ohmidog!

An off-duty Buncombe County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a border collie mix at North Carolina’s Catawba Falls says he did so to protect his children from what appeared to be an aggressive dog.

“You’re damn right I shot your dog,” he reportedly told the dog’s owner, Scott Shulman of Durham.

Shulman, who was hiking with his son, said his three dogs got ahead of them when he fell into the water.

By the time he caught up, he saw Deputy Jason Honeycutt pointing a gun at one of his dogs, a 45-pound border collie mix named Nellie, who he says was barking and wagging her tail.

“I hear two or three pops, and I see Nellie roll over and hit the ground,” Shulman said. “I was in shock. I couldn’t believe what I saw. I just said, ‘Did you shoot my dog?’  He said something like, ‘you’re damn right I shot your dog.’”

Shulman told the Asheville Citizen-Times that his dog was not posing a threat to the officer or his children, and that he thought shooting the dog was “disproportionate and excessive.”

The McDowell County Sheriff’s Office has investigated the case, and the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office conducted an internal probe, but no charges or disciplinary action were recommended against the deputy.

“We don’t have any issue with what our officer did,” said Lt. Randy Sorrells of the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Department. “He was protecting his children.”

A McDowell County incident report that lists Deputy Honeycutt as the victim states the dog appeared to be aggressive toward children.

Shulman disagrees, and says two witnesses to the shooting also believe Nellie, while barking, wasn’t behaving aggressively otherwise.

“My main concern is making the citizens aware that this incident occurred … I don’t want anybody else to have to experience something like this.”

(Photo: Asheville Citizen-Times)

An off-duty animal control officer shot a dog that was attacking his puppy at an off-leash dog park in Utah.

Police said the animal control officer’s puppy, of unidentified breed, was attacked Saturday by a bull terrier at Millrace Park in West Valley City.

Both the puppy and the dog who was shot survived and were being treated at veterinary hospitals, according to the Salt Lake City Tribune.

Police said the owners of the two dogs attempted to pry them apart. When that failed, the owner of the puppy — an animal control officer in West Valley City — took out a .40 -caliber hand gun and shot the pit bull.

The animal control officer had a permit allowing him to carry a concealed weapon.

No charges were filed pending further investigation.

A DeKalb County police officer responding to a domestic dispute shot and killed a family’s dog Tuesday night.

That happens far too often, but this time there’s an even sadder twist — he was at the wrong address.

The officer went to Bobbie Currie’s home on Silva Court around 9 p.m. in response to a domestic dispute call that possibly involved an armed person, Atlanta’s Channel 2 Action News reported.

When the family’s German shepherd lunged at the officer, he shot and killed the dog, even though it was on a chain in the garage. He then pointed his gun at Currie’s husband, Anthony.

“I said, ‘Why you shoot my dog?’ And he said, ‘Well, I’ll blow your brains out,’” Anthony Currie said.

A DeKalb police supervisor sent to the scene said the officer made an error.

“Subsequent investigation determined that the actual address that he was looking for was actually across the street,” DeKalb police Lt. Dane Cunningham said.

A golf course superintendent in Bucks County, Pa., has been charged with shooting his American bulldog 32 times behind a building at the Doylestown Country Club.

Paul Bevan-Xenelis, 39, of Quakertown, could spend up to five years in jail and pay as much as $10,000 in fines if convicted of charges of cruelty to animals and owning an unlicensed dog, Phillyburbs.com reported.

“To shoot a dog that many times and leave it, to me, that’s just shocking,” said Stephen White, Doylestown Township police chief. “It’s unspeakable cruelty.”

Doylestown Country Club president Joseph Paul said in a statement last week that club leaders were “extremely disturbed” by Bevan-Xenelis’ alleged actions, and that he has been fired.

The dog, named Kane, was found tied to a fence near the maintenance shed at the country club on July 24. The dog, about 10 years old, was alive, but “in distress” when police arrived.

Police said Bevan-Xenelis tied the dog to the fence the night of July 23 after it bit a co-worker. The next day, he returned to the country club and shot the dog with a pellet gun, police said.

The dog was taken to the Bucks County SPCA, where he was euthanized, according to Anne Irwin, the agency’s director.

Bevan-Xenelis allegedly told police he shot the dog only once with a .22-caliber pellet gun, but the SPCA removed eight, .22-caliber pellets from Kane’s body.

Police said an SPCA examination of Kane’s remains showed the dog had been shot no fewer than 32 times.

Bevan-Xenelis had Kane for six months and told police he adopted the dog from a rescue in the Philadelphia area. He said he kept the dog at work because he didn’t feel safe keeping him at home.

Police in Jackson, Mississippi, say a woman took aim at a pit bull puppy she says was threatening her children, but killed her husband instead.

According to an Associated Press story, some witnesses told police that the pit bull, named Cocaine, had lunged at a group of children on Friday. Others said the dog was not attacking. In any event, Betty Walker got her gun and fired twice, hitting the dog once in the leg and her husband once in the chest.

Robert Walker, 53, was killed. The pit bull, 8 months old, survived and was taken in by animal control officials.

Jackson police spokeswoman Colendula Green says the death of Walker appears to have been accidental, but that a Hinds County grand jury will decide whether Mrs. Walker should face any charges.

The owners of the dog could face charges as well, police said.

A St. Petersburg, Florida, police officer shot and killed two dogs Sunday night.

