K-9 death

This story sounds just like another story about a K-9 Bloodhound that was neglected in Missouri. At least the MO dog was retrieved and saved.

<span style="color: #3333FF">"The Washington County Sheriff’s Department adopted 1-year-old Mosley from the Illinois-based Midwest Bloodhound Rescue Inc. in January of 2007. They planned to use the bloodhound for search and rescues and public relations events.

A year later, Capt. Charles LaLumondiere, who had signed the adoption agreement, contacted the group to let them know the dog was unhealthy and the department wanted its money back or a new dog.

On Feb. 13, a volunteer went to pick up the dog. According to their Web site, the dog was found in a 4 by 4 dirt-floor pen outside a trailer. The dog had no food, water or bedding.

“His condition was such that we rushed him to an emergency vet that night,” the Web site states.

The dog reportedly suffered from frostbite, malnutrition and dehydration, severe hair loss (mange), ear and eye infections, seborrhea of the skin, cellulitis, and anemia."</span>

http://www.pet-abuse.com/cases/13335/MO/US/RSS/#UPDATES

Having been a law enforcement canine officer and trainer for more years than I care to remember I'd just like to point out a couple of things. First, every citizen is innocent until proven guilty. Many people are quick to judge a cop guilty as soon as they are charged. The vast majority of law enforcement canine officers are very concerned about their partner. To that end, they do everything possible to ensure they are healthy, well trained and prepared for whatever job they are assigned. Just reading some of the comments already made there are those that have judged this officer as guilty. Do you really think that's fair. Also, one poster stated:<<< "WTF is going on with these K-9 Units lately?! All i keep reading and seeing on the news is more working dogs being killed in action by disgusting bad guys, or a story like this!">>>

Dogs get killed in this line of work. As tragic as that is, there will always be dogs killed in this line of work. Frankly, I'd much rather attend the funeral of a working dog that died doing what he was trained to do, than that of a brother/sister officer. Secondly, just how many K9 Units have you heard of lately in "stories like this". I don't think it's all someone keeps reading. they have been isolated incidents. Granted, one is too many, but spereate incidents of this nature are not filling the news day in and day out.

As to working dogs dying in the line of duty. They are trained to perform a job. They aren't furbabies, they are working dogs. Being that, they are often put in harms way. It's why they were trained, why they were deployed and every canine handler knows that it could happen to their partner.

If the officer is guilty, I hope they prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. I, for one however, am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until he has the same opportunity as every other American citizen. A complete investigation, and if it comes down to it, a fair trial.

DFrost

I think it's also a matter of typical news coverage. The exciting stories for news stations are the tragic ones. Most of those channels don't care to cover the normal/happy/everyday stories about k9's, or even cops in general. The good things cops do are rarely covered on TV. But one incident that portrays a cop in a negative manner will run on all the local channels, UTube, blogs, chat rooms, etc. I think we're bound to see more negative stories about cops and k9's than positive ones. Just the way our media is.

And on the other hand.....if those negative stories are proven to be true and the handler/cop did something that bad, most if not all other handlers out there will be offended/horrified as well. I think cops just get used to hearing the negative stories and also the false ones and learn to wait on the judgment until we find out what the real deal is. In fact, I don't think there are many hard working cops out there who have not had to deal at some point with an internal affairs complaint made against them by some pissed off citizen when they knew it was groundless/false. It changes your way of thinking and causes you to pause a little when other cops are accused until the truth comes out.

Originally Posted By: Rhino...Dynasty, who was donated to the Miami Police Department in 2004 and specialized in finding missing people, was in good health in January 2007 and weighed 66 pounds. In November when she died, the 4-year-old dog weighed only 33 pounds, had sunken eyes and missing hair, and had a wound on one paw.
Brown reported the dog had died on Nov. 30 and told a supervisor she had gotten loose and may have eaten some rat poison at a nearby construction site. But a necropsy revealed Dynasty suffered from severe malnutrition and dehydration.

Click to expand...

A dog loses half it's weight and there is no report until it is dead. A working dog should not have the opportunity to "get loose" and if Dynasty did get loose she should have been given a vet check and vitamin K if rat poison was suspected. I hope the book is thrown at this person.

Every K9 officer I have known considered his dog his partner and looked after the dog, often before himself. I cannot understand anyone defending this officer for any reason especially with evidence of malnutrtion and dehydration - rat poison causes internal bleeding which, even if weight loss and dehydration is a symptom, it requires treatment not waiting until the dog dies. With no record of treatment there is no doubt that this is a case of abuse. Bloodhounds are dogs with one of the sweetest temperaments, this quadruples my distain and contempt for this excuse for a human.

I have an example of my own to contribute here.

Ranger came into my life through this board: he was posted in the urgent section of the rescue board, he was in a gassing shelter. I rescued him only hours before he was killed in a wooden box with a car exhaust attached to it. This is his shelter photo...




Nobody wanted him because he was old, blind in one eye, had problems with the other and I was told that he had tumors on his chest. I decided to let him live out whatever he has left of life with me.

This is Ranger on the day he arrived in Baltimore, trying to acquire the transporter's burger after he ate his own. He was terribly thin.



