The National Council of SPCAs (NSCPA) said this week that it will open a docket against officials in the police for contraventions of the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962, following the death of Sky, a police dog who was euthanised in September after being found severely injured in her kennel.

The charge follows an NSPCA investigation which found that Sky’s ability to cope with her environment did not improve over a period of six months before her death.

A working dog’s decline

Sky was a five-year-old Belgian Malinois who worked for the police as an arson detection dog. On the morning of Monday 7 September, she was found lying in her kennel at the police’s veterinary hospital in Roodeplaat covered in blood and seriously injured. She was taken to the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital for emergency treatment. Her condition deteriorated despite treatment, and she was humanely euthanised on Wednesday 9 September, the NSPCA said.

Their Special Projects Unit inspected the facility, met with the police twice, and reviewed Sky’s veterinary records, her treatment history, and the post-mortem report. The investigation found evidence that Sky was kept in conditions that caused her unnecessary suffering, despite the police’s own records documenting the risk to her, a statement by the organisation reads.

Those records, according to them, trace Sky’s distress back to March this year. She was treated for wounds to her face and legs and for teeth torn from her jaw. She had a reported history of escaping her kennel. While hospitalised, she repeatedly tried to escape and injured herself again. She was diagnosed with severe kennel stress and separation anxiety and given medication. She was then confined to a small indoor kennel with additional reinforcements to secure the door, the NSCPA said.

In August, her records concluded that she had a poor prognosis within the police environment. She remained in that environment until she was found injured weeks later.

Findings point to sustained distress

The post-mortem, they said, found that the injuries to both of Sky’s front legs were accompanied by widespread muscle damage consistent with a prolonged period of physical exertion during a traumatic event. Her condition would likely have been fatal without euthanasia. It also found older stitched wounds, tooth wear inconsistent with her age, and changes to her adrenal glands, indicative of chronic stress. Taken with her records, these findings point to sustained distress rather than a single incident.

“Sky was a working dog for the police. When she could no longer work, her records directed that she be disposed of as an asset of the police through a supply chain process. Whatever that process was meant to lead to, she remained in a kennel environment that her records linked to her stress. Sky was a sentient being, and no working animal should ever be treated as an asset,” said Senior Inspector Arno de Klerk, manager of the NSPCA’s Special Projects Unit.

Complaints

NovaNews reported earlier that MP and Portfolio Committee on Police chairperson Ian Cameron had laid criminal charges at the Paarl police station against the police, and that the case is expected to be transferred to Gauteng police for further investigation.

“I have opened a criminal case and referred the matter to the NSPCA’s Special Projects Unit and the South African Veterinary Council. An internal police inquiry cannot be the only process investigating the police’s own conduct,” Cameron said in a previous news report.

Meanwhile Acting National Commissioner of Police, Lt-Gen. Puleng Dimpane, has appointed a senior officer to investigate the circumstances surrounding Sky’s injuries.

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