Two perspectives, same thing

"Lethal measures by and large are not necessary in any animal control situation. There'd be a lot more dogs alive right now if officials were well trained on issues involving animals."

"The federal officer, whose name has not been released, told police that he feared for the safety of his wife, dog and himself."

The sad part is that it isn't just executing dogs that's at issue with the way police and authorities authorized to use lethal force conduct themselves. But you'd think if we were going to train people to deal with other people, in a variety of situations, it would not take much training to train them to deal with their pets. Much less to deal with their pets in a non-official capacity. The only reason this warranted inquiry was a flood of objection to the situation from all over the country and it thus became a public relations disaster. It was not going to be investigated at all prior to that, it was simply taken for granted that a citizen's animal was a threat necessitating lethal action by a police officer. An ordinary citizen does not get to use lethal force against another person's animals and get away with it without any inquiries whatsoever on the logic of "I feared for my safety".

For one thing I've heard that line before. It's what cops are trained to say when they use deadly force because that's the requirement for its use. It does not mean that the situation necessarily warranted it. To be fair though, there are many cops that would restrain themselves from using deadly force when they could.

And so for another, there are generally more moderate levels of response for dealing with a dog in a public place before discharging a gun. I've yet to see a dog that was in a dog park cause a serious fuss such that someone had to put it down right then and there. Usually you just have to wait for them to get tired and break up the little tussles they get into. Occasionally something rough happens and you have to find a way to break it up before a dog gets hurt more seriously. I've never seen a person get attacked at one. Peed on, sure. But not attacked.