talltex wrote:If they kill someone's pet, they might win the legal battle against criminal charges but they will lose their job and likely lose their money in a civil suit. Most juries will take the viewpoint that if you entered a closed gate without asking, you intruded on the dog's property uninvited and they will assess at least a portion of the damages to you. I can't speak to every company's policies, but my brother just retired as an engineer with First Choice Power and they allow their employees to carry only pepper spray. If they are caught carrying anything else on the job, they will be fired. Have a friend that works for ATMOS energy, and he said up until about 20 years ago, they could carry a small cattle prod which will keep a dog off without injuring them, but they had to stop after someone saw them zap their dog and sued them for damages...they now carry pepper spray also.VoiceofReason wrote:
Please site your source.
By entering your property, a utility worker or anyone else for that matter does not forfeit his/her right to self defence up to and including deadly force. If your dog attacks someone coming to your front door, that person can kill your dog if necessary to protect themselves, then sue you.
Same at my husbands utility company. They are permitted to carry pepper spray and a metal clipboard. They are trained to if they must enter a fenced area to stop, look for signs of a dog, then whether or not they see signs to call for a dog. If dog friendly comes around to talk with the dog and to enter once they have gained the dogs favor to enter carefully. If dog unfriendly comes around they call the owner and request that they restrain their dog. Now they carry pepper spray and the metal clip board in case those measures don't work.
Look I am a reasonable person. I have many LEO friends. If the LEO is serving a warrant on a dangerous person (murder, drug kingpin, etc) or if he is trying save persons life and he cannot take the time to be patient and careful then I can understand sorrowfully having to kill a pet because one is trying to save human life. But this was not an emergency. No one was dying. This was a traffic violation. No one was dying...no one was committing heinous acts against another person. There were other actions that could have been taken.
I plead with those of you charged with the enforcement of laws. Please, use at least as much sense as the 7.50/hr meter reader. Please don't be in such a hurry to dispense "enforcement of the law" that you forget to use your heads and get yourself in a position where you have to kill someones pet over a petty traffic violation.