March 15th, 2015 — Burberry, a 6-year-old service dog, was shot by a police officer in the early hours of the morning outside his owner’s home in Pacific Beach. Ian Anderson, of San Diego, heard his beloved Pit Bull barking around 5:30 am on Sunday morning. Police had arrived at Anderson’s home mistakenly for “what appeared to be” a domestic disturbance. However, unknowingly the officers had journeyed to the wrong address.
Burberry had been Ian Anderson’s cherished companion for six years and yet he was taken away within seconds by a police officer’s fired weapon. In a statement, Anderson says the police had knocked on his door and Burberry had run outside but had stopped barking as one of the officers reached down to pet him. Regrettably, the other officer on the scene had less that a collected approach and hastily reacted, yelling at the dog and demanding that he be kept inside. Burberry became startled, and the officer proceeded to draw his weapon and fire upon the dog.
In an interview with NBC, Anderson recalled the tragic event, “[The officer] jumped back, went this way, drew his weapon. Boom. Shot right in the head and he was done. He was dead.” Devastated, Anderson laid with the body of his cherished pet, friend and supportive companion for two hours, overwhelmed with grief.
Burberry, a beautiful grey Pit Bull, had not only worked with children with down syndrome, he had also helped Anderson while he was suffering from anxiety after the loss of his father. “He was the best dog in the entire world, I would do anything to have him back right now, absolutely anything,” Anderson tearfully explained.
The San Diego Police Department have since issued a statement, however it lacks any hint of an apology for Anderson’s loss and suffering:
“The preservation of life is our top priority and this includes the lives of animals. This incident is currently being investigated as any officer-involved shooting would be to assure proper procedures were followed. Any further comments prior to the completion of the investigation would simply be premature.”
Dog Encounter Task Force, a non-profit organization based in San Diego, dedicates their time to training police officers how to safely work with dogs and ultimately help reduce the number of dogs and other animals killed by law enforcement. The organization has stated that they had previously reached out, offering their service free of charge, but with no success.
In a statement, the organization said, “There seems to be no question here that this incident did not have to happen. It really makes no difference if this dog was a service dog or not. Our organization has been in conversation with the San Diego Police Department for over 16 months to get them into our TOTALLY FREE Safe Dog Encounter Training. As yet, they have not seen the importance of this training for their agency. We stand at the ready to make sure that our officers can safely deal with dog encounters while keeping everyone else safe too – our dogs and innocent bystanders.”
They proceeded to add, “Our experiences tell us that law enforcement is just like everyone else in that when they know better they do better. Within the training of most law enforcement agencies in the country they actually have no safe dog encounter training. For example, they are not even trained that the very “command presence” posture they are taught in the academy, for use with humans and works well with mountain lions and bears, is viewed as confrontational and highly threatening by dogs. But without safe dog encounter training they have not learned that part yet. Many are taught in the academy that pepper spray does not work with dogs when it is proven that it does! We teach them how to properly read a dog’s body language and signals in order to accurately the situation and how to use their own body language to negotiate with a dog in order to diffuse a situation. For those situations where actual action is required we teach them no less than 19 non-lethal ways to keep a dog encounter safe for everyone. Does that mean that dogs will never get shot? No, it does not and we realize that. We just want to stop the unnecessary dog shootings and we can through the right kind of training.”
The slaughter of this cherished animal is inexcusable and unjust. The facilities are there, being offered, free of charge for the San Diego Police Department. However, they have yet to accept the generous offer and educate their officers in an effort to save the lives of other beloved pets.
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Guy kills cop dog, goes to jail for manslaughter.
Cop kills guys dog, “were looking into it”
Makes sense right?
So sorry for your loss. My husband also has a service animal who is a pitbull. I most certainly hope u contact the ada over this
The owners should shoot the cop…
Your comment is awaiting moderation. We mean the FBI is looking into this comment.
Just me.
That officer should be charged. Killing an innocent dog?! Cops SHOULD BE TRAINED in dealing with dogs! This story makes me sad. I know how attached I am to my pets, I feel the pain of the owners.
It’s getting to the point where you stand a better chance of survival with the crooks than the cops. The bully mentality and sadistic behavior is way worse than being reported. They hide their eyes behind mirrored sunglasses. Our dogs can smell the fear dripping from their body armor which is why mans best friend is such a threat to the thugs patrolling our cities. The S.D.P.D. needs to be retrained and restrained from use of deadly force as their first choice. Cops need to learn how to talk to the citizens instead of talking at them. Take their guns away and you’ll see just how fast their negotiation skills come right back. Take away the tanks, the armored cars and the military grade weapons and hardware and return them to the job of “to protect and serve”. GH
this is disgusting. This HAS to stop happening. The Police need to be made accountable for what they do and not just be revenue generators for the authorities.
It’s getting to the point where you stand a better chance of survival with the crooks than the cops. The bully mentality and sadistic behavior is way worse than being reported. They hide their eyes behind mirrored sunglasses. Our dogs can smell the fear dripping from their body armor which is why mans best friend is such a threat to the thugs patrolling our cities. The S.D.P.D. needs to be retrained and restrained from use of deadly force as their first choice. Cops need to learn how to talk to the citizens instead of talking at them. Take their guns away and you’ll see just how fast their negotiation skills come right back. Take away the tanks, the armored cars and the military grade weapons and hardware and return them to the job of “to protect and serve”. GH
anyone miss something here? THE COPS went to the WRONG ADDRESS? Does that not scare anyone? They can done what they want, even at the WRONG address. They don’t ask questions. Poor dog. Just wanted to be helpful and be loved by his owner and in turn give unconditional love. Stupid cop! This just proves to me that COPS ARE SCARDEY CATS! Get out of the line of work if you are scared. Then things like this won’t happen.
they wont be held accountable for anything they ever do unless theyre caught on camera. It amazes me how much cops act like criminals and get away with it. If you or I did what those cops did we would be sitting in jail.
exactly. I know a lot of people think that cops are racists and a good amount are but there are good cops. they are very hard to find theses days though. thing is thought they are going after all citizens. if we do the things that are government does and the things some of the police do we would be sent to prison.
There is no accounting for human garbage.
Well everybody, you know what to do: Find him on facebook, get his facebook id, and crack his password to delete his page. Also do everything you can to make his life miserable on the internet to get him to regret what he has done….:)
I agree