Police officers pepper-spray puppy
A beloved family dog paid the price for a former tenant’s mistake when police pepper-sprayed the pup while searching for a wanted man at a home he’d long since vacated.
Upper Hutt woman Kathy McBride said her border collie-cross Jed was ‘‘screaming’’ after being sprayed in the face on Friday.
Several police officers and a police dog had converged on her property about 10am in search of a former resident.
In a statement, a police spokeswoman said upon the officers’ arrival, a dog on the property had run at the police dog handler and his canine.
It was sprayed with OC spray – a non-lethal form of defence – to prevent a dog fight or attack.
‘‘The young dog was deemed to be of a size capable of inflicting damage to the police staff and police dog.’’
But McBride said not only had her 6-month-old pup never bitten anyone before, but police officers were told on a previous visit five weeks ago that the man they were looking had not lived there for for more than a year.
‘‘They should apologise that they didn’t do their job in the first place in checking their records.’’
McBride said she and her husband, Kevin Growcott, were assured after the earlier visit that the department’s records would be updated to show the wanted man no longer lived at their address.
The couple bought the home in January last year, and have been living there ever since. They have also been visited by debt collectors seeking the former occupant.
Friday’s visit had shown police had not updated their records, she said. ‘‘They should apologise that they didn’t do their job in the first place in checking the records.’’
But she was most upset about Jed. ‘‘He was just jumping up, doing what puppies do.’’
Their property had a clear ‘‘beware of the dog’’ sign outside. ‘‘If you bring a police dog onto a property with a dog, what do you bloody think is going to happen?"
She had to contact police for advice on how to care for Jed after he was sprayed, and in trying to clean his face, felt her own skin starting to burn. ‘‘I basically secondhand pepper-sprayed myself.’’
McBride has not ruled out making an official complaint.