After Police Kill Dog, Owner Loses $1M In Damages: MD Courts

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — A Maryland court ruled Monday that pets are not worth more than property. The question arose after police shot and killed an Anne Arundel County resident's dog in 2014, the courts said.

Pet Or Property

In May 2017, a jury decided the accused officer acted with "gross negligence" and awarded the dog owner $1.25 million in damages. A judge soon after reduced that total to $207,500.

The county and the officer appealed this sum. The appellate court this week cut the damages to $7,500. That's not enough to cover the owner's trial costs, The Washington Post reported.

Judges explained state law defines pets as property, so the court system cannot award large damage compensations, no matter the circumstances of the dog's death. That means the death of a pet is worth less in damages than the death of a person.

The Shooting

On Feb. 1, 2014, officer Rodney Price was investigating a string of burglaries in a residential neighborhood. He knocked on the door of Michael Reeves, but nobody answered.

Price, who had been an officer for less than a year, walked away and paused to write notes in the driveway with his back to the home. He heard the door open. Price "turned around and saw a dog 'coming at' him from about five feet away."

The officer testified the dog was growling and barked once. The dog jumped up and placed its front paws on Price's extended arm. Price pushed the dog back and feared it would attack his face.

"Price testified that he shot the dog twice while the dog’s paws were still on his left arm," the judges' ruling stated.

The report noted the officer also had a taser, a baton and mace on him at the time of the attack.

The write-up added that Reeve's dog, a Chesapeake Bay retriever named Vern, died shortly after.

The full account and court ruling are available here.

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