Police officials in Hammond, Ind., have suspended a K9 handler after video surfaced on YouTube showing the officer pulling the dog into the air by its collar and hitting it with a leash.
The video, which has been viewed nearly 750,000 times since it was posted last week, shows the officer and K9 at a traffic stop Wednesday in a residential neighborhood just off Indianapolis Boulevard in the northwest Indiana city.
The officer appears to be trying to get the dog, which appears to be a German Shepard, to release a ball from its mouth by pulling the dog into the air by a choke collar, and lashing the dog on the ribs with his leash.
The dog lets go of the object, then bounds eagerly along with the officer as he walks to his car. The video, filmed from a second-story window of a neighboring home, also features some expletive-laced narration from the camera operator.
Mayor Thomas McDermott did not immediately return calls seeking comment on Monday, though he did address the issue during an interview on his weekly talk show on a Hammond AM radio station Friday.
McDermott said the officer was put on administrative leave immediately, but the mayor pointed out the officer had “sterling” track record, and that the video showed about 30 seconds from a traffic stop that lasted 10 minutes.
“Unfortunately for this officer, this mistake is going to be viewed a million times all over the country,” McDermott told WJOB radio host Jim Dedelow.
Hammond city hall was inundated with calls and e-mail messages as the video clip went viral, McDermott said. The response, the mayor noted, was far greater than what followed a fire ignited by a space heater inside an apartment whose owner had been repeatedly fined for failing home inspections, a blaze that killed three young children and left their father badly burned.
“This is a serious situation,” McDermott said of the alleged dog abuse. “There is more outrage, there is 10 times more outrage, about this incident than there was when three little kids died.”
The Humane Society Calumet Area, based in neighboring Munster, Ind., has written letters to the mayor, city council and police department demanding an investigation, said Executive Director Rachel Delaney.
“I thought it was excessive force. I don’t think a dog should be put in a situation where it is being held by the neck with all four paws off the ground,” Delaney said.
“I don’t think it was an emergency situation and I worry about damage to the dog’s neck, its trachea, and its spine.”
agrimm@tribune.com
Twitter: @agrimm34
