Wednesday 8 July 2009

Police Officer serves up "hot dogs" from back of patrol car

On Thursday 2nd July, Britain was angered when news was reported that a Police dog handler had left two Alsatian dogs locked in his car during a heatwave. The dogs died from the heat although it was unclear how long they were left in the car for.
I think that this is shameful considering he was a trained dog handler, so he should have known that to leave the dogs in a car which heats up extremely quickly was despicable. Any member of the public could tell you that you should never do that and they’re not trained professional in dog care. Also these were donated dogs from a family; they weren’t breaded especially for the police. Therefore you would assume they would take extra care of them as they belonged to a family who had kindly donated the dogs for public service.
Temperatures soared to 30˚C, so the temperature in the car could have easily reached more than 47˚C within 30 minutes. I think it’s appalling that something like this could have happened. Perhaps it’s because we all have had an idealised and maybe incorrect view that the police officers are supposed to set an example to regular citizens and with that a sense of responsibility and rational thinking would naturally be applied.
I do not believe this happened out of maliciousness or forgetfulness but plain laziness. The dogs kennel’s were only yards away, so the police officer could have easily put them in the kennels while he carried out what he needed to do. However he chose not to bother, therefore leading to the death of the dogs.
Not only is it the fact that two dogs were killed within all of this, but also it is tax payers money which is used to train these dogs and at over £7,000 to train each dog, it doesn’t come cheap. To train these dogs it also takes a 9 week intense course and as one dog was only newly trained, it was a waste of police time and tax payers money, which could have been put to other uses.
A statement from Nottinghamshire Police said the welfare of its animals was "of paramount importance". Yet these dogs were still neglected by the person who was trained to look after them, so obviously the welfare of the dogs is not “of paramount importance” to everyone.
The RSPCA should prosecute; as if this was any member of the public they would surely be charged without investigations. So why should it be any different for this man just because he is a police officer.

No comments: