A police officer in Missouri shot and killed a blind and deaf dog this week … and while the department’s saying the cop feared contracting rabies — the community’s calling BS.
Teddy — a five-year-old, 13-pound shih tzu mix was killed in Sturgeon, Missouri after escaping his yard. The owner gave the dog some water and called the police … who The Washington Post reports shot the dog twice within minutes of arriving.
Check out the body cam footage … little Teddy’s running around the field — away from the officer at first before turning around and moving toward him, though not seemingly in an aggressive way.
The officer — identified as Myron Woodson — appears to give a half-hearted chase with a catch pole — before whipping out his sidearm and firing the lethal shots.
Teddy’s owner — a local man named Nick Hunter — told WaPo he took in his late pet when Teddy was just a pup … noting he had a loving personality and never posed a threat to anyone.
Nick says he thinks Teddy and his other dog Gizmo escaped the outdoor kennel he put them in so he could go to dinner … digging under the fence and running off.
Hunter says when he spoke to the officer, he said he was worried the dog was a possibly injured stray so he put the animal down … but, now the city’s saying Officer Woodson feared the dog had rabies, and shot him to protect himself. The department cleared him of wrongdoing.
A petition online already has several thousand signatures calling for the officer to lose his job … and the Post reports many in the community plan to show up in force at the city aldermen meeting next week.