Video: Video of Hawthorne dog being shot by police Note: This video contains graphic footage of the shooting and aftermath. Viewer discretion advised.More fallout: Fallout from Hawthorne dog shooting continues to reverberateMarching for Max: Protesters call for justice for Max, the dog shot, killed by Hawthorne police officerHeated reaction: Hawthorne police take brunt of reader anger in dog shootingMore: Hawthorne police pull 3 officers involved in dog shooting incident from the street for their safetyOriginal story: Hawthorne police kill dog during arrest of owner, video of shooting goes viral
Would more specialized training have prevented the Hawthorne police shooting of Max the Rottweiler that was
watched by millions on YouTube as he writhed in pain and died in the street?
Some police departments have opted for that in the wake of their own dog shootings. And on Wednesday, Hawthorne Police Chief Robert Fager promised to consider an offer by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles to provide 'best practices' training for handling situations involving dogs that could be a threat, according to the spcaLA.
The training would include how to read dog body language and nonlethal tools that officers should keep in patrol cars.
'Look, sometimes things happen, but the more training you have, the more disciplined you are, the less likely you are to panic,' said Bernstein, whose agency has conducted routine training for postal workers and meter readers.
The spcaLA sent letters to the mayor and Police Department in Hawthorne offering to provide additional training so that perhaps any such incidents in the future might be defused before they turn lethal.
'Part of it has to do with reading the body language of animals,' she said. 'You start by recognizing certain
warning signs, then you step back or whatever. There are certain things they could use that were in their toolbox.'
Using a gun, she said, should be the last resort.
In an online live chat Wednesday with the Daily Breeze, Bernstein said it is important to discern 'the difference between a dog that will attack and one that is agitated.'
That, she said, 'will go a long way to avoiding this. But if an officer doesn't know that and uses the only weapon he has, you can have a tragedy.'
Owners, too, bear a responsibility, Bernstein said.
'Owners need to realize that the police are not experts in handling dogs and, by law, an owner has to remain in control of their dog,' she said.
Dog shootings by police happen more often than they should, Bernstein said.
A civil complaint was filed Wednesday in the Dec. 6, 2012, shooting of a dog named Chico Blue in Pico Rivera. The dog was Tased before he was then shot twice and killed by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy.
Only 10 days before the June 30 Hawthorne incident with Max, a German shepherd was shot by an El Monte police officer as the dog was inside the family's fenced-in yard . The officer, believing no dogs were present when he entered the yard, was following up on a report of a runaway teenager and reported that the dog came from around the back of the house and was growling and acting aggressively. The family had to have the dog euthanized after the shooting.
In cases where officers believe there is an imminent threat of serious injury or death to them or someone else, 'shooting is a legitimate option,' retired Los Angeles police Capt. Greg Meyer said. If officers have time, they can plan an alternate, nonlethal solution, he said.
But that can be a luxury. More typically, officers are given just split seconds to react. Deadly force has been used not just on strong, stout breeds like pit bulls, but on collies and dachshunds, Labradors and even Chihuahuas.
Dogs are, by nature, protective and can easily become provoked by a uniformed stranger advancing onto their territory or confronting their owners.
In the Hawthorne incident, which is still under investigation, officers were arresting Max's owner when the dog jumped out of the owner's car and lunged at an officer, who then shot the dog four times. The department has said there was no time to opt for a nonlethal response such as pepper spray or a Taser.
After the shooting of Cisco, the Austin Police Department opted to institute dog training for its officers.
But dealing with loose dogs at a crime scene can still be precarious.
'We had video training in how to react to different kinds of dog situations, trying to recognize a dog's behavior and demeanor, but every dog is different,' said Sgt. David Daniels of the Austin Police Department.
While the training has helped, he said, cases still must be quickly assessed on the scene.
'It comes up regularly,' Daniels said of dog-police issues. 'Not too long ago an individual took a pit bull into a Petco store where he went after a little dog.'
