Police DOG Suspended Over Charges Of RACISM [Racist Dog Alert?]

AP ^ | 2/4/04

[11th Earl of Mar]

Pa. Police Dog Suspended; Bit Black Child

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MCKEES ROCKS, Pa. (AP) - A police dog has been suspended while investigators try to determine whether the animal has something against black children.

The dog, a German shepherd named Dolpho, was cleared two years ago of attacking a child because he was black. But Dolpho was removed from duty on Monday after biting another black child.

Dolpho attacked a 14-year-old black girl on Jan. 28 during a crime-prevention demonstration at a school but did not break the youngster's skin. The girl's parents said a white student petted the dog without incident before he attacked their daughter.

In 2002, town officials ordered a two-month investigation to determine if Dolpho was singling out blacks while on patrol after the dog escaped from police vehicle and bit a 9-year-old black boy playing nearby. The dog was taken off duty, retrained for two months and returned to the force.

City Councilwoman Wanda Jones Dixon, who is black, complained about the dog in 2002 and renewed her request that the animal be retired from the police force or put to sleep.

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[dwd1]

That is your story and you are going to stick with it... All righty, then...

[agarrett]

But I have seen some dogs that aren't even trained to do it. They just pick up the hostility felt by their masters towards a certain type person, and know to show hostility towards them as well.

  In general, this is not true. Dogs tend to react with hostility towards anything new. The "racist" dog is usually one who hadn't seen many black people while a puppy. They then seem strange to it as an adult, and many dogs react to strangeness by growling, snarling, and biting.

  Now, different breeds can be more or less prone to this behavior, and individual dogs within a breed also vary greatly. Early training can make a big difference as well - if you introduce your dog to new neighborhoods and people regularly while it's a puppy, it'll tend to do better with new experiences as an adult.

  But the bit about the dog's reflecting an owner's prejudice is not true.

Drew Garrett

[blam]

"He is a Byrd dog."

LOL.

[yankeedame]

What do you expect from a German Shepherd? (Just kidding)

Ah, yes, the mind reels with sarcastic replies...

[AnAmericanMother]

It's just our UPS man she doesn't like. We were sitting in traffic next to a UPS truck and I thought she might go nuts, but instead she poked her head out the open window and grinned and wagged her tail at the driver (he was black, too.) She loves the Orkin man (black), the stonemasons working next door (Hispanic), the furnace repairmen (white), the local Jehovah's Witnesses (black) (they're not too sure about her though), the mailman (white), and the roofers (Hispanic). I can't think of anybody else she doesn't overwhelm with glad jumps, smiles, and wholesale tail wagging. She's just a happy loon with a funny thing about that one poor UPS man . . .

She also has Airborne Ears . . .

[billhilly]

Maybe they were sexual attacks. Dogs do that. Since the dog did not break the skin, who knows.

At the least, he, if he is a he, should lose his job, but not his, is he is a he, pay. After all, how on earth is an unemployed animal to live? We do care about animals, don't we?

What about HSUS or PETA? Where are they on this issue.

Could this even be a lifestyle issue. Maybe this dog just has a preference for its, (fooled you) "partners" and didn't know any other way to show its affection. The questions are limitless. The solutions will be found, because this society is prone to leave no stone unturned, and no source of government funding untapped.

Onward and upwoof, you saints of society. Don't let man nor beast escape your vigilance.

[yankeedame]

But I have seen some dogs that aren't even trained to do it. They just pick up the hostility felt by their masters towards a certain type person, and know to show hostility towards them as well.

Whereas with a cat it's, "Yeah? So?"

[beelzepug]

"You might want to take notice of that line of good taste..."

Common generic name for Plotts, Blue Ticks, Redbones, etc. that are used for tracking bear, big cats, and, yes, RACCOONS!

[Cicero]

We had a dearly beloved German shepherd whom we bought from the pound. The story we got was that he had formerly belonged to a black man who kept him chained to the back stoop, but had to get rid of him when he was evicted from the house. Anyway, he did go berserk whenever he glimpsed a black man. Not a woman or child, however. I think his first owner must have mistreated him.

OTOH, once when we lived in Westchester, we had a border colley who used to hide in the shrubbery and leap out at the gray-suited commuters as they walked up the hill from the railroad station past our house. We had to get rid of that dog--he was certifiably crazy. From time to time he would have an epileptic fit, and he also had the bad habit of breaking out of the house through a window with his head.

