Friday 7 June 2013

”The wound that has caused a particular tiger to take to man-eating…”

”…might be the result of a carelessly fired shot and failure to follow up and recover the wounded animal..” 

Jim Corbett

Luckily, the same is (hopefully) not true of Bernese Mountain dogs. But it seems Gloucester Police aren't taking any chances:
A dangerous and aggressive dog is being hunted by police after it attacked and killed a number of sheep.
Just the usual story? Well, no. There’s a wrinkle with this one!
"Police were called to farmland and tried to approach the animal to safely remove it but the animal was aggressive and officers were unable to contain it," a Gloucestershire Constabulary spokeswoman said last night.
"Due to the potential harm to the public and other animals in the area firearms officers shot
Hurrah! Hail the conquering hero!
… and wounded the dog.
Oh. Right. Well, I suppose it is a smaller target than a cow or a horse
"The officers believed the dog had been destroyed but, despite a search of the area, the animal wasn't found.
"Officers continued to look for the dog during daylight. "
What, too scared to go into the woods on foot after dark to look for it? With your armed colleagues and the farce helicopter to help?

Or did you have some research to do?
"A member of the public reported seeing a dog acting aggressively in the area this evening and armed officers are currently continuing their search in the area. "
Anyone who sees the animal is advised not to approach it and to call the police immediately by dialling 999."
If a member of the public gets bitten by the dog you wounded, I bet the compensation claim will be very interesting!

Honestly, this is the sort of story that makes me wish the 'Inspector Gadget' blog was still around so I could go over there to read their excuses for this latest cock-up and their protestations that of course this didn't mean that they shouldn't all be armed...

Update:
Gloucestershire Police spokeswoman said: "The pet's owner was kept informed and updated throughout the incident and at 7am today they informed police that it had returned home of its own accord."
The dog is now receiving treatment from a vet and police are investigating whether its owner has committed an offence.
Probably find their ‘expert firearms officers’ hit it in the foot

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Benrese Mountain Dogs aggressive? Big yes. Intimidating yes. But deinitely not aggressive. They might run up to you and jump up which could be scary if you don;t know or like dogs, but they are unlikely to be aggressive. My kids have clmabered and bounced all over mine with nothing more than a raised eyebrow from them.

Perhaps it chased the police because they're all such pussies these days.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX A dangerous and aggressive dog is being hunted by police after it attacked and killed a number of sheep. Just the usual story? XX Totaly allowable. A Farmer can (could?) do that.

XX the animal was aggressive and officers were unable to contain it,XX

So....?

XX Officers continued to look for the dog during daylight.XX

XX " What, too scared to go into the woods on foot after dark to look for it? With your armed colleagues and the farce helicopter to help?XX

The shot happened during darkness. (That means "in the night!" Remember that? Dark, can not see where you are putting your next foot?? When no one can hear you scream?)

Have you ever hunted in the woods, or even a forest, in the dark? Man or animal, no difference.

No?

SHITE lassie. Try it. Then come back and tell us all about how easy it was.

What were you expecting? Olympic medal winning marksmanship?

S.A.S maybe?

And if this shit machine had eaten a child in between, how would your post read then? When the police "had done nothing"!?

John Pickworth said...

What were you expecting? Olympic medal winning marksmanship?

Frankly, yes.

This isn't like America where they give you a shield and gun on your first day on the job. Here, we're repeatedly told, only the cream of the crop get shooting irons and only then after weeks of highly intensive training. And yet, like so many other 'professionals' their results in the field don't match up to the expectation. Same with drivers of police cars, same with riot squads, same with all the other panoply of specialisms. It's fine to make a mistake or occasionally get it wrong... but we've witnessed a long list of situations over the past few years where they rarely get it right.

Anonymous said...

How do you know the shot happened in darkness? It's light until 9:30 or 10.

MTG said...

In the event no picnickers were maimed or killed and with apparent absence of collateral damage, we should be generously disposed to awarding positive marks for this plodwork.

Let's say, 7/100 for finding the site. Crikey, plod did navigate to the correct location?

Anonymous said...

Well trained police marksmen cannot target a Shetland pony sized dog.They also want to shoot badgers a lot smaller well good luck with that then

JuliaM said...

"Big yes. Intimidating yes. But deinitely not aggressive. "

Well, this one had apparently been on the lam (SNORK!) for a few days prior to being discovered in the field. And it possibly had its blood up.

Or, indeed, the police are idiots.

The evidence presented in the few reports means it really could go either way.

"What were you expecting?"

Well, something along the lines of what John Pickworth points out, and for the very same reasons.

At the least, if not the sort of marksmanship that would make Jason Bourne applause, then the sort of minimally competent shooting skills that, say, roo hunters in Australia (H/T: Angry Exile via Twitter) must demonstrate in order to get a license.

Well, I guess standards are slipping everywhere, so why not the ARV staff too?

"They also want to shoot badgers a lot smaller well good luck with that then"

I really, really hope it's going to be professional culling experts going after badgers, and not the likes of ex-PC Mickelthwaite.

Or animal rights nutters could be the least of everyone's problems!

JuliaM said...

"And if this shit machine had eaten a child in between, how would your post read then? When the police "had done nothing"!?"

But...they DID 'do something'. They made the situation worse.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX Anonymous said...

How do you know the shot happened in darkness? It's light until 9:30 or 10.
7 June 2013 17:18 XX

XX "The officers believed the dog had been destroyed but, despite a search of the area, the animal wasn't found. "Officers continued to look for the dog during daylight. "XX

LOGICALLY, (I presume you KNOW what "logic" is?) that indicates that the hunt began NOT in daylight!

What is darkness?

Ysss! WELL done! "A lack of darkness"

So, it began AT NIGHT, in the dark...

Boy some peopl,e must be PAID to be fucking thick.