California: Woman says neighbor shot and killed her two Boxers

CALIFORNIA -- Most states have laws which state that people have the right to shoot and kill dogs that are running at large, if the dog is putting people in imminent danger of attack. Some of these states say that you can shoot the dog if your property (aka livestock, pets) are being attacked. Additionally, some even say you can shoot the dog if your property (aka livestock, pets) are "in danger" of being attacked. 

This leaves it open to interpretation as to what the dog was doing to "deserve" being shot and killed. Many times the only witness is the shooter, who will, of course, say the dogs were being aggressive. Sometimes the shooter is right and s/he is the hero for shooting the dog. Other times it seems the shooter chose the most lethal route when it wasn't necessary. But like I said, most of the time, the only witness is the shooter and the laws protect him/her.

If what Michelle Shafer says in her Facebook post is true, I would think that the sheriff's department should do a more thorough investigation into the deaths of her two dogs.  With the male Boxer it will be almost impossible to say for sure what was happening - the dog was on the shooter's property and he swears the dog was being aggressive so he shot the dog to protect himself and his property (dog). That's an almost foolproof defense with the current laws on the books. But, for the female Boxer... if she were in the road, running away from the shooter, and he shot her anyway, I would think that reckless endangerment and cruelty to animals charges would be appropriate. 

Michell Shafer's description of what happened with her dogs:
On Sunday 1-3-16 I was getting ready for church and I got a phone call that my two boxers got out of my yard. The lady said they were at her house. I took off running out the door and told my husband the dogs had gotten out of the yard. So I ran down the street and around the corner.

That's where I seen my male dog Cope dead on the side of the road. I dropped to my knees in the street screaming and crying as a man approached me saying he shot your dogs and a woman came running up to me to hold me as I was crying. My husband was 2 steps behind me where he started to confront the other guy walking up to us to apologizing. Saying "I didn't know they were your dogs" "I thought they were pit bulls."

 

Someone hollered my name saying my female dog Penny is still alive. Sheriff cars came from both directions of the street.

The sheriffs made us take penny to the emergency vet 35 minutes away to have her checked out. They wouldn't let my husband put her out of her misery. She had a hole from a shotgun close range on her hind end. We arrived at the hospital with poor fading and in a lot of pain Penny. They let our family say goodbye. Before they euthanized her. We drove back to the murder scene. Spoke to the sheriffs and they said that they felt that "he" the shooter was not justified in shooting our babies! He could have used a water hose or a stick anything but a 20 gauge shotgun. The story the shooter gave was our dogs were in a dog fight with his yorkie yet no one has seen this other dog.

Honestly if two full grown boxers were in a fight with a yorkie the yorkie would be mangled, broken bones, internal bleeding, etc. they never showed this dog nor took a dog to the vet. The lady across the street and 2 houses over said our dogs were playing with her Pomeranians before heading down the street. She said they were not aggressive towards her dogs.

 

The shooter shot Cope at a close range with a 20 gauge shotgun. Penny was scare and took off running away. Then he chased penny down and shot her in the hip.

Just a side note:
Where the shooter lives my brother had lived there before. Across the street from the shooter is where my parents had lived. We used to walk our dogs down there weekly. So my dogs didn't know that grandma and grandpa had moved away and no other family members lived on that block. The dogs would stay there with my parents when we would be out of town.

The shooter did not get arrested. He didn't get his shotgun taken away. He didn't even get a fine! He fired two rounds in a residential area. And Murdered our Cope & Penny!

(Examiner.com - Jan 6, 2016)