Unable to get the dog to release the small dog, the animal had to be killed, he said, in order to save the small dog's life.
'Owners have to do their part in controlling their dog when police are called to the scene,' Daniels said.
Fort Worth and Oakland also brought in training for officers after dog shootings there.
'There are difficult issues that come up with police officers and dogs,' Bernstein said. 'Not every situation is going to have a happy ending, even with training.'
Allison Lindquist, president of the East Bay SPCA, called the shooting of Max 'tragic.'
'Sadly, it sounds like this was a perfect storm,' she said of the chaotic scene in Hawthorne.
The shooting occurred at the end of a nearly two-hour police operation to arrest a suspected robber holed up in a house at 137th Street and Jefferson Avenue.
Leon Rosby was watching the scene with his dog, Max, and recording the action on his cellphone. Asked by police repeatedly to turn down the music from his car stereo, Rosby refused. With the suspected robber in custody, police walked toward Rosby to arrest him for interfering in their operation.
After Rosby put his dog in the car at police direction, he was being handcuffed when Max leaped out of an open back window and advanced on one of the officers. Based on the circumstances, police said later it was unreasonable to expect officers to be able to use a less lethal force.
But the public and online uproar over the incident shows little sign of letting up.
Protests, petitions and 'Justice for Max' Twitter and Facebook pages have drawn thousands of supporters. So heated has some of the criticism become that the Hawthorne Police Department has pulled the officers involved from the streets for their own safety.
While most of the criticism has been aimed at police, some also have criticized Rosby for failing to take into consideration the safety of his dog during the confrontation.
'Ideally, he never would have stopped, he would have kept going, he wouldn't have been arrested and there would have been no story,' Lindquist said.
After the shooting of an 11-year-old Labrador in Oakland, the police chief approached Lindquist and the SPCA about putting together a training program. The resulting DVD is now mandatory for officers in Oakland and has been shared and adopted by other police departments across the nation.
'It's very basic,' she said, adding that the material addresses possible triggers for dogs, how to read dog body language and how to anticipate and prepare for calls in which dogs may become an issue.
'All dogs bark and they will bark at anything or anyone coming near their property,' she said. 'It's a normal reaction.'
It's not always a precursor to a bite.
'Sometimes a firm 'sit' or 'stop' ' is effective and can calm a dog down, she said.
Instead of shooting, they can also use a baton (in a short tap on the nose or placing it in a dog's jaws), or a loop on a pole that is standard for animal control officers.
Fire extinguishers or loud noises from a siren or air horn also can distract a provoked dog, Lindquist said.
Tasers also can be used, she said, but dogs tend to react by bolting, which could pose more problems. And pepper spray, Bernstein said, has the disadvantage of flying in the wind.
Torrance police Sgt. Robert Watt said that while his city's police department has no formal classroom training, it does cover the issue of how to handle animals on the scene during in-service, on-the-job training.
'We use the force that we think is reasonable and justified at the time,' Watt said. The police force relies heavily on the city's animal control department for backup and specialized equipment when needed.
Fire extinguishers, kept in all patrol cars, 'work very well' to deter an animal, Watt said, and cause no damage.
Meyer, the retired LAPD sergeant, said it appeared the officers in Max's case had little time to come up with an alternate approach.
'This was very fast-breaking and the threat was very immediate,' Meyer said. 'There was no time to think about pepper spray or a Taser. ... Obviously, it was a very emotional situation and is regrettable.'
'It's really sad,' Lindquist said. 'It looked to be 'completely spontaneous.'
'The dog was just doing his job but he probably would have bitten those officers,' she said. 'That's not the fault of the dog, but I can see where they felt they were in danger.'
But Bernstein said there may have been another option once the dog had jumped out of the car.
'The best thing they could have done was to tell (the owner) to control your dog,' she said. 'The problem here was (shooting the dog) was a last-resort move with no first-resort attempt.'
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