A police dog handler who locked his two Alsatians in the boot of his car for
seven hours on the hottest day of the summer was today found guilty of
animal cruelty.
PC Mark Johnson, 39, one of the UK’s top dog handlers, left the animals with
no water and the windows up when he went into Nottinghamshire police
headquarters in June last year.
When he returned to the vehicle hours later both police dogs - Jet, 10, and
18-month-old Jay-Jay - were dead after temperatures inside the vehicle
soared to more than 116F. They had died in “excrutiating pain”, Nottingham
Magistrates' Court heard.
There was no dispute that Mr Johnson had left the dogs in his black Ford
Mondeo car outside the headquarters but the officer claimed he forgot about
the animals as he was suffering from depression and obsessive compulsive
disorder (OCD).
The dogs died, possibly within 20 minutes, from heatstroke which would have
brought about multiple organ failure.
Paul Taylor, prosecuting counsel for the RSPCA, said: “This highlights the
dangers of leaving dogs in a motorcar on a hot day.
“Sadly, two police dogs, Jet and Jay-Jay, suffered excruciating pain and died
when their handler left them in the boot of his private motor car on the
police station car park.”
The officer arrived for duty at 6.44am with three dogs but put a labrador
sniffer dog in the force’s kennels.
He left the other two in the caged luggage compartment of the vehicle which
measured three and a half feet by four feet, it was said.
Mr Taylor said: “His usual routine would have been to transfer his dogs to a
specially equipped police vehicle which had air cooling systems installed.
“But his routine was not followed on this day.
“By the time he realised what had happened about seven hours had passed, he
went out and found his dogs dead.”
A report by David Martin, a veternary expert, concluded the dogs’ inability to
stay cool inside the car, which had in affect become like a “greenhouse”,
led to severe dehydration.
The animals died from multiple organ failure and internal bleeding.
The court was told Mr Johnson had initially gone into the station to collect
the keys for a dog patrol van as his own was being repaired, but he was not
happy with the replacement.
But instead of sorting out the van he went to a 30 minute briefing, then
started on some paper work.
Three hours passed before he thought about the dogs, but as he went to get
them at 10.30am he took a radio message and did not go out to the vehicle.
At noon he went into a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with a superior officer to
discuss his health issues and then went to clean out one of the dog vans and
was surprised not to find his own animals inside.
“Then it hit him. He had not transferred the dogs from his own vehicle,“ said
Mr Taylor.
Mr Taylor said the prosecution had received witness statements which spoke of
the defendant’s love of his dogs.
“We do not suggest for a moment that he desired to cause his dogs pain and
suffering.”
He added: “Pc Johnson had always been devoted to animals and his dogs in
particular - who would have saved his life or got him out of tricky
situations on operations in the past.
“I can find no evidence that he harboured any malice towards his dogs or that
he would have wished to harm them but he made an error which nevertheless
had fatal consequences for the animals.
“His failure in this case is an aberration of his normal high standards.
However his actions had catastrophic consequences for the two dogs in the
car.”
Mr Johnson, who was commended in 2008 after arresting a gunman who had been
bitten by Jet, described the moment he found his dogs dead.
He said: “I treated the dogs as members of the family and they were loved as
such. I went to the back of my car and found them. I knew they would be dead
but I thought stupidly they would be there wagging their tails.”
When Mr Taylor asked the officer whether he was responsible for the deaths of
the two dogs, Mr Johnson replied: “My mental state at the time was causing
these problems. I loved those dogs.”
Mr Mark Johnson said he faced repeated investigations by the Independent
Police Complaints Commission in the years before the dogs died.
Mr Johnson, who has served with the force for nearly 18 years, told the court
that the complaints, along with the stresses of the job, had left him
seriously ill.
Disgaceful and he's still allowed to work with animals
Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:35 pm by Lorz
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