True story!  2 pit bulls roaming around the street and attacks a neighbors dog.  Neighbors dog sustained injuries but police and human society couldn't do anything because dogs ran back onto their property.  A week later, same 2 dogs roam the area again.  This time one of the dogs decides to come crashing into my mom's home crashing thru the screen door and attacked my mom's puppy!  Basically the dog is in the house with my mom's puppy in mouth!  Mom is hysterical and starts to run out of the house and into the garage.  The second dog comes around the house and starts to trap my mom in the open garage!  Mom is screaming for help.  Luckily neighbor hears the commotion and comes out to investigate.  Seeing what is happening, he grabs a water hose and starts to shoot the dogs with water.  Luckily, it works!  Dogs releases my mom's puppy and runs away!  Unfortunately, my mom's dog was didn't make it.  All of this happened on my mom's property!  If I was home, would I have been justified to stop the threat of the 2 dogs?  Basically, the dogs were in "attack" mode already!  Police and Human Society once again couldn't catch the dogs because it ran back to their property!

This happened years ago but now that I think about it, I know the answer!  I would have done anything possible to stop the threat including using my firearm.  These are 2 pit bulls we dealing with.  One dog has already tasted blood, and already mauled another dog a week prior.  Who knows what they would have done to my mom if her neighbor didn't come to her rescue! 

Yes.

Yes.
I'm curious, did you run this question past the responding officers and humane society workers? What was their response?

Wow that is scary.

Good question though. I would think so.

What about the owner(s) of the pit bulls, did they have anything to say? Did they pay for the damages?

Luckily your mom's neighbor came out and acted quickly.

 

You'd have to be really, really fearful for life in order to use deadly force here in HI.

 

but does it count as deadly force if the targets are dogs?  how does the law read on stopping animals?  is it any different?

Shooting the dog with the puppy in its mouth. NO. You will be charged with wreckless endangerment.  Hitting the dog with a stick to get the puppy out of the mouth or water hose is OK.

Shooting the dog growling at your mom. NO.  If the dog jumps on your mom and you shoot the dog and prove the dog was an endangerment to your moms life you MIGHT NOT be charged. But still can be.
It will be up to the sargent on duty.  Now if the dog jumped on you and you feared for your life and you shot the dog then that will be justified.

I asked my friend who is a HPD Sargent....

Any discharge of a firearm in the eye of HPD is a no no in their book.  They are sometimes told to arrest the shooter and ask questions later.

He also mentioned if it was an officer he would just shoot the dogs and ask questions later....

Shooting the dog with the puppy in its mouth. NO. You will be charged with wreckless endangerment.  Hitting the dog with a stick to get the puppy out of the mouth or water hose is OK.

Shooting the dog growling at your mom. NO.  If the dog jumps on your mom and you shoot the dog and prove the dog was an endangerment to your moms life you MIGHT NOT be charged. But still can be.
It will be up to the sargent on duty.  Now if the dog jumped on you and you feared for your life and you shot the dog then that will be justified.

I asked my friend who is a HPD Sargent....

Any discharge of a firearm in the eye of HPD is a no no in their book. They are sometimes told to arrest the shooter and ask questions later.

He also mentioned if it was an officer he would just shoot the dogs and ask questions later....

i thought that was a given.  or was that just for a self defense shooting where someone is hit?

Yes.
I'm curious, did you run this question past the responding officers and humane society workers? What was their response?

No.  Wasn't there when this incident happened! 

If more people ate dog this wouldn't be a problem.

You'd have to be really, really fearful for life in order to use deadly force here in HI.

........or rape, sodomy, & maiming.

Shooting the dog with the puppy in its mouth. NO. You will be charged with wreckless endangerment.  Hitting the dog with a stick to get the puppy out of the mouth or water hose is OK.

Shooting the dog growling at your mom. NO.  If the dog jumps on your mom and you shoot the dog and prove the dog was an endangerment to your moms life you MIGHT NOT be charged. But still can be.
It will be up to the sargent on duty.  Now if the dog jumped on you and you feared for your life and you shot the dog then that will be justified.

I asked my friend who is a HPD Sargent....

Any discharge of a firearm in the eye of HPD is a no no in their book.  They are sometimes told to arrest the shooter and ask questions later.

He also mentioned if it was an officer he would just shoot the dogs and ask questions later....

I disagree slightly in your assessment: Yes, it might be difficult to "justify" shooting the dog attacking the puppy but it also wouldn't be hard to justify a legitimate concern for your own safety when trying to rescue the puppy, especially if when doing so the dog exhibited any hint of aggression toward you. That concern for your safety could reasonably be assumed to justify the use of a firearm against the attacking dog. Furthermore, the dog who cornered your mother presented a credible and legitimate threat and could have, IMHO, been shot then. As the Supreme Court said in Brown, "Detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife." The dog, in light of its history of violence, and the actions of the other dog, was clearly a threat. And while the police at the scene may have taken exception to a mere peon having the audacity to protect his family, in his home, with a firearm, I doubt a jury would have come to the same conclusion. 

My friend also said it would be up to the Sargent on duty to make the call.  Then let the courts decide.

This just sucks.  I would just take care of the immediate threat. I would not deal with the puppy. My opinion on this based on living in Hawaii.  If I was in AZ or TX to hell with the dogs!  Shoot em and eat em!

Need to get proficient with baseball bat and/or machete.

To the person who said that the puppy was only property and not a life, well IF that's true then the attacking dog was just property too, and there should be no problem shooting it.

 

Need to get proficient with baseball bat and/or machete.

I can see people cutting off their own feet with a machete.

Killing the dogs not so much the problem. More so the discharge of a firearm. Hitting the dog with a bat or stabbing it with a knife ultimately killing the dog most likely not an issue if in your home. You have the right to feel safe in your own home in in this situation where else would your mom have retreated to where she would have been reasonablly safe?

Interesting article in this mornings paper (page A12) titled "Shooting of dog by police spurs Colorado bill require training".

I remember one time (about 3-4yrs ago) a puppy pitbull took down a fence and ran after a boy who was walking his puppy.  All I heard was a crash and saw the dog chasing the boy and his dog. The was boys screaming frantically while his dog was attached to its leash. I called 911 and after a few moments, ran up to try and help the boy. One of the neighbor "maced" the dog.  Dog was going wild when he got sprayed in the face. Police took over 45min to get to the scene.  I was truly afraid for the boy and his dog! 

Eventually the owner of the pitbull had to surrender the dog to the human society because of other complaints from other neighbors from my understanding!