Soon I discovered that Ranger was a retired detector dog, and his passion for his ball and his unusual "work habits" brought a lot of entertainment into the lives of the volunteers who had the pleasure of knowing him. He would indicate on dog crates (with dogs in them) and strip search my car for food - he could open the armrest and the glove compartment, no food was safe from him.

The vet found that the eye condition that led to blindness in one eye was pannus. He responded to treatment beautifully and the condition of both eyes improved dramatically. The "tumors" on his chest were calluses, from being so thin and sleeping on a hard surface. The calluses soon disappeared after he got his doggie bed and the hair on his chest started growing in. Ranger gained weight and strength and turned into a very handsome dog that did not look old at all. He also had EPI and responded to the enzymes very well, gained 15 lbs over 2 months.




I lost Ranger to bone cancer a year after I adopted him.

After a year and a half of detective work, countless dead ends with different tattoo registries and police departments, I finally found Ranger's handler. The K9 unit of the police department in question was shut down after Ranger retired.

Ranger was imported from Germany from a large German kennel. He was imported when he was 1-2 years old. He had the Sch1 title (he did like bitework, I knew that) and he was trained for narcotics and tracking.

During his time working for the police, Ranger was responsible for numerous seizures including:
- several hundred pounds of narcotics
- several hundred thousand dollars in currency
He was one of the top 5 dogs in the state cup
He was retired only three weeks before he showed up at the shelter.

According to the handler, one night Ranger took off after some rabbits. The handler called the local shelters and asked them to notify him when his dog is found. They never called him. Ranger did not have identification on him, the tattoo was not legible, I contacted all tattoo registries I could find, no luck there (I also posted it on this board). He was not microchipped. I rescued Ranger literally the last moment, only a few hours before he was killed in the gas chamber.

I am trying hard not to judge people, but I find it sad that a dog like him did not receive decent vet care. His eyes were never treated (pannus can be easily controlled with $10/month eye drops), instead he was allowed to go blind. He never received treatment for the EPI either and, based on the condition of his skin he did not have a soft surface to sleep on. It is hard to believe that an expensive import dog was never microchipped. I could rescue him from over 800 miles away, his handler could not find him in the local shelter after he got away. I am glad that the K9 unit of this police department was closed - after seeing Ranger's condition only a few weeks after he was retired. His handler was nice, enough, however it is sad that the standards of care for police dogs allow the dogs to get into such a condition.

I have vet records that document this dog's condition.

I will always have a place in my home for a retired police or military dog - in Ranger's memory.

That's a very touching story. What a turnaround he made....thanks to your help.

Obviously there were neglect issues with that dog in his original k9 location and I don't want to discount those....but I just want to mention a couple things that should be added into consideration for k9 handlers. One is that oftentimes, a new handler is given a dog and that handler might not have any experience with working dogs in the past. The dog is owned by the department and it is not up to the handler to decided certain issues. Microchipping is one. I don't have my k9 microchipped and I can't, as I'm not the true owner (the department is) and it's their choice not to microchip. As for soft sleeping surfaces - all dogs should have a dog house if they live outside. But some dogs (such as mine) cannot have soft pads or blankets or mattresses to sleep on because they are working dogs that have been raised in kennels and they will eat those things. Obviously if the dog has sores on him that look like tumors, something can be figured out to deal with it....and it doesn't sound like he had to be on cement. But just mentioning that in general cases, we're only able to keep them in cement runs.

As for vet care - there's no excuse not to get the dog care. But we are required to go to the vet that our department chooses. If that vet doesn't want to run tests, we can't do anything about it. If they're crappy in some area, we have to live with it. And after a dog retires, the department no longer pays for treatment. Obviously some departments will vary, but that is one example.

I'm not defending this situation....obviously the pictures speak for themselves and there is no way that if my dog ran away and ended up at a shelter I would not find him. That just doesn't make sense. It seems it was more of a choice to let the dog go.

I'm just trying to add some insight regarding k9 handlers in general -so that some of the issues aren't generalized for all k9 handlers. As a k9 handler, I don't have nearly the control over my dog's life in general that I would like to. Much of it is left up to administrators who don't ever see my dog.

After working for a vet for several years and our office/vet handled and treated the K-9 teams for both the local city and sheriff's offices, I am sad to say that this story is not alone. I have personally experienced what you, but not in the same degree, have experienced. The Sheriff dept retired one of their K-9's. The officer dropped off this 9 year old GSD, full bloodline from Germany (he was a big boy) like he was dropping off the dog for boarding. He literally said to me.....here he's yours now. That was it. The doc kept the dog for 2 weeks.....boarding in a large kennel. I couldn't stand it, here was a beautiful well trained GSD who was now locked up in a kennel like he was a criminal. I asked my boss if I could take him home with me. I had 1 1/3 acres of land that we lived on with my other 2 GSD. He gave me permission but had to seek approval from the K-9 Sheriff dept. I called and was quickly given permission. I was glad to have such a wonderful dog and didn't flinch at paying out his bills for the rest of his life. I had him for 5 years and he lived out his "retirement" in a well loved home. I was however, disguisted that this dog served the community and did not receive medical, dental or any other care for the remainder of his life. What a thankless gesture that truly is.