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Police
dog handler ‘strangled’ Bull Terrier
A Bull Terrier which police claimed was ‘dangerously out
of control’ was allegedly strangled to death by a police
dog handler in what was described as an ‘attempt to subdue
the animal.’
The dog, a five year-old brindle and white Bull Terrier called
Khan, had been bought by Bedford-based Val Allen for her son
Mark and his partner Andrea Deards four years previously.
Mrs Allen is an experienced dog breeder, having bred and shown
Dobermanns for 25 years.
She has also worked with problem dogs alongside an experienced
dog trainer for several years.
Mr Allen and Miss Deards, who have one child, split up recently,
and Khan remained with Miss Deards and her son at their home
in Cedar Road, Bedford.
On the evening of Tuesday, July 9th, Miss Deard’s uncle,
Tony Green, was playing in Miss Deard’s garden with a number
of children, including Miss Deard’s son and those of her
friends who were visiting. Mr Green, described as a ‘loud
man’, shouted at the children, causing Khan to become protective
towards them. The dog ran towards Mr Green and bit him on the
bottom. Mr Green yelled for help, and Miss Deards attempted
to telephone Mrs Allen for help, although the latter was not
at home. She then telephoned for an ambulance. The emergency
services themselves alerted the police and four officers turned
up at her home.
The officers made no attempt to subdue the dog and called for
back up.
Mr Green, a slightly built man, had apparently "wrestled
the dog to the ground". Three other police officers arrived,
one of which, PC Birch, was a dog handler.
Miss Deards explained that she had expected that the officers
would arrive with a grasper pole to restrain the animal, but
PC Birch came equipped only with a choke chain and lead.
The officers ordered Miss Deards, her friends and children back
into the house and then set about restraining Khan, having called
for a vet to attend. However, the officers did not wait for
the vet and attempted to deal with the dog themselves.
According to one of Miss Deard’s friends, who observed
the scene from the kitchen window, the officers put the choke
chain on Khan with no apparent difficulty and then two of them
held the dog down, by putting weight on the back end of the
dog’s body, whilst PC Birch allegedly knelt on the dog’s
neck, pulling hard on the lead. The dog’s head was observed
to be at a strange angle and PC Birch was allegedly seen to
yank on it.
The vet turned up 15 minutes after being summoned, and pronounced
the dog dead.
According to Miss Deards and Mrs Allen there was a metal post
in the garden to which the dog could have been attached whilst
waiting for the vet to arrive.
It was later discovered Mr Green had suffered some bruising
and one small puncture wound needing a single stitch. The police
officers were not bitten.
Decision
Miss
Deards said: ‘I asked an officer if I was going to have
to have Khan put down and he said the decision might be taken
out of my hands. Then his colleague came in from the garden
and said he had done it.
‘I didn't know that was what they intended because I
would never have just let them go out there and kill my dog.
I had had him since he was a puppy. I always felt safe with
him in the house. He only nipped my uncle because he shouted
at the children and Khan was very protective of my little
boy.’
Mrs Allen told OUR DOGS: ‘If they could get a lead round
his neck why couldn't they have used that to restrain him
until the vet arrived, and why on earth did they come without
a grasper?
‘When I spoke to PC Birch about this, he first tried
to tell me that it was the dog warden’s responsibility,
but as he knows, they do not work after 6pm and this incident
took place between 8 and 10pm. He also told me that there
was no room in his van to carry a grasper, which I find ridiculous.
‘There’s a lot which I am not being told here. The
bottom line is, Khan did not need to be killed. Tony Green
is slightly built, so how did he manage to wrestle the dog
down to start with? If three officers managed to restrain
Khan for 15 minutes, knowing the vet was coming, with no injuries
to themselves, why did PC Birch have to take it upon himself
to strangle Khan?’
A police spokesman said: ‘Two divisional officers and
a dog handler had to restrain the animal which was dangerously
out of control. They had already called the vet in the hope
that the six-stone bull terrier could be sedated. Unfortunately
the dog died before the vet arrived.
‘As this situation was an emergency the dog section officer
was unable to get to police headquarters to pick up the protective
equipment referred to. This equipment cannot be carried on
patrol vans because of lack of space.’
A veterinary post mortem carried out on Khan at Mrs Allen’s
insistence confirmed that the dog had died as a result of
strangulation.
Mrs Allen contacted the RSPCA, pointing out that she had an
eyewitness account and veterinary evidence of the dog’s
horrific, slow death. RSPCA Chief Inspector Horsman is now
investigating the incident.
Miss Deards and her son have both been severely traumatised
by the incident. The family has made an official complaint
that will be investigated by the Chief Constable of the Bedfordshire
Police Force, Mr Paul Hancock. The RSPCA has confirmed it
has received a report of the incident and is also investigating.
A spokesman for the National Canine Defence League said: ‘The
NCDL is appaled. We will be writing to the police force in
question to get more facts on what actually occurred and asking
them to take steps to ensure that a similar incident never
happens again. Our deepest sympathies go to the dog's owner
and her family.’
Juliette Glass of the Fury Defence Fund who has been assisting
Miss Deards and Mrs Allen commented: ‘This is a most
ghastly execution, eerily reminiscent of the Acer case (see
below) and of Joshua, a dog stabbed to death by a police officer
with a garden fork. There must be an official inquiry into
the horrific and unnecessary methods used to end this poor
dog’s life.’
• In 1997, a senior police dog trainer strangled Acer,
a serving police GSD as part of ‘rough discipline’.
Four police dog training officers appeared in court in 1998
and two were convicted of cruelty. The Essex police force
later disciplined all the officers involved. After the Acer
incident, the NCDL and RSPCA refused to donate dogs to any
police force until guarantees were given as to the humanity
of the training methods used.
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