At ALDF's "Of Dogs & Men" LA Premiere

Sept. 22, 2016

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit organization that I have always donated to whenever I could. These are the lawyers who go after the abusers of animals in court and get justice for our four-legged companions and co-habitators of our planet. They do good work and I'm proud to support them.

When I heard that they were having a premiere of this documentary Of Dogs and Men which explores the often violent and disturbing encounters between our pets and police officers, I knew I had to attend. First to support their work and second to learn what I could to stop the practice of police shooting dogs we see so much on the Internet. After all, I can not forget a story I read about a police officer killing a 5-month old kitten for sleeping on his car hood one time too many.

I was in for a welcome surprise, because the film is not an exposé type of film. It was a film about teaching the police how to recognize the posturing of dogs and how to handle them safely so that neither officers nor dogs got hurt.

ALDF did not make the film. The filmmakers came to them with their project and ALDF funded it. Writer director Michael Ozias explores the disturbing trend of SWAT and police officers killing family pets during raids, often at the wrong homes, and in yards and on the street. The film explores it from all sides. We learn how drug dealers train their dogs to attack, so that on drug raids, SWAT take out the dogs first to protect themselves. This is similar to what happens in combat. In Afghanistan, many of our troops had to deal with dogs having explosives put on them and when an American tries to befriend the dog, the explosives are detonated. Since many of our servicemen find jobs as police when they return home, no wonder they are wary of our four-legged friends.

But the film does more than just explain to us why these encounters happen. It shows us the training programs that are teaching different types of interactions between police and dogs. This is happening in more and more police departments because cops are animal lovers, too.

Check this film out. You will be uplifted and learn something new. And support the Animal Legal Defense Fund. They do good work. I'm so glad I went.

The photo of me on the carpet is by David Sobel Photography.