"Dogs destroy cars at Texas dealership, cause up to $350K in damages: video" (NY Post).
This is happening in Texas. I would have thought that in Texas, they'd just shoot the.... Oh, no. I'm afraid of offending you even by writing the phrase. They're dogs. You have to hang back and let them wreck an entire lot of cars. What is $350K in damage when Ranger and Scrappy are out there doing what they were born to do?
Note: I do not mean to intimate that it would be legal — in Texas or anywhere — to kill a dog that is damaging property.
ADDED: This story gives an answer to the old question what a dog that chases cars would do if it ever caught the car.
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56 comments:
I love dogs. I've had dogs my entire life. My dog Sam was my closest friend.
Shoot those dogs. I had a dog that did that. Once they start, they cannot be broken of the habit.
I missed that last sentence. No, dogs weren't "born to do" that else all dogs would exhibit that unrestrained behavior and the vast majority do not.
Never confuse Houston for Texas.
- Rafe
Nobody tell George Michael!
I'm imagining the owner of the competitive dealership across the street tiptoeing over in the night to spread delicious meat juices over the car bumpers.
In Texas, you have the legal right to protect your property as an extension of self-defense. You may use force (including deadly force) to property your home, your workplace, your office or your vehicle. Keep in mind that Texas law requires the use of “reasonable” force in the matter.
Plus..
Sec. 9.42. DEADLY FORCE TO PROTECT PROPERTY. A person is justified in using deadly force against another to protect land or tangible, movable property:
(1) if he would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.41; and
(2) when and to the degree he reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary:
(A) to prevent the other's imminent commission of arson, burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, theft during the nighttime, or criminal mischief during the nighttime; or
(B) to prevent the other who is fleeing immediately after committing burglary, robbery, aggravated robbery, or theft during the nighttime from escaping with the property; and
(3) he reasonably believes that:
(A) the land or property cannot be protected or recovered by any other means; or
(B) the use of force other than deadly force to protect or recover the land or property would expose the actor or another to a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury.
So, if you can do that to humans, I am sure you can do that to animals. And the above law also includes other peoples property (third party.)
Must be junkyard dogs.
I find it hard to believe that those two dogs aren't already dead. Gun too noisy? -- then how 'bout a couple nice juicy Texas steaks spiked with strychnine.
This is a "problem" that is not a problem.
The dealership has filed a report with the Houston Police Department, but they’ve been told there is nothing the police can do as it is a civil matter unless the dogs have attacked a human.
Sheriff Andy Taylor would have come right over and helped the parties sort it out.
I think this shows just how far we've fallen.
If the cars are livestock, you can shoot the dogs.
They may just be expressing their displeasure at the simple fact that we’ve had cars named after Mustangs, Pintos, Barracudas, etc., but never a Rottweiler, or a Doberman, or anything cool.
The closest they’ve come is the Rover. And those cars sucked!
I can't tell from the story that they found the dogs, only a suggestion they find the dog owners. It is night surveillance video, and I doubt anybody was there to shoot the dogs if they were inclined. Still, it is illegal to just shoot dogs in Texas, but it can be legal to defend yourself and property. I suspect if a person was onsite with the dogs behaving as they were, then reasonable law enforcement and/or jury would understand one's fear for their own safety. We do have that in Houston, reasonable law enforcement, and I think they are being reasonable here.
Now if it was wild pigs, they would have been shot.
I had a dog that did that.
Seriously? Strange. Why do you think they did it? Were they trying to get to a cat or something that had climbed up into the space behind the bumper?
Did they attack domestic cars or just imports?
It that happened in Austin, those dogs would be granted ownership of the dealership.
My HS friend had a TR6 he spent years restoring to showroom condition. One very cold thanksgiving after hosting a big family dinner, he just put the turkey in the car since there was no room in the fridge. Oops
The neighbor's two blue tick hounds destroyed the convertible top, ruined the interior & scratched the shit out of the paint. They were laying in his yard stuffed the next morning.
As others reported it is legal in Texas to use deadly force against humans to protect property- is it different for dogs? Can you shoot someone who is shooting your dog? It’s confusing…
They could fix the hole in the fence.
Or borrow a tiger. The dogs were chasing a cat when they found the chew cars.
A 12 Gauge loaded with rock salt would quickly solve the problem without permanently injuring the dogs. As a kid I saw my great uncle do exactly that when a neighbor's dog was trying to break into the chicken coop on his farm.
'Course that was in Oklahoma, not Texas...
Just goes to show you how crappy cars are built today.
Plastic bumpers held on by plastic pins.
Cops, copping out. So if the people shoot the damn things then the cops will come. Pathetic, no wonder respect the blue is decreasing, but it IS houston.
