Well-trained like a high-performance athlete, strong-willed and resilient: There are many requirements that a dog must meet in order to be admitted to the police service dog unit. At the side of the police officers, he hunts criminals or, thanks to his exceptionally good sense of smell, follows leads for kilometers.
Exactly these characteristics applied to the two police dogs of the Malinois breed that suddenly died last Tuesday after a jog with a service dog handler in the Weinviertel – just like a German shepherd and another Malinois, a Belgian shepherd who was still in training to become a service dog.
According to Johann Baumschlager, police spokesman for the Lower Austria State Police Headquarters, a dog’s condition suddenly deteriorated, which is why the experienced officer stopped the run and drove home. On the way home, the animals died in the man’s vehicle.
Suspicion of animal cruelty
An autopsy at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna should provide information about what the dogs died of. The result is expected in the coming week. After the police dogs are well trained and the heat shouldn’t bother them, exhaustion shouldn’t be the reason for the four-legged friends’ deaths, according to Baumschlager.
Gerald Koller, trainer for police dogs in Bad Kreuzen, also refers to the autopsy result: “Only then can you make a concrete statement about the incident.”
If there are indications of poisoning, the Veterinary Medical Institute in Munich will be consulted for further investigations. However, the dogs wore muzzles, which would have made it difficult to ingest poison. The public prosecutor’s office in Korneuburg is already investigating suspected animal cruelty against unknown persons.
According to the police, no investigation is being carried out against the service dog handler himself. The officer and his partner, also a police dog handler, are currently not on duty, but this is not a disciplinary measure. Both also took psychological care.
Source: Nachrichten
