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| Rumble the police dog, with the injuries he sustained in the attack. |
AUSTRALIA -- Police officers were overnight forced to shoot at two large dogs, killing one, after the animals set upon one of their own dogs from the K9 division.
Inspector Neil Blair said police had been called to a disturbance on Wanaping Road in Kenwick last night when the two dogs, a male pitbull boxer and a female pure bull arab, rushed at the German shepherd from a backyard of the house police were visiting.
[I had never heard of a "bull arab" before. Wikipedia says they're an Australian dog breed used to hunt pigs. They're basically a mix of bull terrier, greyhound, and pointer with some saying that pit bull and mastiff blood have been introduced into the mix. A search for "bull arab" and "pig" yields some pretty horrific photos of them attacking pigs. But it lets you get a visual of what this police K9 dog was subjected to.]
"Two officers, who were with a dog handler at the time, discharged one round each as a result one dog died and the other sustained a bullet wound," Inspector Blair said.
The pit bull / boxer by the name of Tiger is said to have latched onto the throat of the police dog, going by the name of Rumble, while he was being held on the leash by his handler.
The female dog, whose name was Zena, was biting at the police dog's back legs when the constables shot at the attacking animals, Acting Assistant Commissioner Tony Flack said.
One shot is understood to have gone through the pit bull's head, killing it instantly, while the other shot went right through the female dog's body.
Mr Flack said police had been called twice to the property that night by the female resident who was complaining about a large number of people behaving badly in the street.
On the first occasion the gate to the backyard had been closed but when they returned at 11pm the gate was opened and the dogs were loose, Mr Flack said.
"It is not known if the dogs were set [loose] on purpose," he said.
He said people at the scene were not helpful and an internal investigation would examine whether there had been any threats towards the police dog in the lead up to the attack.
He said that no one was hurt from any bullet ricochet. However some neighbours were reportedly upset because there were children in the immediate area of where the shots were fired.
How and why the police dog was deployed would form part of the investigation since police had a duty of care for their animal, Mr Flack said.
Rumble was undergoing further surgery at the Murdoch Veterinary Hospital to clean his wounds, while Zena was recovering from emergency surgery.
"Both dogs are expected to make full recoveries", he said
(WA Today - July 20, 2011)
