This is my commentary on the Anaheim Police dog bite incident.
Last week I watched a video of an Anaheim police situation where a police k9 was released into a crowd of people. My major concern, of course, was for the safety of the dog. The video clip below shows a portion of the situation from a local news channel. The footage isn’t the highest quality, but it serves the point to show the point of view of the dog.
Let’s understand that k9’s are trained to bite a suspect and hold them. They are not trained to bite and bite and bite as many people as possible. This dog did exactly what he was trained to do: he did not bite the child, and the chances are high that if the dog would not have been stopped by the man who got bit, that the dog would never have attacked the child. In fact I would bet on it.
In the turmoil that ensued the dog was either intentionally released or unintentionally got away. Chances are that he was released. He moved forward into the crowd, it appears he tripped over the carriage and a man (of course concerned for the safety of his child) tried to stop the dog. And he did -sort of. He put his arm in the way of what he thought the dog wanted to bite, and he got bit. The basic fact is that a dog will bite whatever is in front of him, that is what the dog did here. The dog did not attack the man, in that I mean he did not keep biting, he bit and held. That is standard protocol for this situation.
I personally called the Anaheim PD and spoke to Desk Sgt. Alanso and was assured that the dog will not be destroyed. If anyone hears differently, please contact me directly as I plan on staying on top of this.
Please note that this post is not intended to take sides of the police or the “victim” it is merely to insure that the dog will not suffer for doing exactly what he was trained to do.
the video follows:
Best regards,
Robert Cabral
Founder/Executive Director
Bound Angels