RETIREMENT

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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.” ▷

In December 2020, an agreement was reached by then Deputy Police Commissioner Col Blanch, this agreement allowed Jason to kennel NAS at the Maylands facility. In January 2021, the decision to allow retired dogs to be kennelled at Maylands was overturned by the Canine Unit. The new terms stated that WA Police would pay for private kennelling for a reasonable period.

This reasonable period was then altered and defined as 'two weeks at a time, with OIC approval, anything longer, required District Office approval’. Unbeknownst to Jason, the wording of those terms was then changed again, without any consultation, to ‘two weeks per calendar year’.

Despite contacting the list of kennels supplied by WA Police, Jason was disappointed when every facility he contacted were not going to be right to handle a dog of NAS’s temperament.

“When I asked how these facilities would handle NAS, they advised me that he would be confined to a kennel with limited human contact and exercise. This is far from ideal and not healthy for any dog, let alone an ex-police dog that has high drive and needs environmental stimulation.”

This led Jason to conduct his own extensive search for a suitable kennel, eventually finding one that was willing to put the time in over a six-month period to learn how to manage NAS until they were confident and comfortable in providing a safe kennel environment.

In July 2022, Jason transferred to the Gang Crime Squad, which required him to travel to the regions on short notice. Jason advised the Canine Unit of a kennel request from October that year and was shocked to be told by the Superintendent that the agreement in place was previously “superseded and irrelevant”, meaning the new restrictions now applied to him and he had already exceeded his two-week per calendar year kennelling approval.

Back at square one, with no kennel support and working at a unit where he is often required to deploy for Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (OMCG) related incidents, Jason was forced to go back to WAPU where he was put in contact with Field Officer Gary Keenan.

“In February of this year, Rohan Gamble, Dave Clemens, and I, [two other handlers and trainers who also adopted their retired service dogs] met with Gary and rewrote a draft policy more suitable to the needs of future dog handlers. Alas, the year is almost up, we have not reached a conclusion, however, a previous Canine Superintendent has agreed that the current policy in place is not fit for purpose.”

With Jason’s current position, getting NAS kennelled quickly is difficult and impacts the crucial travel requirements his role requires. Jason, Rohan (also at GCS) and Dave (Water Police) have asked the Canine Unit to allow access for their retired dogs at the Maylands Kennels in these emergency situations for a short period of time until they can be moved into the private kennel facility. They are urging WAPOL to approve this proposed emergency kennelling agreement.

“All we are asking is for a couple of days to kennel our dogs at the Maylands facility, until there is some availability at a private kennel, but we are still waiting to hear if it is going to be approved or not.

“You always see how much the community love dogs, so to see the way these retired canines are treated after retirement, it falls short of the community’s expectations. These dogs have worked their whole lives without really getting a day off and deserve more recognition and support from the force post-retirement.”

Jason hopes that in the future, a service dog group can be created, like Police Legacy in function, where there is further support and recognition for service dogs.

“There is nothing really in place right now and it would mean so much to the handlers and WA Police in general to have recognition for these dogs. It will mean a lot to us and to the whole community to have some kind of memorial for our four-legged heroes, potentially at the Academy, to show our recognition.

“This is an opportunity for WAPOL to lead this cause and set a standard, not just in WA, but in every policing jurisdiction across Australia!” ■

For more details on this, please contact Field Officer for the North, Gary Keenan at gary.keenan@wapu.org.au.