IDAHO -- A pit bull was euthanized after being shot by an Idaho Falls police officer last Friday.
It all started with a phone call to IFPD early Friday morning.
According to the police report, the caller was just down the street from the house at the intersection of 11th and June, and she saw her neighbor in trouble.
The neighbor's garage door was opening and closing over and over again, as two angry-looking pit bulls menaced nearby.
When the cops showed up, the pit bulls turned on them. The officers fired their weapons and hit one of the dogs, while the other ran off.
"It could [have just been] the dogs foresaw the officers as a threat," said Bonneville County Animal Services Manager Irene Brown.
The gunshot wasn't fatal. Rather, the dog was taken to the very place from where it was adopted, the Idaho Falls Humane Society, and euthanized.
"We did temperament test him and everything," Brown recalled about the dog. "So it does kind of surprise me that he did act like that."
Although the dog had no history of dangerous behavior, its sheer size and power made it a threat.
"That [aggressive] instinct's always gonna be there, and the ability to cause severe damage is always gonna be there," said Brown. "There's nothing I can do to take that away. So there's always that possibility with any dog -- any big dog -- to cause severe damage."
Neither of the officers involved was hurt. The IFPD is calling this incident a justified shooting, so there is no investigation.
Attempts to talk to the neighbors involved in the incident were unsuccessful.
(LocalNews8 - Jan 9, 2012)
