Not deerhound related I know but what are people's thoughts on the conditional dischage sentence that was given to the dog handler that left his 2 GSD's in his van in the heat last year and they died a horrible death?

whilst recognising that the man is only human. How can you forget your dogs for 7 hours? If he was not a dog handler would the sentence of been different? I think someone else might have had the book thrown at them really!

my dogs are constantley on my mind whever I am and whatever I am doing so I do find it difficult to understand how he could of forgot them especially as the van he put them in didn't having working air conditioning

His sentence was far too lenient.

I think there were extenuating personal circumstances i think that was the term used, not that the poor dogs new that but as a dog handler he is someone that should have known better if it had been one of us that did that he himself would have thrown the book at us and pushed for the harshest sentence

For some professional dog handlers, dogs are merely an utility and nothing more.
In the private sector, some companies give their emkoyees discount on the company's own products/services. The same seems to have happened here.

In some way, in the very start, the Police was "The King's Bully Team", then they gradually became our guarantee for law and order, now it is as if they are gradually about to change to become "The Government's Bully Team"

This sounds appalling, I don't think that there can be ay extenuating cercumstances for anyone leaving dogs (or children) in cars on hot days. Maybe we are more aware of this over here with our hotter weather, but even on a warm day the temperature in a closed car skyrockets very quickly. A pity the book wasn't thrown at him as these are the sort of people the general public look to for examples

Pam

I worry about leaving my dog in the car for even 10 mins when it's only moderately hot let alone one of the hottest days of the year. He was a profesional dog handler and should have known better. What would have happened to a Doctor who forgot to check the dosage of a dangerous drug that he was giving a patient and that patient died. At the very least he would have been banned from practising medicine. The Police Officer should have been given a harsher sentence and banned from owning dogs for life.

farnorth wrote:

Maybe he was late for his tea and donuts...

KimC wrote:


Sorry to say but I feel they have been the governments bully boys for years.
You only have to look at the miners strike or the poll tax riots.
But they are there to look after law and order....until you need one..

what he did as a person was reprehensible

please don't use this thread to have a go at the police

it is a THANKLESS job.

Sorry just trying to make light out of a bad situation. In no way did I mean anything more sinister than that.

I know. It's a difficult subject to make light of. I get over-sensitive sometimes as I have seen similar threads on other forums re dog bites etc and it always degenerates into being the fault of the police.
We can't win.
Between the Government and the media the police are just a joke.

At the end of the day nothing will bring those poor dogs back. The sentence is way too lenient, but that's the CPS for you. If he has any sort of conscience he will never forget what he did (and neither will anyone else)

All true Graizelund. The thing that gets me is that because dogs were this man's living he will be allowed to keep them still,whereas Joe Public would have been banned.
They should have made an example of him: copper or not.

I agree......but consider this....if he was joe public, how much media coverage would there have been?? How many other similar cases have there been that didn't involve a lifetime ban?? Just because he is a Police Officer should not be the reason for making an example of him. Am not sure if there was any internal discipline, to be honest I haven't followed the case because a) I would get annoyed at him and what he did and b) I would get annoyed at the media's representation of it.

I wonder what the media response would have been if he was a Paramedic, Firefighter, or another professional body that used dogs within that profession.......

ok - off my little soap-box now

Gonna make sure leah gets an extra big cuddle tonight

Once again Graizelund all true and very good points.
To clarify no it's not because he was a police officer that an example should have been made of him,it's because he was a professional handler of any sort. I didn't realise that the other
forces used dogs as well. The fact remains that as a "pro" and because of the extra media coverage he should have the book thrown at him for all to see.
It's just this type of case that sets the precedent for us all I feel..

Those dogs were his tools of his trade. A plumber, carpenter or bulder would look after their tools. What if he had been a Firearms office and left his gun somewhere?

7 hours is an awful long time to 'forget' about your animals. But said that, this fella will live with what he did for a very long time.

His sentence should have justified his crime though and he should be banned from owning animals.

I thought this was terrible..I accidentally witnessed a similar case like this and one dog was dead by the time the police and RSPCA got to it and the other they could not save .They tried for 15 mins but they could not get its temp down and it had incurred brain damage so they had to destroy it..I do not think I will ever forget this ..so as someone mentioned earlier he will be haunted by this for the rest of his life.But I do think he should be banned from owning an animal.