By Naveed Rozais
The last few weeks have seen the Sri Lanka Police and the Police Kennels at the heart of significant controversy following the auction of 26 senior police service dogs in August.
The news of such an auction sent shockwaves through the animal welfare community who immediately sprang to auction trying to see if these dogs had been auctioned off to responsible homes and how to prevent such auctions in the future due to such a life adjustment being difficult for dogs, especially senior dogs that have spent their lives in service under very specific conditions.
Following public outcry at the transactional disposal of these service dogs, some of whom served over 10 years in the Police Force, the Police Department indicated that it is planning to get its Kandy Kennel to work with animal welfare activists to improve the quality of life of the dogs retired from the Police Force.
The dark side of auctioning service dogs
Animal welfare activist and Tails of Freedom Founder Shilpa Samaratunga shared that the Police have auctioned their senior service dogs previously from time to time. Samaratunga shared that according to information received, the dogs sold at auction by the Police are typically older dogs that can’t serve anymore or younger dogs that have not done well in training.
The auctioning of police dogs can be very problematic because of the nature of police dogs. Kandy Association for Community Protection through Animal Welfare (KACPAW) Secretary Champa Fernando explained that service dogs are imported into Sri Lanka as young puppies and trained to be one-master dogs, coming with very carefully cultivated pedigrees, sometimes costing upwards of Rs. 2 million.
Having personally been to the Kandy Kennel, Fernando explained that the dogs “are brought up in a certain way. They have only one person looking after them and have a very strict regime, with walks and training”. She said: “On a personal level, we don’t approve of some of the training these dogs receive, but they are given a very specific diet and the best treatment and vet care.”
Fernando shared that auctioning these dogs is a practice that is absolutely discouraged. “These dogs are police officers, they should get a pension and be cared for until the end of their lives in my opinion. Others may argue otherwise. The kennels are not overcrowded and can accommodate these animals, who will live only another four to five years. If it is about money, the Police can open up sponsorship funds where the carer and the environment are the same and there is no upheaval for the dogs. Dogs have a mind and they can get affected psychologically from changes like this.”
Another dark aspect of these senior police dogs being sold at auction is that, by the very nature of an auction, they are purchased by the highest bidder, and while these dogs can sell and while the investment to purchase a senior police dog is substantial (these dogs can sell for as much as Rs. 100,000 at auction), this doesn’t mean that they are being purchased by responsible dog owners. “Most of them buy these dogs to breed them,” Fernando explained, adding: “Pedigree dogs are in big demand in Sri Lanka. With the police dogs, they think these are super dogs brought in from the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, and so on. People buy these pedigree dogs and are trying to get puppies. The industry is shocking, to say the least.”
Fernando cited the example of Aja, a Belgian Malinois, who was allegedly sold at the auction to a family of slender means looking to breed her. Aja is eight years old. That is the equivalent of expecting a human grandmother to reproduce, Fernando explained, and it’s just not possible. Fernando eventually bought back Aja from the family who had purchased her for more than three times the initial value. Aja has a severe urine infection. It’s not clear if Aja was already sick when she was sold or if she got this sickness after being rehomed.
What happens now?
With the most recent dog auction having come under major fire, animal welfare activists are now working to make sure the practice of auctioning off these dogs is one that doesn’t take place again.
Samaratunga from Tails of Freedom explained that she and the rest of the animal welfare community found out about the auction the day before it was to take place and had no way of stopping it. “A few days after the auction, I set up a petition and got a lot of responses plus people asking questions. That petition went on to ask the Police to engage with us directly. But that hasn’t happened yet. They responded and said they wouldn’t do this again, but this was never formally written; it was just a verbal promise in the papers.”
Samaratunga shared that beyond this initial response, they haven’t quite received a clear response on how they can work with the Police on fixing this. “We have met with several DIGs (Deputy Inspector Generals of Police) who have asked us to write different letters addressed to different people. We’ve written about four or five letters to date, and met with several people as well,” Samaratunga said, adding: “We also went up to the Kandy Kennel, who said they would share a list of where the dogs were following the auction, and that we could go and see the dogs with a police officer, but the next day we were told the Kennel Director had changed and they can only tell us how many dogs there are in a specific area, which is not helpful for what we want to do.”
Can service dogs be rehomed?
In an ideal world, these service dogs would be purchased at auction by animal lovers and families with whom they can spend their winter years in comfort. But is this possible, given the nature of service dogs and the lives they’ve lived?
UK and US-certified canine behaviourist Ashwini Aiyar shared some insight, explaining that in the case of senior dogs, like those 10 years old or similar, being rehomed into a new environment with new people is a very big change. “It’s like an 80-year-old getting used to something new.” Aiyar said, adding: “A routine is something you really want to consider from the start. It is not easy, but if the family is committed to it, then it’s certainly something that can be done. You need to compensate in terms of what the dog would be doing for work. If they suddenly have nothing to do overnight, it can be stressful. Frankly speaking, I would never rehome my 10-year-old dog.”
Pedigree dogs are also likely to develop certain health conditions as they age, a side effect of the rigorous breeding process that has resulted in the specific traits and appearance of their breed. Aiyar did note that while many pedigree dogs are likely to have underlying health conditions because of their pedigrees, these dogs are also old, which means they will be prone to needing extra healthcare anyway.
On adapting to people, Aiyar shared that this would depend on the temperament of the dog to an extent but that as a rule, she doesn’t believe service dogs should be parted from their handlers. “It’s really quite an intense relationship. Many of these breeds have traits that have been cultivated in them because we wanted to further include this very close relationship. These dogs are called one-master dogs or velcro dogs.”
On the whole, Aiyar did not recommend rehoming service dogs. “I would say that they would find it very stressful,” Aiyar noted, adding: “For working dogs, the separation would be extreme. The behavioural stress would be significant and it would be worse for service dogs because of the cultivated handler relationship.”
Moving forward
With this recent auction having come to light, the most important thing for animal lovers now is to prevent this from happening again. “We only caught it this time because it was advertised in the national papers in Kandy and coming across to everybody,” Samaratunga said. “We have been told it’s happened before but no one really knew. In the welfare circles especially, we didn’t know. We assumed that the Police and military look after these service dogs to the end of their lives.”
Incidentally, The Sunday Morning Brunch reached out to Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Spokesperson Group Captain Dushan Wijesinghe, who shared that in the case of the SLAF, service dogs are looked after until the end of their lives. “We look after them, and we have bases and camps all around Sri Lanka. In every camp we have a dog section,” Group Captain Wijesinghe said, adding: “They are taken care of by their respective dog handlers. We have spent a lot of money on these dogs and trained them for different tasks, from narcotics detection to bomb disposal. Our duty is to keep them until their death.”
The Sunday Morning Brunch reached out to the Kandy Kennel on this matter who declined to comment as well as to Police Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana, who was, unfortunately, unavailable for comment.
Looking to the future, Samaratunga shared that she is working on another petition asking the Police to directly engage with animal welfare activists and put a protocol in place for the future. “It would really help if there’s a little more public pressure. Based on what the Police are also okay with, there may be a sponsorship system that the public can support. It’s our responsibility to make sure this doesn’t happen again. These dogs have worked for our safety and what has happened to them isn’t right.”
