Image by Flickr user Allmightymo

Update June 3: A veterinarian who examined Jake, the German Shepherd killed by a Charleston County Sheriff's deputy, doubts that the family pet was in an attack position when he was shot.

It seems to me that the issue now should be of compensation for the cost of the loss of a purebred German Shepherd.

The Post and Courier has the update.

First reporting: On May 25th, a Charleston County's sherrif's deputy was called to help out a Johns Island family, but the situation led him to fatally shoot the family's five-year-old German shepherd.

The Holst family called police last week, asking for help with a situation in which a neighboring family's dog getting inside the Holst's electric fence.

The dog, whose name was Jake, was shot after, according to the deputy, the animal lunged at him. The deputy reported that the 80-pound dog was about two feet away from him, barking and snarling.

However, Jake's owners, the Holst family, have a different side of the story. They say that Jake wasn't a threat when he was shot--that, in fact, he was hunkered down on the ground about 10 feet away from the deputy.

The shooting is currently being investigated, but as of yet, it seems as though the deputy followed proper protocol.

This is a tough one. As a solid dog lover, I can feel for the Holst family--they lost a member of their family. However, I do fully realize that dogs are animals and can turn dangerous, and I have to say that if a German shepherd--or any other large dog--lunged toward me, I would do what I could to protect myself. Unfortunately, the only ones that really know what happened that day are the Holst family and the deputy--and it looks like it's a case of he-said, she-said.

For more details about both sides of the story, check out The Post and Courier's in-depth report here.