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How often do we see photos of the latest Police recruit puppies across social media? Our WA Police Officers and the community love our working dogs, and rightly so. Police service canines are unlike other dogs, undergoing intensive training to perform at their highest capacity to keep the community safe.
But what happens to 'man's best friend' when they retire? In 2019, Senior Constable Jason Bull found out how retired dogs are treated when his general-purpose canine PD NAS was retired from the force. Jason adopted NAS with the understanding that the Maylands kennelling facilities would be available to him when required, however, not long after the adoption, the Canine Unit made the decision to withdraw kennel support for NAS. This decision is still having an impact almost five years later, on both Jason and other dog handlers. “Despite having a specific kennel management plan and warning signs, they decided that NAS posed too much of a risk for the Police Officers at Maylands and emailed to tell me NAS is a family pet now and it’s up to you to take care of him.” “It seemed they removed themselves from any sort of responsibility of caring for retired dogs, even though they trained them and played their part in weaponising them. To do so overlooks the major risk that retired service dogs pose.” Disappointment at the decision led Jason to contact the Officer in Charge of the unit to reconsider their position. Eventually, Jason found himself with no other option other than to contact Former Commissioner of Police, Chris Dawson AC APM, to request his assistance. In an email, Jason outlined the effect this decision would have on himself and other handlers in both a personal and professional capacity, as well as the dangers of exposing retired canines to private kennels who are not trained to handle them. “I tried to highlight the concern of putting these dogs in kennels with people that are not adequately trained to handle them, thus putting those people at risk of injury, but the decision had been made to withdraw kennel support.” ▷
11 POLICE NEWS DECEMBER 2023
