LAPD Denounced for Killing Pet Dog

LOS ANGELES - June 18, 2026 - PRLog -- The slaying of Jameson, a 2-year-old Saint Bernard, Golden retriever, and Doodle mix by the LAPD during a family celebration over the Knicks championship win is not unique. Nor is the reaction to the pet's slaying by officers unique in two respects.

Between 2010 and 2016, according to a Department of Justice estimate, more than a quarter of LAPD shootings were not of humans but dogs. The slaying of Jameson is stark evidence that the dogs are still very much fair game for a police bullet if and when the officer feels the animal poses an eminent threat.

Just how many dogs do police slay? The DOJ study found the police kill an astounding twenty to thirty dogs a day. That's right, a day, not a year, or even a month, but a day. The yearly kill total amounts to roughly ten thousand plus dogs slain. In some years that exceeds the number of officer involved shootings of men and women.

Police officials, when challenged on a dog slaying almost always say that the officer feared for their safety. LAPD officials said pretty much the same thing about why officers shot Jameson. Often, they toss in a description of the dog as large, menacing, and ferocious. Jameson was initially described as a large dog, he wasn't. But that characterization was enough to plant the image of a dog that was indeed the menace to the officer's safety, that LAPD officials claim.

That was not the case with Jameson, or the thousands of other dogs slain by the police, including a fair number by the LAPD yearly. The storm of protest and media attention over the slaying of Jameson was fast and furious. LAPD officials and L. A .Mayor Karen Bass have promised a thorough investigation. A Go Fund for Jameson's owners raised thousands.

But that doesn't answer the bigger question. That is why the LAPD, and other police agencies, kill so many dogs each year under dubious circumstances. The even bigger question is what will the LAPD, and the other police departments, do about it? Jameson deserves an answer.
https://thehutchinsonreport.substack.com/p/police-kill-lots-of-jamesons-very
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is Trump's Obama Obsession (Amazon ebook and Middle Passage Press)