AndrewBlakeDalton, GA – A Facebook video of a dog tearing apart a car’s bumper while the owner complained that the police were just watching has gone viral, with more than nine million views since it was posted Nov. 27 (video below).
Jessica Dilallo, the woman heard in the video, told WTVZ TV she has received death threats since posting the video featuring her brand-new vehicle under attack.
Officers from the Dalton Police Department were dispatched to a call for an aggressive dog attacking a woman’s car on Nov. 9.
Lieutenant Matthew Locke arrived, and the dog walked up to his window and did not behave aggressively toward people, police said. But then he resumed attacking the car’s bumper.
Lt. Locke decided not to try to pull the dog off the car for fear it might attack him, and force him to shoot the dog, police said. Instead, he called Animal Control, and requested a catch-pole from his own department.
The four-and-a-half minute video showed the dog trying to tear the bumper off the car to get at two cats that were hiding under the hood.
The video ended as police closed in on the dog with a homemade catch-pole to secure it.
On the video, the officer explained that Animal Control was on the way, but that it could take them as long as 90 minutes to arrive.
“You can’t throw a rock at him, you can’t do anything?” the woman pleaded, asking why the police just didn’t just shoot it.
The officer explained that if he threw a rock at the dog and hit him, the dog might attack someone.
“He’s not being aggressive toward people right now,” the police officer said.
Multiple officers had responded to the scene.
“Hey, don’t shoot me if you shoot this way,” the officer said in the video to another police officer standing outside of camera view.
Police locate the dog’s owner, Ben Bonds. He has agreed to pay Dilallo for damages.
Bonds was issued a warning to keep his dog under control, police said.
The vehicle’s owner was frustrated by the public’s response to her video.
“I’m like the most hated person right now because I said I wanted to shoot the dog, but I still stand by that,” Dilallo said.
Lt. Locke defended his decision not to shoot the dog.
“If we can catch the dog maybe we can identify the owner and she can seek restitution that way to get her car fixed,” Lt. Locke told WTVZ. “If we just run the dog off, pepper spray it, or tase it, it may turn on us and then we would be forced to kill it because it would be attacking one of us.”
You can see the video of the incident below: