Gainesville's Finest And The Dogs That Love Them

A canine member of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office was euthanized Thursday after being critically injured during a training exercise.

King, a Belgian malinois, joined the K-9 unit about six months ago, said sheriff's Lt. Steve Maynard.

"By every account, this was an accident, but we are following our policy and investigating it," Maynard said.

Maynard said King and his handler, Sgt. Terry Crews, were training in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at the University of Florida about 8:45 p.m. when King suddenly and without a command jumped over a retaining wall.

King landed awkwardly on his front legs, shoulder and side of his face. The fall broke his back.

It always makes me laugh when an animal is referred to as a member of a police department. Then I get over the urge and shake my head in wonderment sprinkled with a tad of "how-stupid-can-they-be". More than once I've stopped to take notice a training session featuring two of Gainesville's dumbest (sorry doggies for putting ya'll in such company), and while the handler can just up and go home as he damned well pleases the dog has to step & fetchit again and again and again.

Any fool could plainly see the discomfiture of the poor animal, but cops simply cannot rid themselves of the urge to play Rin Tin Tin Saves The Day. I once owned a Belgian Shepard and while sturdier and longer lived than their German cousins are one raw nerve awaiting activation. The last thing you'd want to do with one is what the cops do with them but cruelty-to-animals is chump-change compared to law enforcement's proclivity to jump the shark.

At the end of the day it'd be more humane to just shoot the animals like the Baghdad police do. To the tune of about 20,000 a month. Yes, a month.