The "Drug Wars" (17) Los Angeles ca. 1980

"Where's my treat, Fousesquawk?"


One of the unfortunate aspects of doing drug raids on homes is that occasionally, officers/agents are confronted with vicious guard dogs. In recent years, many drug dealers have made it a practice to keep dogs like Pit Bulls, Rottweilers or Dobermanns as guard dogs. When confronted with such animals, officers frequently have no choice but to shoot the dog once it starts to attack.

The closest I came to having to shoot a dog happened during a home raid our office and LAPD narcotics officers carried out around 1980 in the Los Angeles area. During the pre-raid briefing, I was assigned to cover the rear of the house while other agents and officers hit the front door. Two LAPD officers were teamed up with me. In order to cover the rear of the house, it would be necessary to hop a fence into the back yard.

The suspect, a heroin trafficker, was known to own a Dobermann, which he used as a guard dog.

"Great", I thought. "Now I'm going to have to shoot the dog."

The two LAPD guys who were going to go into the back yard with me assured me it wouldn't be necessary.

"No problem. We have these special flares. Once the dog sees the flares, he'll back off."

So we proceeded to the house and hit the place as planned. As the others hit the front door, I hopped over a fence on the side of the house into the back yard. Immediately, the Dobermann came around the back porch and stopped about 20 yards from me.

At this point, I turned around and saw that the cops were nowhere to be seen. No cops, no flares, just me and the dog.

For about 5 seconds, I looked at him and he looked at me-then turned and ran whimpering to his dog house-where he stayed until the animal control people came and took him away.