DogExpress
The man who allegedly shot a police dog in the jaw in Northland on December 1 has been charged. During the incident, the 30-year-old man was also shot three times by police and was rushed to Auckland City hospital.
On Thursday, Superintendent Tony Hill confirmed to Stuff charges had been filed in the Auckland District Court in relation to the incident.
The man was chased into a paddock in Tangowahine, near Dargaville, by police. He then turned around and fired in the direction of a police dog handler, hitting the dog.
The man is charged with using a firearm against a police officer, injuring a police dog, unlawful possession of a pistol and unlawful possession of ammunition. The charge of using a firearm against an officer is the most serious one, and carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 14 years.
The man is not yet able to appear in court and is facing a number of charges on unrelated matters, Hill said.
He had been in stable condition in hospital for over a week following the incident. The police dog has been recovering well at a vet clinic in Mt Albert since the shooting incident.
On Monday, Dr. Alastair Coomer, who has been taking care of the dog, said he underwent surgery for some of his injuries last Friday and was in a stable condition.
How long the recovery process would take was unknown, Coomer said, and the clinic was taking it one day at a time. A total of 24 police dogs have died in the line of duty since 1972, four in the 2000s alone.
The most recent was Gazza, who was shot dead during an armed incident in Porirua in 2016. The previous year, he had survived being strangled by a burglar.
Source: stuff.co.nz
Please Note: This article is not edited by DogExpress Team!
in Chandigarh, India. 
