Blaming the recent deaths of six police canines on a potentially “bad batch” of dogs, Baltimore County officials said they will not buy replacement canines until they finish a review of the purchasing process.
The review comes amid a debate between county officials and members of the police labor union, who blame the cancer deaths of at least four dogs since 2003 to the unsafe conditions at the now-closed canine training facility ? which was built close to a former landfill.
County officials maintain only two dogs have died of cancer, both types unrelated to environmental conditions.
They said the facility is safe and suspect a third-party broker who travels to Eastern Europe to retrieve the canines sold them unhealthy dogs.
“Procurement is reviewing the process we use to acquire dogs and determine if this is really the best way,” said police spokesman Bill Toohey. “What guards do we have on the health of the dog and how do we protect the taxpayers and ourselves?”
The training facility in Baltimore Highlands was closed September 2005 after a rash of canine deaths and employees complaining of health problems. At the time, then-Lieutenant Jackie Goodman requested three new dogs, but was told “not yet,” according to Toohey.
The county plans to purchase three new canines in the “near future,” said county spokesman Don Mohler, after the review.
The county likely will use $10,000 donated by two local supermarkets, including the Wegmans in Hunt Valley, specifically for the canine unit.
