Idiot comment of the day: "A dog killed your cat? You sue the owner. You don't run for a pistol and blow the dog's brains out because your cat is 'omg so important'. Those dogs were important to someone too."

INDIANA -- The owners of two Siberian husky dogs who were shot to death by Crown Point officers filed a federal lawsuit saying their civil rights were violated.

The lawsuit filed Friday in the Northern District of Indiana U.S. District Court names the City of Crown Point and four Crown Point police officers involved in the shooting. Daniel Lee, Michael Brazil, Steve Meece and Stanko Gligic are all named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Officials from the Crown Point Police Department did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Bradley Nitz and Lindsay Schild say their Fourth Amendment rights were violated because the shooting death of their dogs, Atka and Kenai, was an illegal seizure, according to a complaint filed in court. The owners also say in the lawsuit that the city didn't properly train and discipline the officers.

The owners are suing the city and officers for compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney fees.

The lawsuit stems from a July 17 incident in the Liberty Park neighborhood, where the dogs were being watched by a friend. Police were called to the house by a neighbor who said the dogs had dragged her cat to a nearby creek and were cornering her husband.

According to police reports, the woman described the dogs as "wolves" and police initially thought they were coyotes. The dogs were not wearing tags and their fur was dirty.

Crown Point police previously said an officer used pepper spray on one of the dogs, but the dog continued to circle around the officer and cat owner. Officers shot the dogs because they continued to act aggressively, police previously said.

The complaint filed Friday contradicts police reports about the incident. According to the complaint, Atka and Kenai were not acting aggressively toward the officers or the cat owner. The complaint also alleges that the cat owner egged on the "trigger-happy" officers to shoot the dogs.

[If the owners weren't there, how can they say that the dogs weren't behaving aggressively? How can they say the dogs didn't chase and attack the cat? They should be suing their idiot friend who didn't properly contain the dogs.]

According to a police report, the shooting was the first animal-involved incident since 2012 to require lethal force because of aggressive behavior.

The controversial shooting spurred a vigil in downtown Crown Point and letters to local media outlets.

(nwitimes - Oct 22, 2013)

On Examiner.com, there is an article about this case. Most of the comments blame the victim:

"I'm sorry your cat got attacked. However, your mom is just as much to blame as the dogs. Overreact much? My cats love to go outside also, do I let them unsupervised"

"A dog killed your cat? You sue the owner. You don't run for a pistol and blow the dog's brains out because your cat is 'omg so important'. Those dogs were important to someone too."

A relative of the cat's owner posted:

"This happened at my parents home, to their cat, YES THERE WAS A CAT, who is still hanging on by a thread and may not make it, he's had 2 surgeries and is still in the care of the vet. My dad tried to scare the dogs (although they did not look like dogs and I saw it with my own eyes, mud and water can really change things) the dogs took the cat off of his patio and into a ditch where they had him down attacking and trying to kill him, screaming at them didn't work, my dad used a stick and hit them, didn't work, he even tried a shovel, these dogs were so incredibly focused on killing this poor cat, that nothing else fazed them.

The cops tried several things, not just shot them immediately. They gave those dogs several opportunities to back off of the cat, and back away from the people on site, but they didn't and when my dad reached down to grab his cat after officers arrived, the dog lunged at him in attack mode, the officers had no other option, they had already sprayed pepper spray, fired a shot to make the noise scare them, the dogs were clearly not in the right state of mind at the time,.

It's very saddening for the family that lost their beloved dogs, sad for my parents, who are watching their extremely friendly and loveable cat suffer tremendously, while racking up thousands of dollars in vet bills, and sad that people who weren't at the scene and are going by rumors that have been started, are so quick to judge!"