(Updated 31/4/01)

Two more dogs shot dead in Germany

TWO MORE dogs - both family pets - have been gunned down by police officers in Germany, just weeks after the brutal shooting of another dog in Dortmund. As in the earlier case, the two dogs had been accused of attacking somebody else’s pets.

The shooting took place in Blankenfelde at half past midnight. Four policemen fired at two Rottweilers at large in a suburban street. It took 30 shots for the animals to die - while the windscreen of a resident’s car was shattered by a stray bullet.

Olaf Scheffler, 40, had no idea how his dogs got off his premises. But “Alice” and “Bronson”, who had never shown any aggression to human beings, wandered onto the unfenced property of Mr Scheffler’s neighbour, Sven Losch, 38, 200 metres away. There the two dogs attempted to bite open the Mr Losch’s rabbit hutch containing his pet rabbits “Puschel” and “Kuschel”.

Herr Loschke managed to drive them off at first. But when the dogs returned he called the police. But in the meantime the Rottweilers had managed to open the rabbit hutch and killed the two German Giant rabbits by breaking their necks.

Gunfire
Minutes later everybody living in Breidscheidstreet were woken up by the sounds of gunfire when police officers drew up in a car and opened fire on the two dogs in the street. According to Sven Losch: “When the first police car arrived the officers simply rolled down the car windows and started firing at the dogs until the 13 bullets in their guns were spent.”

But the dogs were still alive, lying on the street, badly wounded and howling in pain.

A second police car was called in to help. Police officers fired another round of shots into the helpless animals which finally despatched them.

The police later defended their actions. According to a police spokesman “There was danger to public safety.”
The spokesman added: “The dogs were on the verge of attacking a man”

But even Sven Losch, the owner of the dead rabbits, decried the police officer’s actions and their justification as “absolute tosh.”

“ It would have been easy to just catch the dogs,” added Herr Losch.


When questioned by a local journalist, the police spokesman became evasive. When asked exactly how many shots were fired, the spokesman simply replied: “I am not going to tell you. But it was an awful lot.”

At least one of the bullets fired shattered the back car windscreen of resident Frank Bergmann. Herr Bergmann was as incredulous about the heavy-handed tactics of the officers as Herr Losch. “They must be off their rockers to have a shootout like this. They could have hit somebody.” he said angrily.

The dogs’ owner Olaf Scheffler is seeking legal advice and intends to sue the police officers responsible for killing his dogs unnecessarily.

Meanwhile, the public prosecutor’s office in Dortmund has stated that there will be no criminal proceedings against the police officers who shot dead Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross ‘Apollo’ last February after he allegedly attacked a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in a public park.

No evidence

According to a blunt statement from the prosecutor’s office, the case will be closed instead, for “... there is no strong enough reason nor evidence to present the case to the courts.”

According to a spokesperson for the anti-BSL DogHolocaust Internet List, this announcement came as no surprise.
“This would have been foreseen, wouldn’t it?” said the spokesperson. “So it seems that the brutal killing of dogs will become a bloody sport for police officers from now on, favouring the use of insufficient ammunition, especially since no consequences will follow anyway.”