Your Vancouver Sun

Outcry after RCMP dog mauls boy
Neighbours question animal's return to officer after boy dragged from toboggan

Kevin Gillies, Special to the Sun
Published: Thursday, November 30, 2006

ABBOTSFORD -- Residents of an Abbotsford neighbourhood are asking why an RCMP dog that escaped from its handler's backyard and attacked an eight-year-old child Tuesday was returned to its owner.

"If that were my dog, he would have been destroyed and rightfully so," said Sloan Parford, a neighbour who watched Abbotsford police officers corner the RCMP dog and return it to the handler's yard after the incident.

But Staff Sgt. John Ward of RCMP E Division in Vancouver disagreed, saying there is no automatic outcome in such a case.

"That's totally incorrect," he said. "What would happen is the SPCA would conduct an assessment to determine the history of this particular dog and to determine if it in fact poses a threat to the community or to the public and then make a determination."

Ward was commenting Wednesday after a Grade 3 Mountain elementary school student was tobogganing down Country Place in an east Abbotsford development Tuesday when the dog, which reportedly had been playing with the local kids, latched onto the boy's right arm. Neighbours and passersby clubbed the dog to get it to release the boy, who was recovering at home Wednesday after receiving several stitches at MSA Hospital.

Ward said the dog, which was from the Lower Mainland's canine unit, has been removed from the neighbourhood. "He was hit in the head a couple times and is quite hurt apparently," he said, adding that after it is treated, it will be boarded at a commercial kennel facility until it can be assessed.

An RCMP news release said the acting head of the Lower Mainland District Police Dog Services will assess the dog to determine whether it is suitable for work, "or whether it should be pulled from service, and given more training or retired."

Ward said the Abbotsford police department is investigating the incident, and the officer in charge of the Mission detachment has been appointed to review the matter.

"If all the reviews and investigation and assessment determine that, yes there is something wrong with this dog for whatever reason, then we'll either retire the dog or euthanize the dog. But, as you know, our police service dogs are something to be proud of. They render a very valiant service, often under very dangerous conditions. So it's not something that we would want to discard lightly.

The incident prompted an immediate order to be issued to dog handlers to place a secondary locking system on both kennel latches and gates to their backyards.

"There is a policy for dogs to be properly secured in their kennels and, just out of an abundance of caution, we've asked all our dog handlers throughout the province to double lock the doors of the kennel," Ward said. "We've never had this happen before, but to be on the safe side, we've instituted this right away."

He said it is common practice for the dogs to live with their handlers, which means "they can go immediately to the location in which they're needed."

But residents Parford and David Lamboo were upset that the dog was in their neighbourhood in the first place.
"This is a children-oriented neighbourhood," said Lamboo, 33. "I was out shovelling the driveway when my son told me, 'Hey Dad, that dog's dragging that boy down the street.' " he recalled, adding the dog and the boy were on Country Place, at the end of his own driveway.

"It dragged him off his toboggan. His arm was torn to the muscle."

Lamboo said he "dropped my shovel and chased after it. I just started hitting it and kicking it. It did nothing."

He said he then hit the dog with the shovel. "I gave it everything I had in me, baseball swinging," he said, but the dog still didn't let go.

Then, he said, a passing motorist pulled over and pulled out his steering wheel lock-bar.

"He two-handed that sucker with that club behind the head. The dog let out a yelp but it worked because the dog let go of him," Lamboo said.

"Then he ran to my front yard and sat on my driveway."

Parford, who lives across from Lamboo, said she watched as Abbotsford police officers cornered the animal. Then an Abbotsford police dog handler arrived wearing the arm protection used to train dogs.

"He just said, 'Tap it up boy,' and the dog latched on," Parford said.

"[The officer] led the dog, still attached to his arm, up to the truck," she said. "After it was all quiet, they just led him over to the house and put him in the yard."

The dog handler, who had been away when the attack occurred, returned to his home shortly afterward.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006

Your Province 2nd story on RCMP dod
Police dog mauls eight-year-old boy
RCMP canine escapes from kennel, attacks youth sledding down street

Neighbour David Lamboo tried to use a snow shovel to rescue an eight-year-old boy from an escaped police dog.

Glenda Luymes, The Province
Published: Thursday, November 30, 2006

ABBOTSFORD - One moment Lucas, an off-duty RCMP dog, was playing with David Lamboo's sons in their front yard.

The next, he was dragging an eight-year-old boy down the snowy street, his teeth deep in the child's right arm.

"My oldest son was shouting and someone was screaming. I looked, and I saw the dog dragging a kid off a sled. It was horrible to watch," said Lamboo.

As the youngster recovered at home yesterday, parents on the quiet Abbotsford street where the attack took place kept their children indoors. Lucas remained in a kennel in his handler's back yard -- the same kennel he escaped from on Monday morning.

"I'm really frustrated," said Lamboo, who didn't know Lucas was an escaped RCMP dog when he first bounded into his yard. "If he wasn't a police dog, he'd be gone . . . Instead, they loaded the dog into a truck, drove up a few houses and unloaded the dog again."

The attack happened at 10:30 a.m. Monday -- a snow day for the kids.

The boy was sledding down the street in the 36200-block Country Place while his mother and brother followed behind. Lucas, who escaped his kennel while his handler was out, charged after the boy and latched onto his arm. "I was shoveling snow. When I saw what was happening, I dropped the shovel and took off after the dog," said Lamboo.

The boy's mother came running down the street after her son. She picked up the shovel Lamboo had dropped and gave it back to him. "I was taking huge baseball swings, but it was doing nothing," he said. "It was a huge dog. He wasn't letting go."

A passerby jumped out of his vehicle. Using a steering wheel lock, he hit the dog on the head.

"It gave a yelp and let go," said Lamboo. "Up until then, it still had the boy in its mouth . . . I wish I could have been faster."

Neighbours Tiffany King and Willow Joiner helped the boy's mother take off his jacket.

"His arm was very badly bitten . . . mangled," King said. "You could see muscle. But the boy was very brave. He hardly cried, but you could tell he was in shock."

King said she heard a plastic surgeon had operated on the boy's arm. He received numerous stitches.

"If people hadn't been there to stop the dog, I don't know what would have happened," she said. "And what's to stop it from happening again?"

RCMP Staff-Sgt. John Ward said Lucas, a five-year-old German shepherd that has been a police dog for four years, has been removed from service and will be taken to a different kennel. The dog had been released into his handler's care because he was injured.

Neighbours said they did not know the RCMP handler who they said keeps to himself. Abbotsford police are investigating, while an RCMP officer from Mission has been appointed to review the attack and determine what to do with Lucas.

"We're still investigating, but we think snow and wind might have prevented the latch [on the kennel] from closing properly," said Ward.

Immediately after the attack, RCMP told all dog-handlers to add a double-lock system to their kennels.

Ward speculated Lucas's training may have "kicked in" when he saw the young boy riding by on a sled.

The boy's family did not want to comment.

gluymes@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2006