A woman has been receiving death threats after a video of her asking police to shoot a dog destroying her new car went viral. Jessica Dilallo, from Dalton, Georgia, asked if a police officer could shoot a dog pulling the bumper off her car, despite the fact that the dog was not being aggressive towards people.The dog, a Pit Bull called Red, had escaped his house while his family was at a funeral and got wind of two cats hiding under the bonnet of Dilallo's car on November 9. Although he isn't a danger to humans, his family says that he has a high prey drive for cats and, determined to get to them, started to pull the bumper off of the car.
Source: Jessica Dilallo/YouTube
After noticing what Red was doing, Dilallo called the police, hoping that they would take him away. However, the police, rightfully, were reluctant to approach him, in case he turned aggressive, which would mean that they would have to shoot him. Animal control eventually caught him with a catch pole and returned him to his owners.A furious Dilallo can be heard saying:
You could shoot him. Let me ask a question, if I go out and get a gun and purchase it and everything could I have shot him legally? Why not? He’s destroying my property. Why would I not be able to shoot him?
Source: Jessica Dilallo/YouTube
The officer, Lt. Matthew Locke, who had already reassured the distraught woman that animal control was on the way, maintained that Red was doing nothing to deserve being shot. A spokesperson for Dalton police department defended Locke's decision, saying:
Locke decided not to try to pull the dog off himself because he didn’t want to be in a position where the dog attacked him and he was forced to shoot the dog.
Despite the intense backlash from the video and the fact that Red's family agreed to pay for the damage to her car, Dillalo says that she doesn't regret her actions. "I'm like the most hated person right now because I said I wanted to shoot the dog, but I still stand by that," she told ABC13.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbwwj8z76y4
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