GERMAN POLICE DOGS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3140, 23 October 1922, Page 7

GERMAN POLICE DOGS.

A town official of Gardiing, a town near Hamburg, is thei latest catch of Germany's police dogs, whose efficiency is of aver increasing value to the police. A robbery bad been committed in Garding and being unable to trace the robbers the police decided to put dogs on the trail. On the same day Herr Gerch, a, member of the town council, delivered a bitter speech against the use of police dogs. He branded them as inefficient, dangerous to the reputations of innocent people and altogether a waste of good money. He proposed that the council forbid the use of them by tbe police. Returning borne Herr Gerch found that the dogs had followed a trail to his house and "that the police had discovered much of the stolen goods concealed there. He was arrested. Numerous 1 Berlin policemen owe their lives to the corps of intelligent animals used in tracing criminals. Officials of the police say they are eepeciaJly valuable now since the entire character of criminals has changed. Before the war it was a, rare occasion when a hunted man showed fight and eases were- rare when they resisted arrest with anus. Since the war, however, attacks by men hunted by the police have beeo'hie so frequent that there have been numerous deaths and scores of pistol duels. Tn these the dogs' have proved espeeiallv valuable by attacking offenders while their masters were engaged in defending themselves. A giant butcher one night lately was approached by two policemen after he iiad created a violent disturbance on the street. He easily overcame the two officers and was about to escape when two more policemen accompanied.! by dogs arrived and while the men were unable to handle tc raging butcher, he was finally dragged down by the dogs and arrested before he could use the arms he carried. Commenting upon the arrest, Berlin papers were so enthusiastic in praise of the dogs that their names, Boskow and Alt, were mentioned, while the names oi both policemen and prisoner were overlooked. The dogs played an important part, also, in tracing the murderers of Herr Rathneau over a wide circle extending from north to south Germany. At a recent fair in Ulm an exhibition of police dog training was given showing t-:ome of their remarkable qualities. They showed lightning speed in attacking armed fugitives, lunging for the arm in which a pistol or knife was held'. Others were able to scale solid board walls 10ft high. Another interesting exhibition was a. drill by a pack of dogs which executed military, manoeuvres in squad formation at the command of their leaders.