Reminds me it was so nice to skip Dogsgiving this year. Everyone and their fucking dogs...
Bad dogs, bad dogs,
Whachu gonna do when they come fo you?
Yes, you shoot the dogs if you are the owner of the dealership.
Of course, this isn't really Texas in one sense- it is Houston. This would have ended the second night in a small Texas town with two dead dogs.
Here in North Florida - culturally the Deep South and familial to Texas - the dogs would have been shot immediately and their carcasses tossed in the river as gator fixin's. Never was a gator born that didn't relish a good dish of dog. And that would have been that, unless a collar retrieval and and canine registration evinced a civil suit for property damages.
In my state of Arizona and most other states with any kind of farming or ranching industry, it is quite legal to shoot a dog or any other animal that is molesting livestock, unless it’s an endangered or protected species. In rural areas it meets with widespread social approval as well. City people who move to the country sometimes find this out the hard way.
I don’t know if that is true of property damage like this, though.
Check for collars (using binoculars). If no collar then they’re feral so shoot them. If PETA people picket your place send them a bill for damages. Or shoot them. PETA as an organization has been lacking in credibility here in Virginia ever since they stole a family’s pet dog from their front porch and put it down instead of returning it to its owners. The owners were a Hispanic family living in a trailer park. I guess that to the sorts of affluent people who flock to leftie organizations like PETA, the sorts of people who live in trailer parks (i.e., what they call “trailer park trash”) don’t deserve to own a dog.
If the rampaging hounds have collars, shoot them anyway. But find out who the owners are and send them a bill for damages. Include the cost of the bullets.
I can’t believe they’ve never heard of SSS.
Shoot
Shovel
Shut up
"Why do you think they did it? Were they trying to get to a cat or something that had climbed up into the space behind the bumper?"
The article says: "Footage of the first incident shows a cat — which employees believe the dogs may have been after."
How is it not a criminal matter? If I stroll over to the local dealership and start tearing apart the cars, I will face criminal charges. But if I fail to control my dog, and it does the same, I'm in the clear? Why?
Lots of reasons why they might not hve shot the dogs. How about nobody was present when the dogs did the damage and they only found out after they saw the security camera video? And then... if they were present when the dogs were doing the damage, but were amongst the cars, then shooting the dogs would also risk damaging the cars especially if you only had a handgun. There's a reason that moving targets are usually shot with a shotgun.
I’m pretty sure it would be legal to kill a dog if her were tearing up police cars.
Yep--rural states agree that the solution to packs of town dogs harassing or killing livestock is the use of Statute 30 aught Six.
My late uncle had a small herd of about 100 cattle outside a small Arizona town. Town dogs were a problem; little Fluffy turns into Lobo at night when she runs with a pack of town dogs. More than once over the years my uncle "solved his problem". Fluffy didn't go home that night.
And it's not just in rural states. There was a problem a few years back of town dogs in Kern County around Bakersfield. Again Statute 30 aught Six came into effect.
Now I don't know what the appropriate penalty is for biting a bumper in Houston.
Why must they chase the cat?
It’s teh dog in them
"The dealership has filed a report with the Houston Police Department..."
Shouldn't you call Animal Control? I doubt that any crime was committed. (Especially if they were stray dogs.) But it could be that their insurance company required them to file a police report.
Maybe an animal control domain.
Hire Kyle Rittenhouse.
Iman:
They may just be expressing their displeasure at the simple fact that we’ve had cars named after Mustangs, Pintos, Barracudas, etc., but never a Rottweiler, or a Doberman, or anything cool.
No pity for them. They got a friggin' BUS.
Note: I do not mean to intimate that it would be legal — in Texas or anywhere — to kill a dog that is damaging property.
It certainly should be. No hunting season on coyotes- you can kill them any time. There is a hunting season for deer. But if you're a farmer and one is in the middle of your corn field munching away- it's fair game.
Destructive animals are destructive.
Bob Boyd:
I had a dog that did that.
Seriously? Strange. Why do you think they did it? Were they trying to get to a cat or something that had climbed up into the space behind the bumper?
The dog's pronouns were it/it.
Most likely for the same reason some dogs will get in a chicken coop and kill every last chicken while others will say "Hello, ladies.", nose around and leave.
The dog ripped the foam off - the dashboard impact cushion, the entirety of the front seats, half the front ceiling and about half the back seat bottoms.
Different parts, still a shredded car. And the answer to the unasked question is yes, the dog was gotten rid of.
I am not a big fan of dogs. The dealership should have captured them, held them for ransom, then killed them and sued the owners for damage to cars, cost of capture and execution and mental anguish from killing them.
I really, really, really, hate dogs on airplanes. They used to have to be kept in crates or bags and shipped with luggage.
