Lawsuit filed over police shooting of blind and deaf dog in Missouri

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STURGEON, Mo. — This week, a federal lawsuit was filed against the town of Sturgeon, Missouri, and one of its police officers for shooting a 13-pound blind and deaf Shih Tzu mix named Teddy. THE complaint alleges that the City failed to properly train, supervise and discipline its officers.

Attorneys Daniel J. Kolde and Eric C. Crinnian filed suit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri on behalf of Nicholas Hunter, seeking compensation of more than $1 million for violations of his rights under the 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Animal Legal Defense Fund is offering a grant to help cover the costs of the trial.

Kolde had already obtained an amount of $750,000 regulation with St. Louis County, Missouri and several of its agents for the illegal killing of a dog named Kiya.

“Unfortunately, these types of shootings happen too frequently. Contrary to the common misconception that “it's just a dog,” every federal circuit that has addressed the issue has held that the unreasonable killing of a pet by law enforcement violates the “the owner's most fundamental rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment,” the lawyer says. Daniel J. Kolde.

In an incident that attracted international media attention, on May 19, 2024, a neighbor found Teddy wandering in his backyard after escaping from his own fenced yard. Since police in the town of Sturgeon, population 900, are also responsible for animal control, the neighbor called them to help find Teddy's owner.

Body camera footage shows the officer arriving and spending about three minutes trying to use his snare drum to try to lasso Teddy before finally giving up and simply shooting him at point-blank range. The footage clearly shows that the little blind dog posed no threat to the officer or anyone else.

National expert Dr. James Crosby, author of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) manual on law enforcement dog encounter training, said after viewing the footage he could acting out “the least justifiable dog shooting I have ever witnessed in my 30+ years.” work with law enforcement.

In the United States, the number one reason a police officer fires their weapon is to shoot a dog, and the DOJ has estimated that up to 10,000 dogs are shot by police each year. This is also an issue that the Animal Legal Defense Fund has been involved with for many years. In 2015, we helped pass a law in Texas mandating statewide animal encounter training for all police officers, which reduced the number of these shootings by more than 90%. . In 2016, the Animal Legal Defense Fund also helped finance the documentary Dogs and men, which explores solutions to the problem and features the organization's current executive director, Chris Green. In 2020, Green also authored and helped pass an American Bar Association resolution recommending comprehensive animal encounter training for all law enforcement officers.

“This is such an unnecessary and avoidable problem,” says Chris Green, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “It’s about providing police officers with proper training and holding everyone involved accountable. The goal is to prevent these tragedies from happening. »

Courts across the country have recognized for several decades that many of these shootings are unjustified. In 2005, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that “the Fourth Amendment prohibits killing a person's dog or destroying a person's property when such destruction is unnecessary, i.e. when it is less intrusive or less intrusive. destructive, alternatives exist. The court further stated: “We have recognized that dogs are more than just a personal item. Emotional attachment to a family dog ​​is not comparable to a possessive interest in furniture.

“I hope this case can generate attention that results in laws at the state level providing mandatory training and procedures for all law enforcement or anyone who may have interactions with animals ” said Teddy's guardian, Nick Hunter. “I just don’t want anyone else to go through what we’re going through.”