal toward pets at least as easily as they can be toward people.

That having been said, emergency responders of any kind always, always, always need to remember that a dog on the scene is potentially a threat, and that it is never safe to assume that a dog is not a threat just because the animal has been well behaved so far. A dog, particularly if not restrained, is every bit as much a potential danger as any number of other factors at the scene. The reason for this is pretty simple. Dogs are, generally speaking, loyal to their owners. Many dogs will respond to a perceived threat to their family with violence. When a dog is scared and in an unfamiliar situation, it is very difficult to accurately predict what a dog will perceive to be a threat.

This is something that I've seen firsthand when I've been working EMS. I've seen cases where it's been very difficult to get into the house to start treatment, because the dog is hovering protectively over the fallen master, blocking access to these strangers who are coming into their house with all of these strange things. I've seen cases where dogs have been clearly nervous, but OK with people coming in to help, but then change radically when it comes time to take the patient out to the ambulance. I remember one particularly fun day when one of the guys on my crew was attacked by a miniature poodle when he began to buckle the straps on the stretcher. We did not shoot any of those animals, but a lot of the reason for that was because we were unarmed. We did mace a few, and that worked sometimes, but there was one case where a large German Shepherd kept us out of the house, and we could not enter until a relative dragged him off and locked him in another room. The relative lived with the dog and was trying to help us, but she was still bitten twice in the process.

In every one of those cases, the animal felt threatened by the ambulance crew and reacted appropriately - from the animal's perspective, of course. In none of those cases were we actually threatening anyone. In police raids, that is different. The police are a threat, and are hoping to be perceived as a massive threat by everyone around - because that is one way to keep the violence down during the raid. I do think that the major raid tactic is sometimes overused, but there are cases when it is necessary. When police train for such events, it is a very good idea to keep the possible threat that the family pet represents firmly in mind.