Montreal Police Do It Different

At least in one case of an aggressive dog.

A  homeless man set up camp on the property of a warehouse. The owners didn't mind and when they found out the man had dogs, they put up "Dogs on property" signs. At some point, one of the two dogs attacked a woman wandering on a neighboring vacant lot.

Police were called to confiscate the dogs.

The officer responsible for capturing the dogs was dressed up in padded gear, the same kind used in protection sports and police dog training, carried a catch pole and a taser. When the dog latched onto the man's padded arm, it was quite easy to capture him.

The other dog was not aggressive and clearly skittish.

Now, if these two dogs had been loose in Montreal 2007, they would have been shot and killed. But apparently police learned a lesson and modified their approach. If these two dogs had been loose in Cabarrus County 2010, the aggressive dog would have been shot immediately, and the non-aggressive dog would have been chased around for 40 minutes, THEN shot in the back several times.

But Montreal 2010 is a thing of beauty. Officers decked out in padding, tasers and catch poles at the ready...oh, and the patience to try and corral a frightened dog for several hours.

When that failed, they left. Which is a little sketchy, to me, and hopefully they left to get a live dog trap.

Still, what an impressive difference in the handling of an aggressive dog.