Bad aim in Eugene?

I knew I lived in a small town when shortly after moving here, the police came and, er, dispatched a sick racoon that was sitting by my front door.

I had called animal control, but apparently they don't work on Tuesdays. Their answering machine said to call 911. While I didn't feel that the racoon was exactly an emergency, I did make the call.

When the racoon failed to die after the first shot, I accused the officer of being a bad shot--which he vehemently denied. He stated that he shot it exactly where they were trained to shoot racoons (apparently, this is an important part of cop training in Eugene).

Now however, I'm not so sure. From yesterday's Register-Guard:

Vicious dog recovering
from gunshot wound

An injured, vicious dog ran at large in a southwest Eugene neighborhood Monday after police shot it in the head but were unable to capture it.