B.C. police dog bites under scrutiny by advocates, oversight agencies
CTV
Stakeholders say they're reviewing the use of K9s in B.C., weighing the benefits they can offer police with the injuries that they can inflict.
From tearing arteries to pulling people’s ears from their scalps, police dogs can inflict brutal damage, according to advocates.
"We’re talking about permanent damage to people’s limbs, nerve damage, muscle injuries," said Meenakshi Mannoe, policing campaigner for Pivot Legal Society.
"And then of course, emotional scars and trauma… from a very disturbing use of force," she said.
Mannoe works with the family of Jared Lowndes, a Wet'suwet'en man shot and killed by Campbell River RCMP in July. Officers boxed in his vehicle and deployed a police service dog, which RCMP said he stabbed fatally.
"I have been, and continue to be, against the use of dogs to inflict pain and punishment on people," Lowndes’ mother, Laura Holland, wrote in an email to CTV News.
Mannoe said B.C. needs stricter standards to protect people from getting hurt.
"[Dog bites] should be considered just below a lethal use of force and that should dictate how and when they’re involved in policing," she said.
Police dogs aren’t used as a punitive measure, said Sgt. Calvin Ewer, who heads the Integrated Canine Service in Victoria and Saanich.
