@John Price
Dogs working in public service face risks that are not as obviously noticed like the risks human police officers endure. For example, police dogs may spend the days with their human counterpart, but in some cases, they may stay in the police car alone. While officers will initially leave the air conditioning in the car on, dogs can still become overheated and die when the car battery fails and improper emergency systems are in place to alert the officer of the failure.
From 2011 to 2015, the
Green Bay Press Gazette found that at least 46 police dogs in the U.S. had died from being left in hot cars. While some blame malfunctioning fail-safe systems, others would rather focus on why an animal is being left alone in the car in the first place.
Indeed, there are fundamental risks for dogs in public service. One of the final risks a dog working in public service will face is their retirement – a risk that much like the rest of their career, they have no control over. While the world wants to believe police dogs live out the remainder of their lives with nice families and big yards to play in, this is not always the case.
Often times public service animals do end up living with their former human counterpart or another officer, but sometimes they are
euthanized due to the risk of placing highly skilled dogs in the wrong home.