Police have arrested an elderly farmer after he fires a warning shot at a dog harassing his sheep.
It took six police cars to arrest Frank Cook, 77, after he fired at a dog to keep it from harming his lambs, in an incident drawing criticism in what many call an exaggeration of police power.
Cook, well within his rights to kill the dog, simply fired behind it, and apologized to the neighbor, adding he would pay its vet bill for the misunderstanding.
However, the neighbor called the police, and soon six police cars arrived, with a dozen officers, and some of them drew their weapon.
Cook was then arrested, put into handcuffs, placed in the backseat of a squad car and taken to jail where he was photographed, and had DNA and fingerprints taken.
Despite spending time in a jail cell, Cook was released without charge. Yet, many in England are crying foul.
Cook says, "I am a law-abiding citizen and did not deserve this treatment. I couldn't believe all this had happened on a nice spring day.
"I was standing out on the lawn with my grandchildren, when this armed flotilla of police cars arrived. Our jaws just dropped."
Cook explains, "To my utter astonishment, no fewer than six police cars drove up. Armed policemen stepped out of the front and stood with their guns at the ready.
"Then three men came across the lawn. I was approached by one of them and asked whether I was Frank Cook. On assuring them I was, I was then cautioned and arrested."
Cook adds, "I protested and told them not be silly and to send the armed men back into their cars and then I would talk to them. They would not listen.
"Instead, one officer put an arm lock on me, frogmarched me to a car and pushed me in. They told me they were arresting me for criminal damage."
While U.K. police say it is "standard practice" to bring so many for a firearm incident, Mid Bedfordshire Tory MP Nadine Dorries, who has taken up Mr Cook's case, believes, "This is a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I cannot believe that something like this can happen in England."
