Woman 'hurt in police dog attack'

[Global Paw]

A mother-of-two from Birmingham is being treated in hospital after she was apparently bitten by a police dog. Rukshana Ansari, 34, was dragged to the ground in an unprovoked attack as she watched firefighters at a house fire in the Alum Rock area, relatives claim.

Her family told the BBC they were angry that no-one from the police had been in touch about the incident on Thursday.

West Midlands Police said on Sunday they regretted Mrs Ansari's injury and a full inquiry would be carried out.



Leg injuries

Mrs Ansari's relatives said she had been standing on her doorstep watching firefighters deal with the fire across the road from her home when the police arrived.

They said a police dog broke away from its handler to attack her, leaving her in need of hospital treatment for leg injuries.

Mrs Ansari's brother-in-law said he believed the incident could damage relations between the community and the police.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said they regretted the injury sustained by Mrs Ansari.

He said she would be contacted by officers and that a full investigation into the incident would be carried out.

[Pinscher Mum]

OMG that is just FREAKY, it broke away and attacked an innocent person on their own property? How are they training those dogs......l thought police dogs werent trained to attack on command, doesnt sound like this one was trained to well.

[GSD]

It would be a very rare occurance to have a trained Police K-9 break free from a handler unprovoked or without command and attack an innocent bystander. It has happened were the dog targeted the wrong person in a situation during a search, but even that is rare. I'm wondering if there isn't more to this story.

[Lil'Paws]

I too have to wonder if they are leaving a little info out. Something isn't right here..

[sheltiepups]

somthing doesn't see right..... .

[PitBullie09]

Yea thats what I was thinking she had to be doing sOmEthIng*

[Rip's Girl]

Did they give any more info. about the dog? Was it a young dog, relatively new on the job?

[Carrie]

Yeah...something doesn't smell right, does it. But I suppose it could be badly trained.

[Zoee]

I have nmentioned a story in toronto, a retired police dog living with his handler and family escaped his back yard and attacked a person visiting a home 2 blocks away and caused nerve damage in both the mans legs, even the best trained dogs can't be trusted when programmed to attack for any reason.

[GSD]

No dog can be trusted 100% trained to protect or not

[Zoee]

no but given the trainig to show aggression there handlers and owners should be 100% positive of containment.

[sthrnbelle]

I too feel they are leaving soemthing out of this story. When I was a young teenager there was a retired GSD police dog living in my grandparents neighborhood. The family that owned him didn't have a fenced yard so the dog had free roam of the area. There were a couple of other dogs in the neighborhood as well. One of these dogs was a little...I don't even remember what kind of dog it was, all I know was that it was a little black and white holy terror!! You couldn't even walk anywhere near it's yard without it coming out barking and running at you like it was going to tear you to shreds. I was more scared of that little dog than I ever was of the police dog. In fact one day the police dog ( whose name was Bullet, I can't believe I remember that ), chased off the little holy terror when it came out barking and running for me. Unfortunatley Bullet was killed by eating some poison someone had left out purposely to kill animals in the neighborhood. I think I will remember that dog for the rest of my life, he was a big beautiful dog.

[Brattina88]

I don't understand why a K-9 unit (if the dog was for protection or whatever They call it only) was at a fire fighting scene. Dog's that are stable don't attack for no reason, it makes me wonder 1. what the police officer/handler was doing & why they were there in the first place, and 2. what the lady did to prevoke the dog, and 3. what are they doing now? I'm going to be really mad if They press charges or the dog is put down

[Zoee]

Excuse me, they admitted ir was an unprovoked attack, she was on her own property, not the property in question, I am sure chardges will be laid as it was negligence and am sue they will do the proper evaluations to decide if the dog is safe or a high risk to society.

[DFrost]

A properly trained police dog should not have broken away from it's handler and attack someone, regardless of the provocation. A canine officer may be sent on any call, just because he has a dog in his unit, would not prevent him from being sent to the scene of an emergency. They are needed for traffic control, crowd control etc. As a police dog trainer, I would be very concerned about this incident. Not knowing the details it would be hard for me to say what went wrong, but accidental dog bites in the police business, should happen no more often than an accidental shooting. It just shouldn't happen.

DFrost