Posts tagged "police"

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  Angelina Jolie's not horsing around.

  Although known for her fashionable ways, Jolie wouldn't carry a beautiful $5,000 Akris ecru horsehair handbag she was given until her stylist confirmed that no horses were harmed to make it, according to Us Weekly .

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  Attorney fined for banning service dogs from his office.

  After refusing to allow a disabled woman and her service dog into his office, attorney Patric LeHouillier and his firm are facing $50,000 in fines and training on the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Denver Post reports.

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  Carrie Underwood puts her money where her mouth is.

  The cutie-pie singer has made no secret about her love of pets. Now animals are loving her back. Underwood made a $10K donation to Midtown Animal Shelter.

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  Chief Kitty?

  Okay, the feline isn't running the place yet, but a cat in China has been appointed an unofficial police officer after spending so much time at the police station that people began calling him "Officer," reports the Daily Times.

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  Lawbreaking granny pet store owner put on short leash

  Police officials in England put 70-year-old pet store owner Joan Higgins on semi-house arrest for taking advantage of underage customers and vulnerable pets. To enforce the sentence, she's wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.

A policeman in Houston is mourning the loss of his Czech-German shepherd, who was killed in the line of duty after more than three years on the job, reports The Houson Chronicle. The dog, Blek, ran into a marsh while pursuing burglary suspects. When the faithful canine didn't return, Harris County Precinct 4 deputy constable Ted Dahlin and other officers began searching for him. "My lieutenant and sergeant found him," Dahlin said. "My sergeant met me before I got there, held me back, and gave me a hug. I knew at that point what happened." One of the suspects had strangled Blek to death.

According to Dahlin, the 5-year-old dog was his best friend. "He was doing his job," Dahlin told the Houston Chronicle. "Am I happy about what happened? Of course not. But I'm proud that my dog did his job." Dahlin added that a canine's job is to step in front of danger. "I learned how to train him and he learned to train me," Dahlin said. "He was the smarter of the two of us, I can guarantee you that."

The suspects involved in the pursuit are in custody, including 17-year-old Cornelious Harrell, who strangled Blek from behind when the dog attacked Harrell's younger brother.

On Nov. 9, a police dog bit a man who was trying to defend his home from a would-be burglar. Tim Crossan, of Eugene, Ore. had just broken his hand on the face of the intruder when police, responding to a call, flooded into his home and ordered their K9 unit to attack Mr. Crossan. In the confusion, the burglar escaped and Mr. Crossan was bitten twice. The police have yet to apologize for this incident, although they described it as "unfortunate." At least they went on to say that Crossan, who had protected his wife and children, was "heroic."

Dogs have been used officially to help police officers since the late 1850s in Germany, when they were first employed purely as a deterrent, used only for their teeth and growls. However, the informal use of dogs in law enforcement goes back to the Middle Ages and most likely even before that. These days, dogs help officers primarily with their sense of smell, which is so powerful that they can detect scents one-hundred-millionth fainter than the boundaries of human perception. They can easily find drugs, bombs, criminals, and corpses, even when criminals have taken extra measures to mask odors. So although the police can often make mistakes, police dogs do not. They remain an integral part of public safety.