By Matt Agorist
According to an unofficial count done by Ozymandias Media, an independent research group, a dog is shot by law enforcement every 98 minutes.
In an investigative report, it was discovered that a single police department in Buffalo, NY, shot 92 dogs in less than three years. In Southwest Florida, the News-Press discovered 111 instances of dog shootings among multiple agencies between 2009 and 2012, representing about 37 per year. According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Police shot approximately 90 dogs per year between 2008 and 2013.
It is an undisputed fact that cops frequently kill dogs.
That being said, when an officer exhibits courage instead of cowardice when confronted by man’s best friend, they deserve recognition. Body cam footage from a Meridian police officer shows exactly the kind of courage and training police officers should possess.
The video was obtained and shared to Facebook by Edith Williams, who thanks the Meridian police chief for the video and helping her cause – a public group called Idaho for Nonlethal Canine Encounters, according to KBOI News.
According to Williams, reports KBOI, the police department sent two officers to a Defensive Tactics Canine Encounters class back in 2014. Officers were taught how to use confidence and “less lethal means” while “keeping the officer, innocent bystanders and the public’s canine companions from harm.”
The cop in the video below, Officer David Gomez, was one of the officers who attended that training. His application of the knowledge obtained through the class was nothing short of astonishing.
As the body camera footage begins, Gomez is responding to a call about two vicious dogs that were roaming the neighborhood. Instead of pulling out his gun and killing the dogs, like most police officers would have done, Gomez applies his training.
Gomez could have easily killed both dogs, and most people wouldn’t have batted an eye, but he chose to preserve life rather than destroy it — and the end result was amazing.
Using only a baton (to distract, not to beat) and pepper spray, Gomez called the dogs over to him as not to put the rest of the neighbors in danger. When the dogs approach him, one is foaming at the mouth, and both of them are very aggressive.
When they try to bite Gomez, he puts the baton in between himself and the dogs which serves as a barrier as well as a distraction. Every time the dogs tried to run away, which would have endangered anyone who was outside, Gomez bravely called them back — and they returned.
At the end of the interaction, Gomez comes up with a perfect plan, and it actually works. The crisis was averted with no bloodshed, and Gomez has shown the world that cops killing so many dogs is entirely unnecessary.
“This has been a true labor of love,” Williams said.
Below is the incredible video — watch it until the end.
Matt Agorist is the co-founder of TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist
Nice:)
Now he has to clean up the rabies foam.
Funny!
However, that was not rabies foam, just FYI. Unlike humans, dogs don’t sweat. Instead, they have to get rid of a lot of excess body heat through their mouths. To me, that looked like a dog that had been without water for many hours, wandering around the neighborhood, and barking up a treat. It’s behavior would have been much more erratic, to the point it most likely would have attached it’s partner in crime, if it was rabid. I only mention this because I have some experience with dogs as I currently have 4 adult dogs and 9 puppies left.
Peace.
Yes, these were two badly behaved pet dogs gone walkabout. They weren’t vicious, or they would have leaped for that cop and had him on the ground long before a minute had elapsed. It never ceases to amaze me how little people know about dogs’ behavior.
Good observation. The dogs were acting just normally intelligent. The posturing are normal dog stances with new acquaintances.
I loved the end!! “How do ya like me now”!! And it only took 4 min.
Too bad there aren’t more cops like him.
There might be. Mostly, it appears that we see the negative behavior more than the positive. After all, there’s a divide-and-conquer strategy being used against us in every segment of our lives.
Peace.
I suggest people in Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland … (everyone!) send this link to your local PD. All could benefit.
If they treated ‘people’ like this cop treated these dogs…there’d be a lot less fatalities & ‘murder by cop’ (imho)
Well said, sir!
It’s hard to believe…I haven’t seen a cop hike up his big boy pants and go out of his way to do the right thing in a long, long time.
Bravo.
I honestly believe canines have some kind of spell over people that eliminates all reason from their minds. An aggressive canine aggressively approaches you and threatens you and you’re supposed to play nice? Would you do this for any other kind of animal? Would you do it for a coyote, a wolf? But you claim this is a “domesticated animal?” It certainly is not behaving like one!
