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SPCA looking into police dog left in hot SUV
SPCA looking into police dog left in hot SUV
Animal cruelty investigator calls it unacceptable
Jill Drews/Andrea Macpherson Jul 07, 2011 14:23:36 PM
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LANGFORD (NEWS1130) - The SPCA is now investigating after several complaints of an off duty RCMP officer apparently leaving his 'police dog in training' in a hot car while he went fishing in Langford for 3 hours on Wednesday.
Marcie Moriarty with the SPCA says it's unacceptable behaviour. "Whether you are a police dog or a regular dog, the last time I checked all dogs experience heat in the same way."
She says a Mountie should know better. "In addition, this wasn't in conducting police business. My understanding is those officers were off duty. It's something we're definitely asking the questions about."
Corporal Darren Lagen with the Island District RCMP says the officer in question is a dog trainer and they are taking the incident very seriously.
"The dogs they are in many cases partners for us. It is certainly not indicative of the type of care that we provide to our many police dogs across the country and it is certainly not something we would like to be repeated."
The dog is said to be medically OK and has returned to its duty.
"There was no signs of medical distress, certainly that was the concern of the people there and we do thank them for that concern."
Darrell Taylor was the first person to see the German Shepherd in distress, with no water. "And I went over to check on her and it was just staggering hot. She was sweating, you could smell the sweat on her."
He says he spoke with the officer. "He told me these dogs are trained to withstand heat. It was like, where the hell does his training come from? I've been a dog owner all my life and I know my dog can't handle heat."
The incident happened at a marina near Goldstream Park. Temperatures reached 23 degrees on Wednesday afternoon in Victoria. |
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發表於 2011-7-7 18:47
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