Jinhua police, who was raised by dog food?!
Recently, a patrol police dog named "Lao San" from a police station in Jinhua was taken home by a couple while it was rummaging through a roadside trash bin for food. A few days later, the couple was formally investigated by the police on charges of theft and have since been released on bail pending trial. As the couple left the police station after being released on bail, they noticed the same dog again rummaging through a roadside trash bin! According to further investigation by curious individuals, this police dog had already been taken home by two other citizens while wandering outside in May of this year. Those two citizens were convicted of theft, sentenced to criminal detention (suspended), and fined 15,000 yuan.
(Left: the police dog that was taken away; Right: a legitimate police dog)
Jinhua police claimed on their official Weibo that the police dog was wearing a collar when it was taken away, and the couple knew it was a valuable German Shepherd. The implication is simply that the police were fully justified in treating the case as theft. But the premise of theft is “awareness that the property is in another’s possession.” Based on current reports: First, a valuable dog does not necessarily mean it has an owner. When the police dog was taken away, it was neither on a leash nor wearing any identification proving it was a police dog. Although the police stated that the dog was wearing a collar at the time, they did not mention any police dog identification on the collar. Second, the police dog was taken away while rummaging through a trash bin by the roadside, and from the photos it appeared to be a classic case of “poor and scruffy,” hardly associating it with a state working dog, even if it was not a stray. Third, the couple neither used tranquilizer darts nor a snare, but simply led the police dog home peacefully. From the reports, it could even be said that the police dog followed the couple voluntarily. In the previous case, all it took to lead this police dog away was a few whistles. In summary, it is a stretch to even establish misappropriation by the couple, let alone theft. Furthermore, if a dog bites a person and the person hits the dog, would that count as assaulting a police officer? Moreover, according to the principle of recusal, since the police station is already a party to the case, it should no longer handle the investigation. Otherwise, if the police made mistakes in managing the police dog, would it not amount to a thief crying “stop thief”?
[2] (Same dog, why such a big difference)
The difference between police dogs, domestic dogs, and stray dogs is that police dogs, like police officers, are civil servants with state financial support. Although they cannot enjoy SPA treatments and beauty care as frequently as wealthy families' pet dogs, at least their food should be guaranteed to keep them well-fed, so they can serve the dog citizens—no, the people. However, the police dog “Lao San” has been reduced to rummaging through roadside trash bins, which is truly shocking. The author checked the price of dog food on Tmall and found that the 15,000 yuan fine from a few months ago could buy 101 kilograms of the highest-grade imported dog food (148.08 yuan/1Kg), enough to feed a police dog for over half a year. Yet “Lao San” still has to search roadside trash bins for food. Although revenues and expenditures are managed separately, this dramatic contrast inevitably raises questions: whose stomachs did the police dog's food end up in? Is the Jinhua police really so poor that they need to snatch food from a dog's mouth?
[4] Scrape mud from a swallow's beak, shave iron from a needle's tip, scrape gold from a Buddha's face in meticulous search, find something from nothing. Seek peas in a quail's crop, carve lean meat from a heron's leg, scoop fat from a mosquito's belly—how ruthless the old gentleman is.
