Moronic Alton police officers find injured dog in parking lot. Rather than take it to the shelter, they shot it to death(!) Oh and the best part? It wasn't "just a stray", it was someone's pet.

ILLINOIS -- On the first day of police officers taking over animal control duties in Alton, a dog was euthanized killed with a service weapon, sparking a firestorm on social media by residents demanding change.

"It was the first full day it was dropped in the lap of the Alton Police Department and it was chaos," said Jackie Spiker of Hope Animal Services.

Alton leaders decided to cut their animal control officer, leaving police with an additional job for which they were not trained.

A dog with an injured leg was outside of a Family Dollar store when officers were able to coax the hurt dog into their squad car.

"They felt there was no other alternative, so they took the dog in and euthanized killed the dog with their weapons," Spiker said.

I'm sorry. Are these officers licensed veterinarians? What qualifies them to decide what animal needs to be killed? If the dog could be "coaxed" into their cars, it could walk. It wasn't beyond saving.

Illinois' Animal Control Act dictates the dog should have been taken to a veterinary office to scan the dog for a microchip, which would have enabled the officers to notify the owner of the dog.

"The officers of the Alton Police Department do love animals," said Alton Public Information Officer Emily Hejna.

After the dog was killed, he was scanned and the information on the microchip was used to notify the dog's owner.

"I think it is a very unfortunate situation," said Hejna. "Our officers are not trained animal control officers and they make decisions with the information they have been given."

On Tuesday afternoon, Spiker and others went to the Alton Police Department to meet with the Alton Police Chief to discuss future options.

"Let’s come up with a solution so that we can keep a functioning animal control and not put Alton
Police officers who are not properly trained—and that's not their fault, they are police officers, they are not animal control officers—so that what happened to this dog never happens again," said Spiker.

All parties at the meeting agreed to work together to find possible solutions.

Animal rights advocates plan to demonstrate at Wednesday night's city council meeting.

(KMOV - July 22, 2015)