Puppycide by gavel: How the judiciary uses the police killing of dogs to reinforce justifications for police violence

the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals filed their decision in the case of Brown v Battle Creek Police Department, 844 F.3d 556 (2016).The decision ignited a firestorm of controversy in the court of public opinion because the ruling was interpreted mainly as granting the police a blanket authority to shoot a person's dog for moving or barking (Bergman, 2017).One such article begins with the sentence, "A police officer can shoot a dog if it barks or moves when the officer enters a home, under a new federal court ruling issued this month" (Tribune Media Wire, 2016).In another article, Kramer (2017) stated, "A recent federal court ruling states that once a police officer has entered a home, he or she may shoot a dog if it barks or moves."Helping drive this firestorm was the belief for some that the Sixth Circuit's decision was novel.Yet, dogs