Police Shoot Aggressive Pit-bull in Tent City

Police shot an aggressive pit-bull in Tent City yesterday, Lieutenant Steve Allaire confirms to TLS. Police responded to the homeless encampment after receiving reports of a loose pit-bull acting aggressive towards other residents in the camp.

Upon arrival, the dog, apparently belonging to one of the residents, began acting aggressive towards the police officers, prompting them to shoot it.

Allaire says the dog was hit but then ran off. [TLS]

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25 COMMENTS

  1. Owning a pit bull in tent city!? Where’s the logic?? Maybe if some of these guys would be a little smarter they never would’ve ended up in tent city in the first place.

  2. So now there is an injured loose aggressive pit bull running loose thru lakewood that could potentially hurt an innocent person or child? They did not catch this dog?

  3. Really? Pit bulls can terrorize children all over town and the only time one of them gets shot at is to protect residents of tent city??? Where are our priorities?

  4. I am a Tent City resident, and I was a witness (though not entirely an eyewitness) to this event.

    Please don’t blame everyone at Tent City for the mistakes of a few specific individuals, who were drunk and let their dog run off. It’s a great shame that this incident happened – some people are clearly not responsible enough to handle a large dog… It’s those individuals that should be held responsible – not Tent City as a whole! Such problems could have been averted if the government didn’t get in the way of Minister Steve’s ability to run Tent City – they make it impossible for him to evict the “bad apples”…

    The “aggressiveness” of the dog is greatly exaggerated. I went looking for that dog (named Scooby), and saw it before dark yesterday evening. It barked at me but then ran away. It ran away from Minister Steve as well. If tranquilizer guns had been legal, no one (not even the dog) would have been hurt.

    It’s a shame the police didn’t have tranquilizer guns. They were only called because of one residents’s malice… And, IMHO – the police have acted responsibly…

    I heard two shots at around 11PM last night, and went to investigate. On my way I tried to find and talk a friend of Scooby’s owner, whom I’ve seen handling Scooby before, into going there to offer to help restrain him (he doesn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Spanish). Someone went ahead and told the police that someone who the dog is acquainted with may be along shortly. But we weren’t fast enough – I heard three more shots, and a loud whimper…

    I know the police are highly trained, but it’s easy for anyone to lose the context of the situation and make a mistake. This was in the dark, in the woods. The police don’t know the “lay of the land” so to speak. They could have fired at a slightly higher angle than they thought, and hit someone’s tent further into the woods…

  5. Thanks, Alex for filling us in. You always get the fuller picture from someone who is there. You have a good point about the dangers of shooting a gun in the woods, but I would like to think that the police are well trained in gun safety and wouldn’t shoot unless they were convinces that there is no way it could hurt anyone.

  6. Aggressive dogs that are a threat to people should be shot. Same as a rabid Raccoon, or any other animal that threatens people. But whether or not it was a legitimate threat, I can’t say. I wasn’t there, thank the man upstairs.

  7. Hey Alex as a tent city resident you gave what’s seems to be a pretty good account of what happened and praised the the police as acting responsible. The question I have for you just out of curiosity, you have a personal device (ipad/laptop/smartphone) with Internet access and pay a monthly bill as well? Like I said just curious, no smart alec response if you do.

  8. UPDATE: Scooby Doo, Where Are You…

    Scooby the dog was seen alive but limping this morning. Several Tent City residents (including myself), later joined by two police offers, spent time walking through the woods in search of the dog but couldn’t find it.

    I also learned more about the dog’s history that stands against the allegations of its aggressiveness.

    I’ve also noticed tents in the back part of the camp, further accentuating my earlier point about the danger of discharging a firearm without knowing the lay of the land… (The police fired 5 shots Sunday night.)

  9. I am also a Tent City resident, and I beg to differ with Mr. Libman which is clearly extermly biased and cautious regarding the image of Tent City. This dog was exteremly wild and always loose, there was no law and order. I have seen this dog countless times loose and wild uncontrolable.

