After trafficking case, Beijing police say retired dogs grow old in stations

Retired police dogs grow old in police stations or are legally adopted, Beijing police clarified, in a bid to brush off rumors claiming the dogs are being trafficked as pets or food.

Retired police dogs are rumored to be among the 320 trafficked dogs found on a truck that was rammed by animal lovers on an expressway in Langfang, North China’s Hebei Province on November 19, Beijing Morning Post reported Thursday.

While police said they are investigating the case, posts about retired police dogs being “roasted” or “trafficked” were widely shared on Sina Weibo.

“According to the dog traffickers, those police dogs were bought in Henan Province, most of which are German shepherds, Labradors and golden retrievers,” a post on the social media platform claimed, which went viral online afterward.

Retired police dogs will live out the remainder of their lives in police stations or are adopted by police officers, trainers or the public, the police dog department of Beijing Capital International Airport wrote on its official Weibo account on Tuesday.

Every police dog in China has its own number and profile on which its cradle- tograve information is recorded, and dogs are regarded as one of the most important tools of public security institutes. If a dog is lost, it would be a major incident, said the post.

“Police dogs are very busy in training and working, and they will enjoy their lives after retiring. Please protect animals. Don’t try to hoodwink the public using the name of police dogs,” it added.

Langfang police are housing the dogs found on the truck in kennels, the Guangdongbased Nandu Daily newspaper reported.