|
 We've
learned that there are some pretty bizarre hazards of K-9 criminal
investigations,
including, but not limited to: electric
sidewalks, flying
sons and fresh
fruit. Today we add three more perils of police poochwork:
butcher knives, iron spikes and four-story buildings.
Scooby-Doo had it too easy.
1. Stabbed
SAN DIEGO,
Calif. (USA) — Police say K-9 "Gino"
ultimately saved the life of a burglary suspect, but all Gino got as
thanks was a butcher knife in the head. According
to authorities, 23-year-old transient Eric Gray burglarized Ranch
Catering on Quivira Way at about 9:25pm, Sep. 26. Officers
arrived at the scene and found Gray sitting outside with a bag of food
and a 12-inch
butcher knife. When ordered to drop the weapon, Gray refused and
violently engaged the officers yelling, "come on." Lieutenant
Bill Nelson, commander of the San
Diego Police Department's 53-team Canine Unit, reported that K-9 officer Gary
MacPhee was at one time close to using deadly force, but instead he
opted to let his partner Gino tackle the situation. "Ninety-five
times out of a 100, when you tell people you're going to send the dog,
they give up," Lt. Nelson said. Lieutenant
Dave Elliot describes what happened next: "Gray began running and
hitting the dog with the knife. He
cut the dog several times, almost severing his ear." Despite
a six-inch gash in his head, Gino forced the suspect to drop the
knife, whereupon police took the man into custody. The dog was
rushed to Mission Valley emergency animal hospital where he underwent
treatment and a  successful
surgery to reattach his ear. News10
reported today that Gino is already recovered and back on the job.
Gray was treated for dog bites before being
booked into jail. Lt. Nelson said, "The suspect is alive today because of the actions of Gino
and his handler.
Investigators agreed that Gino kept
officers from having to use deadly force, as would have been the case
in such a confrontation.
Said Lt. Nelson, "He is an exceptional
dog."
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Point well taken.
Police dog "Major" was gored by an iron spike
but managed to get the job done. (Photo: BBC News)
2. Skewered
LONDON (UK)
— BBC
News reports that a police dog got himself impaled on an
iron-spiked fence while chasing a suspected car thief. The
three-year-old German Shepherd "Major" patiently waited for
his partner PC Jason Cooke to free him before dashing off again and
making the arrest. (Major wouldn't have needed any
assistance at all, had he taken a class in self de-fence.
Woof.)
Scotland Yard said Major and PC Cooke had been called to help after
a suspected stolen car was spotted in east London early this
month. After the vehicle stopped, the driver attempted to flee,
but Major chased him across a main road and grabbed his leg just as
the man was jumping over a fence. Major was dragged along and
impaled on the spikes.
"Major narrowly escaped certain death," said a
spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police. "He was lucky that
the spike, which passed close to a major artery and also his bowel,
did not puncture them." (...not to mention the fact that
Major seriously exceeded his recommended daily dose of iron).
After cornering and subduing the suspect, Major was given first aid
at the scene by local officers before being taken to a veterinary
hospital. After two operations, Major is now recovering at home.
Q. What do you call a British police dog who gets impaled on a
spike?
A. Shish-kebobby.
3. Splattered
VANCOUVER, B.C. (Canada) — British
Columbia police dogs are well-trained in criminal law procedures, but
sometimes they don't seem to know the law of gravity. For the second
time this year, a B.C. K-9 has taken an unexpected tumble from a rooftop
(see June 5: "Not
Exactly the Brightest Police Dog in the World")
"Chase," a nine-year-old Belgian Malinois with the North
Vancouver RCMP, was sniffing out explosives with a police detection
team in Burnaby on Oct. 5 when he fell four floors to the ground because
of an apparent depth-perception problem.
Miraculously, the dog survived, but not without a little help from
his canine comrades. Suffering from a shattered leg, sheared leg
with tendon damage, ruptured kidney and extensive lung and heart
bruises ...and a broken toe, the pooch was in urgent need of some
patchwork and a blood transfusion. More than a dozen police dogs
from the Mounties and the Vancouver city force were rushed to the
veterinary hospital as blood donors. With the necessary
transfusions, Chase pulled through.
Ruff day on the roof.
Constable Shaun Brozer and his partner "Chase" make up one
of the North Vancouver RCMP's five Police
Dog Services teams. Chase is trained to track and catch
criminals, search for property, search for explosives and is a member
of the Emergency Response Team. Early this month he also got a
crash course in aeronautics. (Photo: North
Vancouver RCMP)
"It's amazing he's still alive," says Const. Marina Wilks
of the RCMP. "He wasn't really expected to live and
apparently his heart stopped beating three times."
The RCMP said in a news release last Wednesday that he was provided
with the best treatment any injured "officer" would expect.
Afterward, authorities sent Chase home on extended medical leave to
recuperate,
thereby answering the question, "What do you give an injured
police dog who has fallen and he can't get up?"
A two-month fur-low.
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