Sam The Reporter (re: story of man killing neighbor's trespassing dog in his yard): Despite the fact that this sells newspapers, or people stare at their television screens intently when they hear about something like this - this specific issue is not news. It's just not. I can't understand it. Maybe it's news in a community of 250 people where there's not much happening except for perhaps a feud between neighbors that culminates in an admitted retribution of a dog killing - and the neighbor admits it, and they're arrested or some such. But this? This is not news.

DFO: Actually, Sammy, it is. First, you have all those pet lovers out there who empathize with the owner and the pup that was dispatched out-of-hand by the cold-hearted neighbor. Then, there's the brutality of the act against an animal that you know is a neighbor's -- the taking the law into your own hands aspect. Also, the neighbor shot a gun around people and had shot another dog before. There's an element of violence here that doesn't sit well. In this day when kids can't even take a 2-inch plastic GI Joe toy rifle to school without getting in trouble, it's news when a neighbor goes off rather than call animal control. This guy's in a heap o' trouble.

---

---