

Video on Liveleak

How many heavily armed policeman does it take to kill an oblivious Tibetan Mastiff? Apparently the answer is six.

Police were summoned to ‘take care of’ this large dog that bit three people in an apartment complex in Zhengzhou, Henan province on October 22. The above video picks it up from there.

We join several nervous onlookers and are provided with numerous shots of the (seemingly calm) dog as it strolls around a courtyard, parting crowds of people like Moses at the Red Sea. One victim shows off his wounds and points at his blood on the pavement.

A SWAT team arrives about halfway through the video and stalk the animal until it settles in an unoccupied apartment, at which point one officer proceeds, rather unskillfully, to injure the poor beast before eventually killing it. Six shots are fired. The dog is left whimpering, bloody and desperate to escape after the first, and isn’t totally silenced until the third or fourth shot. (Graphic warning No. 1: probably the most painful part of the video is when the camera zooms in on the injured animal scratching at a glass door.)

Was this really the best way to handle the situation? There are many methods of dealing with aggressive animals humanely; slowly filling it with bullets is not one of them.

Tibetan Mastiffs have had it rough in China in the last couple of months. Other cuddly creatures that aren’t giant pandas have had it rough for… much longer.

Graphic warning No. 2: This video depicts graphic imagery of a dog being shot several times. The horror starts around the 2:30 mark.