Page 96 - Journal of Special Operations Medicine - Winter 2014

Review of Canine Deaths While in Service
in US Civilian Law Enforcement (2002–2012)

Sarah E. Stojsih, MSE; Janice L. Baker, DVM;
Clifford M. Les, DVM, PhD; Cynthia A. Bir, PhD

ABSTRACT
Background: Working dogs have been proven effective to those experienced by their human counterparts, their
in multiple military and law enforcement applications. quadruped stance and smaller mass may affect injury
Similar to their human counterparts, understanding severity and treatment, resulting in the need for canine-
mortality while still in service can help improve treat- specific casualty care guidelines. Compiling causes of
ment of injuries, and improve equipment and training, injury or death data can assist in developing new strate-
to potentially reduce deaths. This is a retrospective gies for enhanced canine-specific treatment, equipment,
study to characterize mortality of working dogs used and training that may increase survival.
in civilian law enforcement. Methods: Reported causes
of death were gathered from two working dog and law Previous research has been published highlighting the
enforcement officer memorial websites. Results: Of the working canine. 7–13 Studies reporting cause of death or
867 civilian law enforcement dogs reported to these euthanasia, primarily for the military working dog pop-
memorial websites from 2002 to 2012 with reported ulation, emphasize duty-limiting causes to diseases such
causes of death while in service, the deaths of 318 were as osteoarthritis, degenerative joint disease, neoplasia,
categorized as traumatic. The leading reported causes of and senility. 8,11 One recent study investigated common
traumatic death or euthanasia include trauma as a result reasons for emergency medical visits in police working
of a vehicle strike, 25.8% (n = 82); heatstroke, 24.8% dogs. This population presented more frequently with
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(n = 79); and penetrating ballistic trauma, 23.0% (n = orthopedic injuries, compared to pet German Shepherd
73). Conclusion: Although the information gathered Dogs; gastrointestinal disease was commonly present
was from online sources, this study casts some light on for both populations. Collecting morbidity and mortal-
the risks that civilian law enforcement dogs undergo as ity data is crucial to improving canine units and their
part of the tasks to which they are assigned. These data efficacy. Additionally, understanding mortality related
underscore the need for a comprehensive database for to unexpected events, such as heat injury or ballistic-
this specialized population of working dogs to provide related trauma, is crucial to ensuring medics and han-
the robust, reliable data needed to develop prevention dlers are properly trained for current needs.
and treatment strategies for this valuable resource.
Currently, there is no centralized method of tracking
Keywords: canine, mortality, law enforcement, trauma traumatic injuries or illnesses in working dogs used in
law enforcement or military. A working dog memorial
website has been established, however, creating an ex-
tensive list of dogs that have died or were euthanized
Introduction
while in service. At the time of this review, according
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The use of databases and guidelines to track traumatic to the memorial website, there were 1,867 working dogs
injuries and improve survival in both civilian law en- from government, security agencies, military, and law
forcement and military applications has been well estab- enforcement that reportedly died in service from 1940
lished. For instance, the Joint Theater Trauma System to the present, with new cases being added regularly.
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1–6
was developed to provide a universal and integrated There are obvious limitations with lists created from
approach to battlefield care, resulting in optimization nonclinical sources when generating a scientific data-
of casualty care capabilities and minimization of mor- base. However, given the lack of availability of this in-
tality. While injury and mortality databases are fairly formation, some useful generalizations may be obtained
2–4
well developed for human medicine, they are lacking for from compiling and analyzing these data collected from
veterinary medicine—more specifically, the working dog online sources. The current study consolidates the type
population. Although working dogs face threats similar of data available from the existing websites and reports

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