• Officers opened fire on 92 dogs since start of 2011,
killing the vast majority
• Figure is more than triple that in Cincinnati, a
municipality of a similar size
• Many shootings were in high-intensity raids and search
warrant executions
• Buffalo does not use non-lethal tools, like spray or
Tasers, to control dogs
By ANNABEL GROSSMAN FOR
MAILONLINE
Buffalo police have opened fire
on 92 dogs since the start of 2011, with 73 of the animals dying from their
injuries.
Of these deaths, more than a
third were carried out by a single officer.
The alarming statistics were
obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request for use of force
incidents on canines within the Buffalo police department.
Many of the shootings occurred
during high-intensity raids and search warrant executions when Buffalo Police
may legally use their firearms 'if the officer or another person is in the
process of being attacked by an animal and is in imminent danger'.
But the request, which was
submitted byWGRZ-TV, shows that Buffalo's figures stand at more than triple the
number of dog shooting incidents involving police in Cincinnati, which is a
municipality of a similar size.
Cincinnati Police provided the
news channel with a copy of its use of force records, showing that officers had
shot 27 dogs between the start of 2011 and September 2014
The dogs killed by the
department include Cindy, a two-year-old pit bull that was shot dead last year
when officers raided an apartment on the city's West Side, looking for drugs.
Buffalo Police Commissioner
Daniel Derenda that week launched an internal investigation into Cindy's death,
following accusations that the officers had accidentally raided the wrong
apartment and should never have confronted the dog in the first place.
Adam Arroyo, an Iraq War
veteran, adopted the dog when she was only six months old. He showedWGRZ-TV the
remnants of Cindy's chain and toys, as well as bullet holes and blood left
behind when the officers fired three times, killing his pet.
'She was friendly,' he told the
news channel. 'All the kids in the neighborhood used to come up and pet her.
She wasn't a threat.'
In July this year, another
incident occurred where Buffalo police shot and killed a pet dog while
executing a search warrant, looking for drugs.
During the raid, officers shot
dead a 15-month-old pit bull named Rocky, who was described as 'aggressive' in
the incident report.
'I pretty much heard the two
shots,' said Rocky's owner Ronnie Raiser III, who had just woken in his bedroom
when the police entered his home. 'After the first shot, I heard the dog
squeal.'
Mr Raiser has filed a formal
complaint, alleging excessive force and civil rights violations. He claims the
officers raided the property looking for Ecstasy but they only found a small
stash of his roommate's marijuana.
'I bawled my eyes out,' he
said. 'It's hard. It really is.'
According to the use of force
reports obtained by 2 On Your Side, the same police officer involved in the
raid of Mr Raiser's home also opened fire on Cindy in 2013.
This single officer shot 26
dogs in a three-and-a-half year span. The reports show that n the years 2011
and 2012 alone, this officer alone killed as many dogs in the line of duty as
the entire NYPD.
Buffalo Police Chief of
Detectives Dennis Richards told WGRZ-TV that some officers act as the lead for
the entry team during raids, which could place certain individuals in position
to encounter aggressive dogs more often than others.
'It's a very dangerous job,' he
said, 'And per capita, the amount of work that we do, the amount of search
warrants executed, the amount of calls answered by individual officers, I think
the numbers are what the numbers are.
'Certainly, no officer takes
any satisfaction in having to dispatch a dog.'
Unlike other police
departments, officers in Buffalo do not use Tasers, spray or other tools to
control dogs in a non-lethal manner, and the department does train their
officers specifically for canine encounters.
Jim Osorio, a former police
officer and an expert on police canine encounters, teaches non-lethal methods
for controlling dogs in the line of duty.
Using a live dog, he shows
officers how to read dogs' facial expressions, how to approach the animals, and
how to use spray, Tasers, batons or other tools to safely fend off a threat.
'I felt the need that police
officers need better interaction with dogs on the street,' he said, 'Other than
just taking out a gun and shooting them.'
Chief Richards said his
department has researched other cities for feedback, and said they would consider
using non-lethal tools to contain dogs.
He added: 'It's nothing to be
happy about when a dog has to be let go. But, again, we should stress that it's
the owners of those dogs. It's the drug dealer that is putting that dog in
harm's way.'
