I'm not aware of any laws protecting the dogs specifically other than general animal cruelty laws. But because they are very expensive to train (I know of a bomb dog that cost $30k+) you are facing felony property damage charges if you injure or disable them.

You should take a break.

It varies by state, but killing a police dog can put you in jail for 10 years (and this has happened) and that is a federal law. There are some states pursuing stricter measures themselves where killing a canine officer is equivalent to killing a human officer.

As to what I said about killing a police dog having a harsher punishment, that was based on a single anecdote and I meant that the judges serve harsher punishments, not that the laws themselves are stricter.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900010289/senate-approve...

https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96229&page=1

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/man-who-killed-pittsburgh-po...

  and that is a federal law.

18 U.S. Code § 1368 - Harming animals used in law enforcement

(a) Whoever willfully and maliciously harms any police animal, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not more than 1 year. If the offense permanently disables or disfigures the animal, or causes serious bodily injury to or the death of the animal, the maximum term of imprisonment shall be 10 years.

Killing another person can get you life in prison or capital punishment (depending on state) that's way worse than 10 years.

See where your argument loses some teeth?

Do you have any source on this? I'd be very surprised to hear that it was true.

TL;DR police looking for somebody went to the wrong address, shot the family dog because it "attacked" a police dog (which was "unharmed by the incident"), and casually told the owners on their way out the door that their dog had died.

It takes 12-14 month to become a cosmetologist...