Chris Clark, 44, said he was walking his Rottweiler, Quincy, and his landlord’s Chesapeake Bay retriever, Missy, when he heard a police officer shouting at him — Officer Slobodan Juric, who was investigating a complaint about a suspicious person in the area.

When Clark stopped, a third dog, unleashed approached Missy and the two exchanged growls. Quincy’s leash got wrapped around him. Clark fell and the dogs started fighting.

Clark told the St. Petersburg Times that he was grabbing his dogs’ collars, trying to pull them away, when Juric yelled “mad dog” and pointed the gun at Missy.

Clark said Juric fired one shot into the dog, pointed the gun at Quincy and fired another round, then fired two more shots into Missy.

“We’ve begun an internal affairs investigation,” said St. Petersburg Police Department spokesman Mike Puetz. “There will be a statement taken from (Clark) and from everybody who was a witness in the case, to try and discern the totality of the events and the appropriateness of the (officer’s) action.”

Juric, 25, has been with the department for more than a year. He was formerly a freelance photographer for the St. Petersburg Times.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry pulled out his his pistol and popped a coyote during a February jog with his dog.

Perry told The Associated Press on Tuesday he needed just one shot from his laser-sighted pistol to take down a coyote he says was menacing both him and his dog.

Perry said he carries his .380 Ruger when jogging on trails because he is afraid of snakes.

Perry, a Republican running for a third full term, is living in a private house in a hilly area southwest of downtown Austin while the Governor’s Mansion is being repaired after a 2008 fire.

“I knew there were a lot of predators out there. You’ll hear a pack of coyotes. People are losing small cats and dogs all the time out there in that community,” Perry said. “They’re very wily creatures.”

Perry said he was jogging shortly after sunrise when the coyote appeared, stopped in its tracks and stared at his dog.

“I holler and the coyote stopped. I holler again. By this time I had taken my weapon out and charged it. It is now staring dead at me. Either me or the dog are in imminent danger. I did the appropriate thing and sent it to where coyotes go,” he said.

Texas state law allows people to shoot coyotes that are threatening livestock or domestic animals. The dog was unharmed, Perry said. Perry holds a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

The governor left the coyote where it fell. “He became mulch,” Perry said.

The animal shelter run by the town of Houston, Alaska, says its eight residents — four dogs and four cats — were just too difficult to adopt out.

So, according to police Sgt. Charlie Seidl, under orders, he shot them all.

Seidl said some of the animals had been at the city’s “Animal Protection and Safety Shelter” since November — unclaimed and unadopted.

“We stretched out as long as we could,” Seidl said. “At one point in time, we were completely full. So we were able to adopt out the animals that we could adopt out, but with these ones that were left we weren’t able to do that. And like I said, we can’t hang on to them indefinitely.”

Even in Alaska — a state with, to put it nicely, different sensibilities — the event sparked outrage.

“This is barbaric,” said shelter volunteer Evelyn Rohr. “I think there are better ways to handle it.” Rohr told the Anchorage Daily News she managed to get six or seven cats out before the culling and planned to deliver them to rescue facilities in Anchorage, about 30 miles south.

The Alaska Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (now there’s a tough job) said it would have tried to help find homes for the animals, but Houston animal control hadn’t contacted the agency.

“There are more humane ways of killing animals than taking them out and shooting them,” said Cindy Liggett, who operates Kitty and K-9 Connection animal rescue in Anchorage “We are not a poor society. We are not a backwoods community. There is a vet clinic there.”

Rohr said Mayor Roger Purcell ordered police to kill the animals after an officer at the shelter refused to do it, and police Sgt. Seidl said he carried out the shootings under the mayor’s orders.

Purcell denied issuing any such order. “Animal control keeps them for three to five days and then they’re disposed of in a legal way. But I don’t get told when they dispose of dogs,” he said. “I know our officers try really hard to find homes and we keep dogs longer than any other.”

Purcell said the city was working to have its animal control officer licensed by the state to euthanize animals by lethal injection rather than having a veterinarian do it at greater cost. He said euthanizing by gun is common in rural areas around the state.

Sally Clampitt, executive director of the Alaska SPCA, said lethal injections are for more humane than is terminating a dog’s life by gunshot. “I think that’s really horrible, frankly,” she said. “Our position is that euthanasia done by a licensed veterinarian is the preferred and most humane way.”

A California man was treated and released after being shot in the back by his dog.

The unidentified 53-year-old man was hunting in Merced County when he set the safety on his loaded shotgun and put it on the ground while he grabbed his decoy ducks, according to the Fresno Bee.

Merced County sheriff’s officials say the hunter’s black Lab stepped on the loaded shotgun, causing the safety to release and the gun to fire.

A California man is blaming his dog for the fatal shooting of his wife.

John Aaron Norris, 25, of San Miguel said his dog ran underneath his feet, tripping him and causing the semi-automatic rifle he was holding to fire.

Norris is accused of involuntary manslaughter in the July 9 shooting death of  24-year-old Tasha Dawn Norris. His preliminary hearing  is scheduled to resume today.

Norris pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter charge and to a charge of  possessing an illegal weapon at his home — a semiautomatic rifle found by investigators, according to The Tribune in San Luis Obispo.

Sheriff’s deputies testified Wednesday that Norris stated he was standing on the stairs when the dog ran under his feet and tripped him. He told authorities he was holding the gun because he was planning to remove the ammunition before fire inspectors came to his home to examine new sprinklers in the condominium.

Tasha Norris was seated on a couch in the home when she was shot, according to investigators. Medics attempted to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.