What is wrong with people today?

A small-town Kansas mayor shot two dogs dead with a rifle on Sunday, February 1st.

While Mayor Don Call gives "reasons" for his actions, I remain mortified. I'm sure there are several stories posted online, but the following link leads to MSNBC's account of the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29021290/.

Call said the dogs were loose and chasing children, but Sheriff Sandy Horton said his department wasn't told the dogs were chasing children. He said the mayor should have contacted authorities before taking matters into his own hands.

Indeed. But I feel there is another point to make. Let's say the dogs were loose AND actually "chasing" children. In all honesty, that is the owner's fault. But that still doesn't justify shooting the owner OR the dogs.

I own two dogs and one of them is a bit of a risk (she bites), so I am constantly on alert. She was abused before I adopted her so she's hesitant to trust anyone - although I honestly think she's loved me since the day we met.

She's a tiny girl (7.5 lbs), and I've worked quite hard to train her to suppress her fight-or-flight response to stimuli. She's made tremendous progress since I adopted her in November 2005.

I guess my point is that all dogs deserve a chance. I know some can't be rehabilitated or saved, but gunning two animals down with no clear defensible motive is abhorrent.

I remember my landlord at what I've always referred to as "Satan's Lair," threatening one of my dog sitters and myself. He told me he was going to "run over my dogs with his tractor," if they ever barked at him again. Mind you, the barking was done from inside a fenced yard.

I was smart enough to vacate that hell hole without delay, but I hate to imagine what could've happened to Jax or Bailey if I'd been foolish enough to stick around.

I say give this Call asshole the maximum punishment allowed. When I hear stories like this, I wish the perpetrators could be punished by truly appropriate means - meaning that I'd stick him in a pit of ferocious dogs who might rip him to bits.