    We know that Alex is trying to portray Tent City as a normal place with a select few “bad apple”. This is Alex’s new job that Minister Steve gave hime. However in essence Tent City is the exact opposite – Tent City is a bunch of bad apples with a select few good ones. And Miister Steve

    (Moderated)

    STEVE GIVE IT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  10. if you find the dog take him to ocean county vet on rt 9 in Lakewood they will treat him for free.. please post on here if u take him there I will make a call to them

  11. UPDATE: Tent City residents were able to recapture Scooby – or he came home on his own. He had a bullet wound in his chest (pictures to be posted later), but there was no sign of internal injuries. Seems like the bullet never penetrated the rib cage. If he made it this far, he probably would live.

    Then the government came back and took him away. From what I understand, they will kill him.

    The Scoop story is incorrect – the dog is not “aggressive”. I played with Scooby before, and I’ve seen him a few hours before he was wounded. There’s no evidence of him biting anybody, ever. He simply got loose…

    When I was in college, I was taking care of my roommate’s dog for a while, and it got loose once – good thing the government wasn’t involved, and I was able to catch it a few minutes later. Sure, there are risk factors, but this could have happened to any dog owner…

    The dog didn’t hurt anybody. The government shot at him 5 times (also, IMHO, putting human lives in danger), wounded him, left him to suffer and die, and when he came back alive they came back to finish the job…

    From what I understand, dog pounds have special policies for pitbulls. Scooby was / will be killed by the government because of his race!

  12. Chris could not have said it better, and yes I am a TC resident. The dog had bitten people before. The bad apples overwhelm the few good people at TC. It appears that Brigham wants it that way, or he would not cater to the violent and disruptive addicts. These people need to get out of the woods, face their addictions and re-enter society. It is time to end the social experiment for it has failed the community, the nearby residents, the TC residents , ect. Just pack it in Steve , do the right thing and end it now before more people get injured, assaulted or die.

  13. I would like to say, I’ve seen a few comments on here regarding the breed of the dog and because it is a Pitbull that is the reason it is “aggressive”. Well, let me tell you this, IT IS NOT THE BREED THAT MAKES A DOG AGGRESSIVE, IT IS HOW IT IS RAISED/TREATED!!!! I am very sad to hear how Lakewood PD shot the dog especially 5 times and then came back to get the dog and have it destroyed. The dog should have been taken to a VET and it would have been evaluated and if the VET thought it had ANY temperament issues THE DOG SHOULD HAVE GONE TO A RESCUE AND NOT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED!!!! Thank you Alex for a witnesses story as to what had happened.

  14. Would this be getting as much attention if the dog in question was a lab? What about a shitzu? No probably not, although these dogs can be aggressive & cause harm just as much as any other dog. Ive worked with pits & come in contact with them in many different situations, & they are just like other dogs. Just saying! Also are we really going to start calling the men & women that live in Tent City names & imply they are not smart? In my own opinion I would have to say you my friend are the one that is uneducated. You have NO idea what situations or hardships these people have encountered to end up inTent City. Have you ever taken the time to go there or do you just take the time to throw stones without knowledge? I am not saying every resident of T.C is an angel or perfect or just down on their luck. Im sure there are “bad apples” as they’ve been referred to there but is that not the case in every community?? I feel that the events that took place that night were tragic. No one truly knows what happened or how the dog was but none the less someones beloved companion will be put down after hrs of suffering because of it. Maybe if we as a community tried to help & understand the people of Tent City there wouldn’t be so many problems.

  15. It seems that numerous people could have handled themselves better in this tragedy. First of all, if these people were helped to get decent housing there wouldn’t be anyone in the woods with pit bulls or any other dogs. Secondly, a companion dog of any breed ought not to be walking around unleashed through any community. Thirdly, it’s a little questionable for a resident of Tent City to call police close to 11pm, when the residents are generally in their tents for the night by about 9pm; the dog may have been alarmed by people walking around late at night. Fourth,
    residents could have been advised to simply stay in their tents until morning, when animal control officers could have come to tranquilize the animal (and if tranquilizer darts are not legal for this purpose, why not?). Doesn’t almost everyone agree that an animal should not be shot unless there is an imminent threat of serious harm to someone?

  16. I am an ex resident of TC who was bit by a pitbull dog (not Scooby). There are good and bad in every walk of life. I owned pitbulls back in London 30 years ago, and they were kind, loving and loyal dogs…don’t let one bad experience dis- colour your pallette.

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