A police dog is in serious condition today after it was stabbed as officers near Whangarei responded to a burglary in progress.
Police were called to the Parau Bay home around 6.30 this morning, after a resident there reported finding an armed stranger packing items into a suitcase.
The man, 30, resisted arrest after police arrived, stabbing the dog in the head two times, according to Inspector Al Symonds.
The dog was rushed to a nearby veterinary clinic.
The suspect, meanwhile, has been taken into custody for what police describe as “a number of charges”.
Serving as a police dog is a dangerous job in New Zealand.
Joshua Luke Cooper was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court on December 11, 2018. (Source: Other)
Earlier this month, Joshua Luke Cooper was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court to 18 months in prison for an incident in June in which he stabbed Kosmo the police dog in the neck. The four-year-old canine later recovered after receiving a 4cm cut to the throat while responding to a family harm incident.
In July, police in New Plymouth said a man bit their dog and slammed it into a concrete wall as he tried to evade arrest.
In 2016, four-year-old German Shepherd Gazza was killed in the line of duty - shot during a siege at a property in Porirua.
Gazza, shot dead during a siege last year, is one of the 24 police dogs on the Wall of Remembrance in Trentham, Wellington. (Source: Other)
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