Shame on heartless police
The three Des Moines policemen who scared, chased, hit with a Taser then shot and killed sweet Rosie for barking on her front porch must feel good about making their community a safer place [“Lawsuit says police didn’t need to shoot, kill Rosie,” page one, Nov. 28].

I, for one, feel better knowing that if my dogs, who are beloved family members, jump my backyard fence to sit on my front porch, the Des Moines police will do all in their power to scare them off, round them up, corral them into an enclosed area, shoot them while they're “just sitting there" and then cover it all up.

A Newfoundland? Come on. What were they thinking? Shame on them and, shame on the reviewers of this case for their heartless focus on policy, not on right and wrong.

Almost anyone with compassion, certainly any dog-lover (a majority of Pacific Northwesterners) could've handled this better.

— Leanne Thomas, Woodinville

Education of dog breeds and behavior patterns needed
I'm another dog lover. I must admit, to begin with, that I am livid about the way this situation was handled by the Des Moines Police Department.

Three policemen against a Newfoundland, one of the gentlest of all dogs. If the police do not have an animal control officer on duty every day, then at least send the department through a seminar on dog breeds and their respective behavior patterns.

I'm sure the officers involved in this episode are taking a great deal of heat from dog lovers at large. I would suggest they go online and read about the Newfoundland, Tang, that saved 92 people from a sinking ship; Rigel, the Newfoundland owned by the Titanic's captain that saved a boatload of survivors of the Titanic; the Newfoundland that saved Napoleon Bonaparte from drowning. It is sad to read stories like this one about Rosie.

We have emerged from the “hunter-gatherer” society of old but some of us, I am convinced, are hunters and some gatherers. I like to think of myself as a gatherer. Some people just seem to like to shoot things.

— Don Rogers, Camano Island