Dog punched by Vacaville officer was "malnourished, fearful," expert report says
The evaluation was conducted by a therapist who specialized in animal behavior among law enforcement dogs.
(Still frame from video by Roberto Palomino; Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
A dog who was punched by a Vacaville police officer during a training session last year showed significant signs of distress and abuse, including malnourishment and fear, when he was subjected to a psychological evaluation earlier this year.
The extent of the malnourishment in the dog, named Gus, was so severe that the most of the animal’s ribs were visible through his body.
The condition of the dog was described at length in a post-examination report crafted by an animal trauma specialist based in Sacramento, who examined Gus at the request of the Vacaville Police Department after an eyewitness video showed the dog being punched by his handler during a training session in December.
Shortly after the video went viral, a Vacaville Police Department spokesperson attempted to reassure the public about the dog’s condition, affirming Gus had been removed from his handler and that a check-up by a veterinarian revealed the canine “shows no sign of distress or injury.”
But an examination conducted by Sacramento-based Anchor Therapy Clinic found serious signs of distress and injury, observations that were described in a 12-page document, the contents of which have not been reported until now.
The examination was carried out over a three-day period in mid-January by Kevin Cameron, a certified partner trauma therapist who specializes in animal assisted therapy. As part of the assessment, Anchor Therapy evaluated Gus on a number of elements critical to his training and future work as a law enforcement dog, including his health, socialization, workability and his behavior in a number of different environments.
At the start of the evaluation, Cameron wrote that Gus appeared malnourished and fearful during his initial interactions, and that the dog “presents as hungry and food aggressive” who “eats vigorously” when his food bowl is set in front of him.
“The only positive interaction the canine has is with his food bowl,” Cameron wrote, adding that the dog would become aggressive if anyone tried to remove his food.
“[Gus] guards his food, fearing either not being fed or that is he going to lack sustenance,” the therapist said.
Throughout the examination, Gus exhibited fearful behavior toward people, a phenomenon known as “pain avoidance” that the therapist said was chronic and constant. The dog was also being given a nutritional supplement reserved for canines with joint pain, and the administration of this supplement appeared to be at the direction of the agency and not under the supervision of a veterinarian.
The therapist said he did not rely on veterinary records for Gus as part of his evaluation because the police department never supplied them.
[Editor’s note: Shortly after this story was published, a Vacaville Police Department official supplied a memo written by a second investigator that cast doubt on the findings of the clinic mentioned here. The document was authored by Bill Lewis II, a consultant who serves as an expert witness on behalf of police agencies and was an outside investigator into Vacaville’s police canine program. A follow-up story with those new details can be read by clicking or tapping here.]
Cameron attributed the malnourishment and chronic state of fear to “a lack of training in the handler, the canine and deficiencies in the training program,” but that Gus’ problems could be overcome if he were re-assigned to a different handler and received better training and care.
That won’t happen at the Vacaville Police Department: At a presentation before the City Council on Tuesday, the agency said Gus was no longer in their care.
“While most dogs that join the police department stay with us, it is not uncommon for an agency to return a dog to the vendor,” Ian Schmutzler, the city’s interim police chief, told council members on Tuesday. (Schmutzler has not returned a message seeking comment and clarification on the psychology report and other elements of the agency’s investigation.)
The bulk of the agency’s presentation this week was focused on the K9 program as a whole, which an independent auditor found to be mostly satisfactory but in need of a few tweaks.
The auditor, Bill Lewis II with Training and Consulting Team, said the agency did not maintain individual files on its handlers, which made it difficult to conduct an independent assessment of the three police officers who work with canine partners. White, who has served as an expert witness on behalf of law enforcement agencies, said this lack of documentation makes it difficult to defend police canine handlers in court because their individual files cannot be easily reviewed.
Lewis recommended the Vacaville Police Department “review, revise and standardize” its canine program, including its training of police dogs, to include individual files on handlers. The auditor also recommended the agency update its training procedures to meet California’s Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) certification standards and create a system where canine handlers are evaluated on those standards with regularity.
That standard might have resulted in a different outcome with Gus, who was evaluated by Anchor Therapy on five different elements of California’s POST certification for canines in training. The dog failed all of them, including basic obedience tasks like sitting, laying down and “walk[ing] with the handler in a controlled manner.”
As part of its assessment of Gus, Anchor Therapy wanted to subject the canine to a Department of Defense Working Dog certification evaluation, but the dog was so traumatized and unruly that the test was eventually scrapped.
“The certification was canceled due to a lack of obedience and safety concerns with the canine,” the therapist wrote.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified the person who conducted an independent audit of the Vacaville Police Department’s canine program. His name is Bill Lewis II, not Bill White.
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