They shoot dogs, don’t they?

The state Senate this morning passed what is probably one of the most misunderstood bills of 2009 : eliminating a 1929 law that required sheriffs and dog owners to gun down dogs that attack livestock or are wandering around without a license.

In the blogosphere — with a big assist from a flatly-wrong bill digest prepared by the legislature — this bit of legislative tidying-up morphed into a proposal to blast away at hapless pets, triggering a wave of angry calls to lawmakers from pet owners.

“My poor intern got thousands of calls on this because they thought what we were trying to do was shoot every dog,” said Sen. Jim Hargrove.

Everyone voted to do away the old law, but Sen. Pam Roach said she’d like to see it amended to require dog owners to pay for damages. Just a week ago, she said, she was in her pajamas, toting a gun and chasing a dog that attacked her chickens, ducks and a goat.

“I’m not happy that some dog is down there, rippin’ snortin’ through my chicken coop,” she said.

Hargrove said he would have responded differently.

“I would have gotten dressed before I went out,” he said. “And I probably would have shot the neighbor’s dog.”

Note for readers not on capitol hill: The woman feeding chickens in the photo is not Sen. Roach. This is just a chicken photo I pulled out of our archives.