Dog shot at Houston Dog Park

[Gaidheal]

Leash laws are indeed municipality based, but if a dog is not under its owner's control and presents a threat to you, others or your property (dog) you are going to be justified in use of force, including deadly force, to stop it.

I hope it doesn't happen to me (I have two Huskies and we walk them in the neighbourhod regularly) but I have had a couple of situations where it looked like it was headed that way. Fortunately the dog thought better of it when I started shouting and advancing aggressively on it (after charging towards us ears back and teeth bared) and I had my wife with me to maintain control of our dogs. I am unsure if the dog is actually owned (no sign of owner, have never seen tags but then I doubt the 'owner' is a responsible law abiding person anyway, if he exists) or simply stray but you better believe I am prepared to shoot if I need to.

With the incidents discussed here, it really seems like the man who shot the dog dead was not justified; it was a location where the dog was permitted to be off leash, he took his own dogs there and short of a serious encounter threatening his person, that of another or the actual life of his dog, I don't see how he could ever be justified in shooting another animal present.

In the other incident, the owner was breaking the law and should consider herself lucky they did not charge her after ascertaining that the woman who fired was justified. Off leash dog in a public area charging at me? I might well shoot it myself if I was not able to immediately determine it meant no harm and I am not an older woman.