Lots of animals are emotionally intelligent. I wonder how this thread would have played out if the title was 'my cat' instead.

Byron? Care to answer?

Most dogs are better than most people. It might be a character flaw, but I’m far more exercised about a dog getting shot by a cop in 99% of cases.

It would have been one post. Cats are meh.

Yes, Milt.

I use the phrase "The Innocents" - these are the animals, the very young, the elderly, and the impaired.

I advocate for The Innocents - because they need and more importantly DESERVE our protection.

Everyone else is on their own as far as I'm concerned......

Lets keep things in generic terms of "what would you do?"
Was the dog running loose without a collar or tag? Has the dog threatened you while on your private property?
If these were the case, then my answer would be "Blame myself for not doing what was supposed to do as the owner"

+1
Animals are comforting companions to many people but they are not people.
Along those lines, I've heard Internet Rambos say they would shoot someone for scratching their beloved sports car. Really?

Since this whole thread was troll bait, lets really let loose: who did the dog vote for in the last election?

I agree. I also think that if your one of those people that think dogs are better then most people, you really need to be around better people. For what it's worth, we have two dogs....

You would know a "troll bait" thread because you start PLENTY of them imo .... always with political overtones ;).

I started this thread after seeing it on the news, and wondered how I would react if in that situation.... nothing more, nothing less.

You seem to imply the owner was "negligent" here .... total BS.

This thread might be considered "trolling" .... fair enough... but certainly not my intent.

I don't think I brought up "shooting or killing" someone .... but if someone killed my dog, in my house, my rage would probably kick in. Some "buttons" are better left "unpushed" .... and you can bet that killing my dog in that way would be a test.

I honestly don't know how I would react ...

I'm done with this thread now .... it worked .... I caught me a "Joe".... and it's a nice one :)!

Move it, delete it, whatever .... I'm not alone in how I would react ....

Nah....you are not trolling and it's a fantastic thread, KC.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions here.

Including Joe.

On the topic of "Man's Best Friend" - I would take my dogs (RIP) over any human I've ever known. And I've known some mighty fine people.

YMMV......

She would aim low
Tourniquet friendly maiming
Might even feed them

Is a dog's life more valuable than a coyote's life?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sgkSyjmn19Q?si=C2Q0hcsWNwR00gzU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

What you've done there is to begin the discussion of whether an animal can be destructive or not. First thing I thought of is rats.

So whether an animal is destructive or not becomes the line that you will or will not cross, or you decide case by case. It almost boils down to the hunt and kill for food vs for the trophy.

You enter into a moral and ethical dichotomy. Now I think of deer and thinning of the herd. This is not a meaningful event for me as we have no deer here.

We do have rats. It would be easy for some to say, "Oh, no, don't kill Bambi." To others deer are just big rats. Logic gets fuzzy.

Or a bacon, for that matter.

No. We used to get up to $120.00 for a decent coyote hide.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1692983162.jpg

Haha. So if one follows, a dog is worth <$120.

Hmmm... I dunno, I see certain breeds around here ("doodles" are very popular these days) fetching $2,000-$3,000 for a pup. Crazy money for a dog, at least to me.

I love my dog. I wouldn’t go to prison over his murder. I’d hope the law would be on my side.

My brother is SWAT. He has one guy that brings rib bones. H says it’s 100%. Successful. He said if bad guys get chihuahuas as watched dogs, game over. They had to shoot one dog once and it troubled him. Big time.

I hope this never happens to us. Some of your answers I would hate to see tested.