I could never put a living animal out of "supposed" misery unless I can actually see it in agony by it squealing, yelping and howling with innards spewed about. Even then, it would cause me alot of emotional pain to have to put a bullet to its head to end the suffering.

I think it was a bad judgement call, maybe a bit cold hearted. I think he jumped the gun a bit and didn't consider his options seriously enough. His assumption was that the dog was suffering and he made efforts in the right direction, so I don't think he was being malicious at all and I certainly don't think he should lose his job over the incident.

I didn't read anything about the officer having a family with children to support or anything, but it's just mind-boggling that he lost his job over this unfortunate incident. There has to be something more with this cop than just this one incident. Maybe they've been wanting to can him and now they have what they feel is sufficient cause.

Who knows, it's bizarre.