If you expect a cop to go through this “play nice” approach, then you expect ALL OTHER people to do it! What next? Capture the animal, pet it, and then let it loose to wreak MORE havoc?
You’re sick and need help. But before doing that, put… the… animal…DOWN!
You’re an unenlightened asshat.
The differences between our pets and wild animals goes far beyond the obvious (the obvious being the temperament of the pet, its trainability, its value for companionship). Indeed, many pet owners (myself and wife included) consider our pets to be family members. If a family member is having a particularly bad spell, we don’t immediately want to shoot them or get into contact with someone that wants to shoot them. Instead, we attempt to deescalate the situation through calm talk and gestures, non-threatening body language, or even putting a barrier between the family member and potential targets, long before we attempt to violently attack that family member. Why should it be any different for a family pet? Most pets are not vicious…which is why they are pets. Although I’m not a fan of cops, this video, and several others I’ve recently seen, show that, like the rest of us, they’re human, too, and probably a majority of them (I’d like to believe) don’t actually want to bring unnecessary violence into a situation if it can be avoided.
Peace.
Not to mention that these dogs were badly behaved, not vicious. If you see their body language, they’re posturing (“we’re bad, we’re bad), not attacking. I can guarantee, if two pit bulls of that size were vicious, a little blast of pepper spray and holding out a baton to redirect them wouldn’t have done a thing except tick them off. Absent a human directing them, or being frightened out of their wits, there are very few dogs who really want to hurt a human.
Even wild animals are easily contained with a little intelligence and low impact technology like pepper spray. Even raging bears!
Little girls control fierce animals with hair spray. ……Just a can of hair spray!
The warped little curdled pork minds will always find some grotesque emotional kick in putting that animal . . . DOWN! . . . . wiff ma smokin’ gun!
This cop rocks because he is so unusual in his approach! LOL. He just proved that intelligence, patience, and being clever is far more powerful than using brute force and lethal weaponry. He ought to be police chief and teach protocol and procedure to other murderous thug-cops who fling lead before discerning the truth of the matter.
Sweeeet!
Major kudos to Officer Gomez. Not only did he behave like a human being, he kept both himself and those two dogs from being injured, or even traumatized by a neck catch. It’s nice to see a video of a cop that I can say something nice about!
Looks like the dogs were friendly enough. The language of the tails determine their intentions.
Yes, exactly.
I have often wondered why the Humane Society doesn’t ever get involved in the deaths of dogs by police officers. So many of the dog killings were totally unwarranted under the circumstances, the officers found themselves in, yet not a single word out of the body that is supposed to protect animals. I will never again help fund that society until I actually see some concern for the lives of pet dogs, never!
The “humane” society is a vile crop of dung. , their CEO, Wayne Pacelle, has suggested that he would be happy to see
pets wiped off the face of the earth: “We have no problems with the
extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective
breeding.”
Roger, yes, “pets” do foam at the mouth. Ever been for a long run on a hot day? Ever notice how, as you exert yourself, your saliva thickens? Ever notice how many people feel the need to spit to clear their mouth in that situation? Same thing happens to dogs but they can’t spit voluntarily. And those dogs didn’t “threaten” to tear anyone up. They were posturing as dogs do when they are nervous meeting new dogs or people.
You are uninformed and obviously very afraid of dogs (and probably most other things). Stay in the house so everyone else isn’t in danger from your fear.
Very good! Well said Amor!
Isaiah 1:
Your hands are full of blood!
16 Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the good things of the land;
20 but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
I am neither sick nor a pervert. The dog that was foaming at the mouth was THIRSTY, not sick. I’m sorry for your neighbor — I acknowledge that pets can go bad,. However, those two dogs the cop peacefully picked up were NOT vicious animals, otherwise more force might have been necessary. You, sir, obviously don’t know a thing about dogs.
PS: I sure don’t worship dogs, just the Creator.
Peace.