In January 2016, Jethro, a K-9 dog, was shot and killed by Kelontre Barefield while he was reporting to a burglary at a grocery store with Officer Ryan Davis of the Canton Police Department. After seven months in jail Barefield was sentenced for his crimes. For an unrelated robbery he receive 6 year sentence but once he was convicted of killing Jethro the K-9 is sentence was increased to 45 years. So he received 39 years for shooting a dog?

This is an example of how Americans have been programmed to value the lives of animals over black people. An armed man follows an unarmed black teen provokes a confrontation with him, shoots the black teen and not only does he walk away a free man white Americans raise millions of dollars for him in the process. A black man shoots a dog hundreds attend his funeral and the black man is sentenced to 45 years in prison, I can’t be the only one perplexed by that.

I understand #DogLivesMatter but 39 years seems a bit excessive. Maybe if more people did time when black people were killed it wouldn’t seem excessive. The NY Police Department deemed the choke illegal for police to use and the man who actually strangled Eric Garner to death hasn’t been convicted of anything.

He definitely deserved jail time, a shoot took place after he shot the K-9. Maybe if more details were given everything would make sense. Definitely excusing his actions but let’s make sure that the lives of human beings matter just as much as the lives of animals.