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Alright, so this is a horrible topic that I'm sure every pitbull owner has heard of or seen and worries will happen to them. Sure, daily we are faced with the fact that many people do not like our breed of choice, many people fear them, and some would love to see them extinguished from the earth. I was hoping to hear of some ideas as to what to do with a situation that occurred from other dog people (or animal people). I was called looking for advice for a variety of onlookers and to offer the owners of two pitbulls who were needlessly shot by police in Everett, Massachusetts today while neighborhood children were playing only several feet away.

My aunt had called me this afternoon around 4:30pm to tell me that two houses down an Everett police officer had shot two pitbulls. I assumed the worst, the dogs had hurt somebody. But as many stories I have heard from people I personally talk to that own pitbulls all over the country, or many that have been posted in various locations the dogs did not hurt a soul. There was a mother and daughter pitbull in their own yard and driveway. A woman walked by (who unfortunately we are sad to say we know through others) and one of the dogs barked at her. She called the police. A lot of people were outside, many neighborhood children playing almost directly in front of this house and never did the dogs leave their property. Police showed up and one officer thought it would be smart to first yell at the dogs and move toward them aggressively, then feed them bread to try to catch them with a pole (no animal control on scene mind you). The bread ran out, one of the dogs stepped closer with what was described as an obvious attempt to get another piece of food. Cop shoots the dog 3 times. One bullet hits the other dog that was sitting beside her and she takes off running into her yard. Cop chases, tackles and shoots dog several times. 1 man is arrested for attempting to stop the cop from killing second dog. Cop is confronted by large group of witnesses who claims "dog tried to attack" him. No such attack occurred. Grant it...the dogs were not obviously enclosed (no idea if there was an invisible fence of sorts) and owners were not home. Shame on the owners for allowing the opportunity for an escape if dogs were not in an underground fence. HOWEVER...the cop had no right to shoot an animal that was clearly NOT aggressive.

Sad story we hear too often by other pitbull owners. Something we all fear. If you were the owners, or if you were an onlooker what steps would you take? News Stations come to mind. Perhaps MSPCA? Are there any groups that would deal with something like this supporting the dogs, owners, onlookers? Do parents of children that had to witness this abuse have any legal standing if they decide to join forces and go up against the city (which looks like is very possible)? Any other ideas?