Dog Shooting Exposes SF's Broken Dangerous Dog System
Published November 20, 2025
The Facts
On Nov. 9, an off-leash husky mix dog allegedly bit a person on Market Street and lunged at an SFPD officer who responded to the attack. A body-camera and surveillance video released by SFPD and interim Chief Paul Yep shows Officer Joseph Toomey confronting the dog's owner, Trusten Eaton, near Fourth and Market streets. When officers moved to arrest Eaton and told him to control the dog, the animal twice charged Toomey, as seen in the bodycam footage. The officer fired one round at the dog when it charged, striking it in the shoulder, and one at Eaton when he threw a bottle, striking him in the leg; both were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries and are expected to recover.
But this story is bigger than a shooting, it's that it should have been avoided entirely. Over 800 dog bites have been reported this year alone, yet our "canine court" has been effectively shut down for months, leaving dangerous dogs on the streets without consequences.
The Context
More than 800 dog bites were reported in San Francisco in the first nine months of 2025, putting the city on track to surpass last year’s record of 868 reported bites, according to an investigation into rising dog attacks and suspended canine court hearings by Jennifer Wadsworth at The Standard.
While attacks are up, "canine court" hearings fell from 159 in 2020 to just 32 so far in 2025 and stopped entirely after June 24, leaving at least 21 completed investigations and roughly two dozen additional cases in limbo.
A 2018 civil grand jury report had already flagged serious problems with how San Francisco managed dangerous dogs, including inconsistent application of Health Code standards and inadequate support for the one officer assigned to the work. SFPD has updated its dog-complaints policy to step up leash-law enforcement, but those moves are landing on top of a non-functioning adjudication system.
The GrowSF Take
San Francisco has allowed a predictable public-safety problem to fester. The Market Street shooting was chaotic and disturbing; independent investigations must scrutinize whether the shooting was justified. But the failure is with policy, not police tactics.
City Hall has tolerated record dog-bite numbers while letting canine court grind to a halt, leaving victims, officers, and responsible owners without a clear path to consequences for dangerous animals. The city needs a fully funded, transparent hearing system; a single accountable lead agency; and consistent, data-driven enforcement of leash and bite laws. Dangerous-dog cases should be resolved quickly—with training, muzzling requirements, or euthanasia of truly vicious animals—long before they escalate into attacks on innocent people and pets.