$330,000 jury verdict in cops-shot-dog case

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

CHICAGO–A federal jury on August 18,  2011 awarded $330,000 in damages to brothers Thomas and Darren Russell and their parents for the February 2009 police shooting of their 9-year-old black Labrador retriever during a drug raid that hit the wrong side of a duplex.  Thomas Russell–who was earlier acquitted of obstructing police–had asked if he could lock up the dog before the police entered.

Police shootings of dogs have soared in recent years.  A study by DogsBite.org volunteer David Monroe found in 2009 that police around the U.S. fired 626 bullets at 373 pit bull terriers alone in 2008,   killing 319 of them.  Six people were killed by pit bulls in those incidents;  148 were injured.  Nine shootings came in Omaha.  Chicago had seven,  the second most of any city.