[Trueblackman]

Is this even possible, I thought dog saw in B&W or at least that is what I was told. I am completely speechless on this one.

[Servant of the 9]

It works both ways. I do a lot of work in minority neighbohroods and the dogs there are a lot meaner to me than in the predominantly white areas.

I had one dog that liked whites and blacks, but hated Hispanics.

I know several people besides me who have dogs that ignore the postman and Fed-Ex man but hate the UPS Man. Why?

So9

[kylaka]

About 20 years ago I got a Doberman pup from my brother who lives in Hawaii. It was clear almost from the start that the dog was hostle towards small children with blonde hair (under 12 years or so old). I asked my brother about this curious trait, and he said he didn't know, but he'd try and figure it out and let me know. As it turns out, the residential part of my brothers' property was fenced and the dogs pretty much came and went over that part as they pleased. The part that fronted on the street was beyond sight from the house, and every day the schoolbus let out 5 kids near the corner of his property. Four of them had blonde hair and they would tease the dogs by throwing stones and yelling. Naturally, the pup's dam would go ape and the pup merely adopted the behavior. All of that went on without my brother's knowledge, but he managed to put a stop to it in short order. With constant correction and guidance the pup pretty much grew out of the behavior by age six, but we could not, and never did completely trust her around small kids with blonde hair. Other than that one small problem, the dog was a complete marshmellow around everyone else, a total sweetie.

[Texaggie79]

But the bit about the dog's reflecting an owner's prejudice is not true.

Not in every case, but I will assure you it does happen. Sorry to say.

[sharkhawk]

Whether or not the dog is "racist", a silly concept, any police dog who has attacked two children, whatever their color, should be taken off the job.

[AnAmericanMother]

For what it's worth, my dog recognizes colors, at least bright ones.

A friend of mine has a dog who hates people in hats. If you put on a hat she'll bark at you like a fiend.

I also used to have a horse who hated men. He was fine with girls, but let a guy walk past his stall and he'd try to chomp him and stomp him. He was a QH off the track, and I think the hot walkers beat him in the face with a bridle once too often.

[Kiss Me Hardy]

They do see in B&W, but the smart dogs (like mine) make up for it by being extra observant for anything out of the ordinary. Hence, my dog won't bark and snarl at black folks in my mostly white area, but she will if they're wearing funny hats, which, unfortunately, many of them do.

I always blather, "No, No. Really, it's the hat!" But I can tell they think I'm in the Klan.

Funny thing is, the dog is black herself! I've tried to point this out to offended black Americans, but they don't see the irony there, either.

She also barks at three-wheel police scooters, trucks going backward, garbage bags billowing in the wind, skateboarders (but only those wearing helmets), people who sit on the ground and guys who dig holes deep enough to stand in. Those big concrete "fu dragons" they have outside Chinese restaurants get her going (as do fiberglass statues of Paul Bunyan), but Chinese guys in funny hats get free pass, however. Oh, she "sings" along with my neighbor's child's violin practice and barks back at wolves on TV nature shows.

She's a fine dog. Very intelligent, very loving, great with kids -- and 100% nuts.

[AnAmericanMother]

Is your dog by any chance a Border collie? Sure sounds like one!

People have accused my dog of being a Border collie in a Lab suit. She barks mostly at squirrels and at birds, although when my son turns on the two way radio and leaves it lying on the coffee table to give her commands . . . she'll obey the first couple (with her head cocked on one side staring at the walkie-talkie) but then she loses it and starts barking like crazy.

She's nuts too.

[ican'tbelieveit]

http://www.akc.org/breeds/recbreeds/blkntan.cfm

Coonhound, similar to the bloodhound, but smaller build.

[jonatron]

My dogs hate all "gansta"-types black or white. I don't think it's just the baggy cloths, because they can sense them coming down the street before they arrive.

The other thing they don't like is people coming near their jeep. There's scratches in the glass from their teeth, they kind of over-do it actually.

[Arpege92]

"Dogs are situational, and they're suspicious of anything or anybody that's 'different'."

That's so true....I recently bought a new car and my dog went nuts when he saw me parking the new car in the drive way. Of course he changed his tune as soon as I got out of the car....well, he did his little happy dance. He stands on his back paws and actually shakes his butt! Too cute!