Doogle News

Man charged with death of police dog
Friday, 10 August 2007
A man has been charged with causing the death of police dog Enzo, after the german shepherd was found dead during a lengthy police pursuit through dense bush in the Bay of Plenty yesterday.

The 20-year-old man will appear in Tauranga District Court today, and will also face two charges of failing to meet the conditions of a warrant.

The maximum sentence for killing a police dog is two years in prison.

Enzo's handler, Constable Kayne Cording, was feeling shattered today after the death of his "little mate," who he had reared since he was a six-month-old pup.

Enzo, 3, had only been working for 18 months, but Mr Cording said he had been involved in numerous apprehensions and was a loyal and brave dog.

The pair had been called in to the pursuit about 9.30am yesterday after police went to an address on State Highway 29, 20km south of Tauranga, to speak with the man in relation to warrants on family violence charges.

The search was launched after the man fled into nearby bush.

Mr Cording said he and Enzo tracked the man for about six kilometres through dense bush and open farmland, and were both beginning to get fatigued when they reached a point where Enzo indicated to his handler he had found a strong fresh track.

The officer then issued a challenge to the offender, telling him he was under arrest and the dog would be released if he did not give himself up.

When the man failed to emerge from the bush, Mr Cording sent Enzo into the bush to apprehend him.

Mr Cording said he initially could hear Enzo following the scent, but called him back when all had been silent for about a minute.

"When he didn't come back and I couldn't hear anything from him, I realised something was wrong."

A large-scale search involving officers from around the region spread out around the area, looking for both the offender, and Enzo.

It was a "hard" couple of hours before another dog handler tracked Enzo and found his dead body, about 800m from where he had been released.

"Basically he tracked the guy to his fate," Mr Cording said.

It was "gut-wrenching," he said.

"I was shattered."

As Mr Cording carried Enzo out of the bush in his arms, he briefly contemplated leaving the force, he said.

He would not comment on how Enzo died until after a post-mortem was complete, but it is understood the dog was drowned.

While Enzo was a strong and reliable dog, he was only small - at 32kg, he was smaller than most police dogs, which usually weighed in at more than 40kg.

"He's a determined little dog, but he has only one means of defence or attack, his mouth," Mr Cording said.

"If you can get hold of that, there's not much he can do."

Mr Cording said Enzo had been reliable and faithful.

"He'd hang on every word. He was a really neat little dog, I loved working with him. I looked forward to coming to work."

The man was finally located several hours later.

Source: www.nzherald.co.nz

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