I know it's "only dogs," but still...

After posting my Spot-On column mentioning how Labrador Retrievers love everybody, I can’t help commenting on the bungling (at least I hope it was bungling and not deliberate) of the Prince George’s County (Md.) Sheriff’s Department regarding a raid on a local mayor’s house.

Yeah, yeah, it’s upsetting that the SWAT team overlooked the fact that they didn’t have a no-knock warrant and burst into the Calvo home guns ablazin’. And I’m sure Dark Garden, a member of the brotherhood himself, will defend the action of shooting the two Labrador Retriever pets as standard procedure when executing said warrant, had that warrant actually existed.

But how do they justify the fact that one of the dogs was running away?

You can read about the nuances of the case in The Washington Post – why, for instance, a judge probably wouldn’t have issued a no-knock warrant and why a package full of marijuana could have been shipped to Calvo’s address (to his wife, specifically) without his knowledge:

Special Agent Edward Marcinko, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Maryland, said it is not unheard of for traffickers to ship a package to a stranger's home.
In February, for instance, Dunn Loring resident Sid Phillips said his 76-year-old neighbor opened a UPS package left on his porch and discovered marijuana packed in vacuum-sealed pouches inside.
Phillips said the neighbor called him for advice, and the two of them reported the discovery to police. Officers swarmed the house and collected the drugs without incident. The package, Phillips said, had been sent from Arizona, just like the box delivered this week to Calvo in Maryland.

I do find it rather amusing that Calvo said when he returned home he noticed the black vehicles all over the street. So much for stealth.

I wonder, though. Had those dogs been, say, Chihuahuas or Toy Poodles, would they have been “presumed” dangerous? Who decides the criteria of what to shoot at? An old deaf dog sleeping in its bed? A litter of puppies?

‘Pode, I have a feeling, would be toast.