I'm surprised this hasn't already been brought up in this forum, but it seems in the U.S. that cops are posing a substantial danger to people's dogs. Here is the latest incident just yesterday:
http://www.the33tv.com/videogallery/70167662/News/5/27/12-dog-shot
If you look at the video, the cop was well within the victim's private property. Allegedly the cop visited the wrong address on a call for a robbery--which is only all the more enraging, because even if he was at the right address, he knew he was shooting the victim's dogs. Robbers don't exactly just take along their dogs when they go burglarize a house. At this point, the mere act of leaving your dogs outside in your own yard jeopardizes your dogs' safety. Cops can enter your yard at any time and shoot them.
Except--they aren't even safe INSIDE your own house, either. SWAT teams are authorized to shoot your dogs INSIDE your own house under any circumstances, even if they, too, allegedly have the wrong address. Here is very disturbing, graphic video of SWAT shooting a dog. In this case, they did not have the address, but still you can see the dogs clearly did not pose a danger to them. They had their suspect: all they had to do was shut a door and they were done. However, there are a number of other incidents in Atlanta, Georgia where not only have they shot dogs after "having the wrong address", but they shot dead an 92-year-old elderly woman in her own house. No crime was done--she was just minding her own business in her own house.
http://gawker.com/5532226/swat-team-raids-house-shoots-dogs-over-small-amount-of-marijuana
http://fourthamendment.com/blog/index.php?blog=1&title=swat_team_in_atlanta_kills_92_year_old_w&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1