Damn Dogs

By now, many of you have seen the video of the jarheads killing a supposedly live puppy. If not, check out Uncle Jimbo @ Blackfive.

My Commentary:
If it was alive, at wort, they killed a puppy, albeit in a distasteful manner.
If it was dead, then so what?

So we now have a 50/50 chance of so what.

As one who's led more dog eradication missions in da turd world than I care to remember, they never gave us safe, humane "put to sleep" shots to give the doggies. We used bullets. Now, while 5.56 is almost universally called a poodleshooter, it actually sucks for shooting dogs, at they are almost all stomach. After the 1st shot, the pack runs, and so head shots are few and far between. 7.62 and, for practice, 40mm at 300m+ works very well, as does 9mm close in. (But hollow-point/frangible work better than ball). Sometimes, after the 1st kill, the dogs forget about the noise and proceed to gather 'round for supper. Again, this makes for easy targeting.

Cruel? Maybe. Not as cruel as watching a child die from a disease, borne on the mangy hides of these canine vectors. (Read: dysentery, typoid, rabies, Helicobacter heilmannii,(causes gastritis)Leishmania infantum and Leishmania chagasi, which cause lesions which will not heal and lead to other infections, trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease--google it)visceral leishmaniasis,Young puppies are potential transmitters of human-pathogenic Campylobacter spp., including C. upsaliensis).

So, shooting a dog may seem more humane, but it takes some modicum of skill to do so at range. If the standard kill shot for a hunter is used (just above the shoulder) the dog will not die. If a head shot is used, often, the brain housing group is still missed, and fido survives--briefly. You have to be a good shot, and couple that with knowledge of the canine anatomy.

Tossing a dog off a cliff seems a certain way to assure a quick death. So is it more humane to shoot them, or toss them? Certainly, humane describes a modicum of compassion, contributing minimally to suffering. Cliff tossing seems to be distasteful, but definitely less suffering is involved on the part of the dog.

The fact that these two jarheads took communications media classes at lyndie england's school for journalism is more troubling.

--Chuck