Questions have been raised over Los Angeles police tactics after an investigation found that officers had shot 67 dogs over the past decade, including 45 pit bulls.
The figures, drawn from Los Angeles Police Department use-of-force reports, include 19 incidents in 2016, when 12 dogs died. In 2015, officers shot 11 dogs and eight were killed.
The number fell to one shooting in 2024, but there have been four so far in 2026, three of which resulted in deaths.
The findings follow the fatal shooting of Jameson, a two-year-old Golden Saint Bernard Doodle, by LAPD officers in Canoga Park in June.
Body-worn camera footage showed Jameson’s owner answering the door after officers responded to a report of a woman screaming during an NBA championship game. Officers asked her to secure the dog, but Jameson came out of the flat barking and moved towards one of them, who opened fire.
After Jameson’s death, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass ordered a review of police encounters with dogs involving deadly force. The LAPD said it had not made formal changes to its Dog Encounters Directive, introduced in 2023.
The department declined a request for an interview but said in a statement that it was conducting “a comprehensive review of tactics, training, and best practices”.
Family recalls LAPD shooting of dog
The Canoga Park shooting revived painful memories for Neveah Aguilar and her mother, Norma Lopez, whose pit bull Kush was shot by an LAPD officer inside their Hollywood flat almost eight years ago.
Lopez sued the department, alleging that officers unlawfully entered the property while investigating a shooting outside the apartment complex. She said officers detained her and her former partner before searching the flat, despite the family having no connection to the shooting.
Aguilar alleged that officers misled her Spanish-speaking mother into allowing them inside without giving her time to secure Kush. Lopez and Aguilar said they wanted attention drawn both to their own experience and to Jameson’s death. “I don’t want it to happen again,” Aguilar said.
Lopez said officers initially told her Kush had died after being shot in the jaw. She said the dog had instead hidden in the bathroom and climbed into the bath.
According to Lopez, animal control removed Kush about four hours later, and she alleged that “they just let her bleed out”. The dog survived for another two years but, she said, was never again the energetic and playful animal the family knew.
The family’s case was settled, although their lawyer, Theida Salazar, said he could not disclose the terms. He said greater patience might have prevented both Kush’s shooting and the incident in Canoga Park.
Aguilar, now a high school freshman, underwent years of therapy after witnessing the shooting, her mother said. Photographs of Kush remain on her bedroom wall, alongside a paw print.
“It’s not that I don’t trust them, but I’m still afraid of them, and I feel like they still scare me,” Aguilar said.
