<snip>For nearly two years, pet owners from the low-lying Louisiana parish of St. Bernard have accused sheriff's deputies of having wantonly killed dozens of dogs they forced evacuees to leave behind during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, without regard to the dogs' size or the potential threat they might pose.
One owner said her family was forced at gunpoint to leave its dog behind. Another owner said residents became frantic when, they said, they overheard one deputy claim that
"once everybody's gone, we're going to have target practice tonight." They claim in court papers that deputies were under orders to shoot every dog they found.<snip>
<snip>One of the key pieces of evidence in the civil case is expected to be video footage shot by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Leeson Jr., who said he witnessed dogs being shot while filming in the area after Katrina for the Dallas Morning News. <snip> )bold emphasis mine)
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3265151&page=1Assholes.