Police Dog Is Seriously Injured During Pursuit
After the life, or at least the career, of one of New York’s finest was imperiled in the line of duty yesterday, police officials and reporters gathered inside a Manhattan hospital, awaiting news from doctors.
“The dog should be able to make a full recovery in a month,” Dr. Jason Fusco finally assured the crowd. But an operation expected to last about an hour had taken three, said Dr. Fusco, a veterinarian dressed in green scrubs. “The laceration went all the way to the bone,” he said.
The dog, a 3-year-old German shepherd named Ranger, has been a member of the city’s canine unit for more than two years. Yesterday, as he and his handler, Officer Neal Campbell, searched for a man accused of violating his parole, Ranger was injured, severing three major muscles and cutting a major vein.
With an arrest warrant, Officer Campbell and Ranger entered the suspect’s basement apartment in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn yesterday around 11:45 a.m. The apartment was littered with broken plates and shattered glass, the police said.
The police said Ranger ducked beneath a dingy bed, where the suspect was hiding. In the darkness a shard of broken mirror cut a gash in the dog’s left front leg.
The cut was deep, doctors later said, and his loss of blood sizable. Officers rushed Ranger to the Animal Medical Center on East 62nd Street in Manhattan, blood trailing behind them as they carried him inside.
“He was awake, despite the pain,” Dr. Fusco said. “He was incredibly nice, despite everything.”
Earlier in the day, when Ranger’s condition was still unknown, the police speculated over whether he might be forced to retire, probably to be adopted by Officer Campbell.
But Ranger, who earned praise for his unit in 2005 when he cornered a burglar at a Brooklyn public school, should be able to return to the job after physical therapy, Dr. Fusco said.
At the school in Brooklyn, The Daily News reported, Ranger was the first to find a man who the police say was trying to steal computers. Ranger leaped at the man, allowing the police to subdue him and make the arrest.
Yesterday, although Ranger could barely walk, an arrest was also made in the case in Bedford-Stuyvesant, the police said.
For now, a splint will hold Ranger’s paw in the flexed position so his sutures can heal. Later, he will probably have to do stretching exercises, run on an underwater treadmill and undergo electrical stimulation until his muscles recover, Dr. Fusco said.
Groggy from anesthesia, Ranger did not make an appearance at the news conference yesterday. He remained under observation last night, on pain medication and antibiotics, Dr. Fusco said, and was expected to go home today.
posted by ilias at 16:18
8 Comments:
He, he, in my opinion a truly civilised city would be one without dogs. Unfortunately such a utopia does not exist. It would be an interesting experiment.
While we have no major disagreement here, provided we are talking about smallish dogs, I still support their co-existence with humans on equal terms in big cities. I would even go to the extreme of saying some canines are more worthwhile companions than humans.
Well let me sum up my thoughts and feelings on the world-important canine issue :)
From a practical point of view I believe that dogs, like horses, make for great animals but very lousy urban pets. Let's face it, the only thing they contribute to an urban environment is poo and noise-pollution. The idea that a dog will relieve himself in the same park where people take their children to play, or that he will spend an entire evening barking his lungs off next to someone's bedroom is completely unacceptable to me. It is a fact of life that confined urban spaces make both dogs and their hapless neighbors unhappy. Furthermore, all of the above problems are exacerbated by the fact that most dog-owners tend to think more highly of their dogs than of their fellow human beings.
From a psychological point of view, frankly I find it creepy that so many people have an emotional need for the kind of unconditional, undeserved, unfought-for love provided by these "machines à aimer" (a favourite phrase from Houellebecq). I find it even creepier that these issues are seldom raised because of the prevailing social taboo against speaking ill of dogs. Mind you, no such taboo exists in the case of cats (creatures that, in my mind at least, are infinetely more fascinating and useful).
Let me conclude by expressing my hope that the above-posted comments will create a cheap storm of controversy and a tsunami of angry denunciations and death-threats to their author, hence raising exponentially the readership of your blog :)
Thank you for your comment, although I beg to differ. The argument that the only thing dogs contribute to an urban environment is their excrement and canine din is SHOCKINGLY one-sided. For one, there are those of us who do not believe this is the right world to bring up a child in or, for that matter, that procreation is the sine qua non of our brief stay on this planet: a dog is an UNMATCHED companion to an infant who is an only child, to a single individual, or to an elderly person who now lives alone. I will stay clear of the potential risks associated with commenting on the emotional need for unconditional love, but I can personally attest to the calming effect of petting a dog (ask me for details if you wish). As far as your argument that dogs make neighbors unhappy or frequent the same parks as playing children, I can think of MUCH graver nuisances that come with NO redeeming qualities attached to them (for, I am arguing that dogs, EVEN the kind whose owners do not pick up after them, have SOME redeeming qualities!): WHAT of having to suffer the second-hand smoke AND stink of someone smoking a cigar everywhere I go? WHAT of my neighbor’s earsplitting TV and/or cooking smells that invade my private space? AND WHAT of the woman at the next table talking on her cell phone at the top of her lungs?
As for your comments creating a tsunami, PLEASE don’t hold your breath Sir: the friends with whom I have shared the address of my blog space are too reserved for posting a comment, let alone making a death threat to someone as thoughtful and articulate as you (who just happened to take leave of his senses on this subject!).
As a person leaving in a dog-infested neighborhood I can assure you that there is not a bit of exaggeration in my assertions. No noise a human can produce (even a baby's cries) can compare with the nuisance caused by a dog barking. And some of us, weird as it seems to you, would like to exercise their right to walk down the street without slaloming among their excrement. As to the calming effect of petting an animal, I would suggest that people try a rabbit instead.
But as I said what bothers me the most is all the totalitarian hysteria that accompanies any criticism of dogs. It amazes me that every time I mention something like this it seems to touch a raw nerve; many people act as if they are personally offended. This sensitivity seems to me pretty selective since it does not extend to other animals; it also seems a little ridiculous - this is just an opinion after all. It is not as if I am advocating the extermination of dogs. I just think that the ownership of these animals in an urban environment should be more regulated than is actually the case.
Oh the stamina and youthful energy you expend on this issue! Listen, I have just signed up as a member of Team Hillary, the volunteer group that will spend the next couple of years calling voters to persuade them of the merits of voting for Hillary Clinton. I did it a couple of years ago and it’s fun. Along the way, I got to meet Hillary Clinton, although I did not meet either of her two dogs. Would you like to join us? Forget all about barking dogs and their potentially offended owners and channel your energy for a good cause!
You write very well.
Thank you very much. As you can tell, I have not written in well over a year due to almost non-existent traffic :)
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