Now I have to sit next to them on the owner's lap. Usually on my lap too. If I had a hershey bar I would seriously consider leaving it, unwrapped, on my tray table in hopes that they dog would eat it and die.
The Koreans have the right idea.
Here's a travel tip for you. Don't travel on Thanksgiving weekend. Especially not between San Juan and Newark.
John Henry
Thank goodness for video recordings, otherwise this extremely rare event would have been reported as vandalism by canines without this wonderful proof. Pawprints and teeth marks are just not as satisfying. And has anyone found the cat?
I do not mean to intimate that it would be legal — in Texas or anywhere — to kill a dog that is damaging property.
It absolutely is (maybe was) legal and customary in the California farm country of the 1950s. All the neighbors understood that if they let Fido hassle the neighbors' livestock, a bullet was appropriate to put a stop to it. Likely California is not the only example.
Were the dogos Palestinian?
Asking for a friend.
I guess we found out what happened to the Biden dogs.
You're not really a human being if you don't love dogs. If dogs don't love you then you can't have a man card.
Two dogs did the same to my Honda CRX a few years back. They were chasing a cat that apparently hid on top of a tire. We called animal control and helped them chase the dogs down. At one point in the chase I saw they had caught the cat and literally tore it in half between them.
If you shoot the dogs what is the penalty? In a civil damage suit, the damages are the chattel value of the dogs. Which is probably a lot less that the value of one bumper.
And if the dog owner or owners sue you, you countersue for damage done to your cars. (In my state, there is absolute liability of an owner or keeper for damage done by a dog).
@ oligonicella
I was asking about your possible insight into the unusual behavior of the dogs (plural) in the post because you mislead us into believing your dogs did the same, but they didn't.
Tearing up the interior of a car is not unusual. It's no different than tearing up the upholstery of furniture in a house. No one would be surprised to hear a dog, left alone, bored and confined, tore up some upholstery in a car or a house.
Tearing hard exterior body parts off cars is very unusual and the motivation of the dogs is unclear, unlike with chicken coops. Dogs get into chicken coops for obvious reasons, there are chickens in there. There were no chickens in these car bumpers as far as we know.
I'm still going with the desperate cat theory.
Neighbor "old" Bob e-mailed us a few nights ago. He said sorry about the loud noise in the night. That danged armadillo showed up and he used his .410 shotgun to dispatch the beast.
I'm a dog guy. But if I owned that car dealership and the cops said, "So sorry" I could envision an armadillo where the dogs stood.
“I do not mean to intimate that it would be legal — in Texas or anywhere — to kill a dog that is damaging property.”
It depends on the property. In Texas, and presumably many other states based on the comments here, you can kill a dog that is damaging livestock or crops. There is a defense under Texas penal code section 42.092(e)(1) if “the animal was discovered on the person's property in the act of or after injuring or killing the person's livestock animals or damaging the person's crops and that the person killed or injured the animal at the time of this discovery”.
So if you want to shoot your neighbor’s dog, buy some chickens or plant some rye. Also, in Texas it is legal to kill your own dog, so you could adopt a stray dog before shooting it.
But all that is hypothetical in this case. It appears no one was at the dealership when this destruction happened.
If a couple mid sized dogs can "tear your car apart", you got one flimsy made car. I mean, working as a "team" they pried off the bumpers and... did what else?
Thank God, they didn't disassemble the engine, or open one of doors and drive it away.
Hopefully, in the future, they can post a security guard - with a M60 machine gun, and a liscense to kill.
Bob Boyd:
I was asking about your possible insight into the unusual behavior of the dogs (plural) in the post because you mislead us into believing your dogs did the same, but they didn't.
I wasn't being pedantic so I thought "destroys car" not "destroys outside of car".
No one would be surprised to hear a dog, left alone, bored and confined, tore up some upholstery in a car or a house.
That's a fuck-ton of supposition there. You seem to be trying to shift the dog's behavior onto me.
My dog wasn't alone, I was in the house which had a dog door. I had two other dogs, so not bored. Car windows were open, that's how it got in and it was on my farm, hardly confined.
I've posted about this before on this blog although it's been somewhere around two decades ago at least.
The video in question was the same two dogs on three separate nights destroying five cars. They were allowed to roam uncontrolled at night and go feral.
Jim:
I guess we found out what happened to the Biden dogs.
That there's funny.
My favorite dog meme.
Did I read that they have done it more than once? It's a bit of an absurd story. 'Sure, I'll suffer hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, but By God I'm not calling in any stinkin' pest control company to handle my problem.' Said no businessman, ever.
Um, it is Texas. I suspect that if your livestock are on my property, destroying my property, I am allowed to put them down legally. Any Texas lawyers on here know for sure?
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