Missouri cop met with huge backlash after gunning down family's missing blind and deaf dog

A Missouri cop is receiving a huge backlash from the local community after fatally shooting a family's missing blind and deaf dog.

As reported by the New York Post, newly released bodycam footage shows the moment a Sturgeon PD officer encounters a missing 13-pound dog before shooting it dead - later claiming that he feared for his safety.

On social media, the cop has been named as officer Myron Woodson.

The footage, obtained by ABC17, shows the officer attempting to capture the missing dog with a catch pole after responding to a Dog At Large call.

The pup - a five -year-old white Shih Tzu mix named Teddy - had escaped from his owner's home and was spotted wandering around in a neighbor’s yard just one block away.

Teddy went missing after escaping from a hole under his owner's fence. Credit: Facebook

His owner, Nicolas Hunter, told the Post that he was dining with friends when he recieved a call on Sunday (May 19) informing him that Teddy had escaped was being reported on a local community Facebook page.

Hunter explained that Teddy must have slipped under the fence after his other dog, Gizmo, dug a hole. Teddy’s collar reportedly came off after being caught on the fence links.

However, as Hunter was making the 25-minute drive home, he received a second call from a friend telling him that Teddy had been shot dead.

The officer's bodycam footage shows him attempting to capture a Teddy for around four minutes - with the dog calmly wandering around the lawn.

After failing to snag Teddy in the catch pole, the officer calmly pulls out his gun and shoots the pup twice.

The incredible distressing and upsetting footage can be seen below:

Bodycam and cell phone footage from both the officer and Hunter then shows the moment the owner confronts the officers for shooting his pet - moments after the cop had placed Teddy's body in the back of his vehicle.

During their conversation, the cop defends his actions, arguing that the police order a "no contact" description and that he was unaware if the dog was sick. When Hunter sarcastically asks if the cop felt he was putting Teddy "out of his misery", the officer responds: "What else am I supposed to do?"

As Hunter explains "my dog is completely blind and completely deaf", the officer responds: "How am I supposed to know the dog's condition?"

"I'm sorry it happened to you and I'm sorry I had to do it," the cop adds.

Hunter then says that he was slapped with a Dog At Large citation.

In a statement from the SPD on Monday, officials claims that the officer "noticed the dog was behaving strangely" and displaying signs of "what the officer percieved to be rabid behavior".

The statement adds that the officer "feared being bitten and infected with rabies" so fatally gunned down the dog.

The statement adds that Teddy's "lack of collar" attributed to the officer's decision.

A second statement from the department released days later fails to make any mention of rabies, but emphasized that the "officer acted within his authority based on the information available to him at the time to protect against possible injury to citizens from what appeared to be an injured, sick, and abandoned dog.”

The second statement, notably, no longer made mention of the rabies.

Hunter told the Post: “If you watch the video, the dog is very playful and happy and kind of turned his head when he noticed somebody’s there, looking for somebody to touch him as he’s always done.

“His demeanor in the whole video is non-aggressive. Never brandishes his teeth, never barks or growls or makes any attempt to bite … Zero aggression, which I expect with Teddy, that’s how he’s always been.”

The grieving owner is now planning on suing the city of Sturgeon.

“The only time that the dog ever does any kind of movements is when the officer puts the collar around his neck, to which point he just takes his head and moves it and then goes on about what he was doing: just walking — not running — just walking. Trotting along,” Hunter said.

The woman who originally called the police has sided with Hunter, and has written a letter to the city stating that they did not feel the dog was a threat to the community.

“It was very extreme. The levels of force that he used is mind-blowing,” Hunter added.

The response to the incident has been overwhelmingly negative, with people calling for the officer involved to be fired.

One Facebook user commented on the SPD's first statement: "He weighed 10 pounds. If your officer was scared, he needs a different profession. Fear is no reason to kill an animal that weighs 10 lbs."

Another added: "This officer needs to be fired for animal cruelty."

"This is a disgrace," a third wrote. "The officer involved needs to be immediately removed from duty and charged with felony animal abuse. I pray the owner sues the city, the mayor, the officer and the department. I will be filing a complaint with the State Attorney General’s Office."

"So the officer was too inept to use a stick with a giant loop to snare a small dog, but was able to walk right up to it and shoot? He must’ve been terrified for his life," a fourth added.

A fifth commented: "We have a cop that can't catch a blind and deaf dog with a ten foot catch pole. Let that sink in."

A Change.org petition has also been launched, with the goal "to help bring justice and hopefully remove Mr.Woodson from service in both cities of Sturgeon and Hallsville".

Credit: Change.org

As of this writing, more than 13,000 people have signed the petition.

Hunter has since exhumed Teddy's body to prove that he was not infected with rabies, adding: "Teddy has never bit or been aggressive to any person or animal.”

"In order to better equip officers for future animal at large call outs, the City will be sending all officers to Boone County Animal Control for training and education, in hopes that this unfortunate situation does not occur again," the SPD added in its second statement.

Featured image credit: Facebook