A video of a pit bull pulling apart a car while a police officer tries to explain to the owner that he cannot shoot it has created a storm of comments both for and against the dog and the car owner.
Jessica DiLallo of Dalton, Georgia, called the police on Nov. 9 when she saw a dog viciously attacking her brand-new car that was parked in her driveway.
DiLallo said the destructive canine was trying to catch a pair of cats that were hiding under the hood of the car.
Concerned for the car and the cats, DiLallo was glad when Dalton Police Lt. Matthew Locke arrived on the scene. But she grew increasingly outraged as the officer stood by and watched the dog destroy her car.
DiLallo suggested that the officer throw a rock at the dog, and later that the officer shoot it. Then she asked what would happen if she were to get a gun and shoot it herself.
The video has been viewed widely on YouTube and Facebook, and comments have piled up, most of them aimed at DiLallo.
Outrage Turns to Sarcasm
After Locke refuses to shoot the dog, DiLallo asks him sarcastically: “So when he finally gets to whatever he is going to, we get to watch him destroy that as well? The cat gets to die too? Along with my car?”“We got a catchpole coming. He’s already damaged your car to the point the front bumper’s going to have to be replaced,” Locke replied.
“So let’s just keep letting him go,” DiLallo responds.”The bumper was not off 10 minutes ago. You can’t throw a rock at him? You can’t do anything?”
“Okay, if I throw a rock at him, if I hit him with a stick, he’s going to turn, he’s liable to run, go after somebody else,” Locke says.
“Oh, so if he could go after somebody else, you don’t think that you should shoot him?” DiLallo responds.
“He’s not being aggressive towards people right now,” Locke explains. “I’m trying to catch the dog, okay?”
“There’s blood—he’s clearly not an aggressive dog. He’s clearly not aggressive at all, people.”
DiLallo asks the officer if she went out and got a gun, if she could she legally shoot the dog. “It’s my property that he’s destroying,” she said.
Locke said that because they were in an apartment complex, discharging a firearm would be unsafe as well as illegal for a private citizen.
DiLallo responded, “Maybe we stop talking and we get the dog off my car?”
Locke suggested that DiLallo go inside. “Oh, but he’s not aggressive towards people, you said,” DiLallo quips. “I should probably bring my dog out here, I should have nothing to fear.”
Outpourings of Both Hate and Support
Some commenters on the video thought DiLallo should have tried to lure the dog away from the car instead of threatening to shoot it or doing nothing. Others thought more aggressive action should have been taken.“You didn’t think of calling it over with food?? Your first thought is shoot or throw rocks??? Really?????” another wrote.
“If he’s not aggressive toward people then the officer should grab him off your car,” commented another.
“He is most likely only 6 to 8 months old and still a puppy,“ wrote another on the same video. ”By watching his body language which include his ears and tail he was in playful mode not anger mode and no in no way should he have been shot. You should be shot just for saying that.”
Others sided with DiLallo, saying she was right to choose her car over the dog.
“Do something to the dog. What would you do if it was a human just stand there and not do anything. I stand with Jessica. Maybe not shoot at first but I would do some other stuff first then shoot as last resort,” another said.
Owner to Pay
The dog, named “Red,” belongs to Ben Bonds. He received Red as a Father’s Day gift a year ago. “My son thought he was going to die and I took care of him, got him [to] where he [is] at now,” Bonds told WRCB-TV.“I have great grandkids and grandkids they play with him and my little great granddaughter hugs him and plays with him, so he’s not a mean dog. He loves people,” Bonds added.
Bonds said he and his family were at a funeral and had left Red in a fenced-in enclosure from which he had never previously escaped. He also said this was the first time Red had run off.
The Dalton Police gave Bonds a warning and told him to keep a close eye on his dog.
