Thus reads the first of so far 113 comments on the Qld Police’s Facebook page in response to a story in the Courier Mail.
John Howard took to talk-back radio to give him a direct line through the compulsive world of spin that is the mass media. Now the Qld Police are showing how Facebook gives them the same capacity. Here’s a story from the Sunday Mail outlining how the coppers froze to death some cute puppies under their care.
As you can see, there was even a picture of the puppies. Well, not the puppies but puppies like the puppies. This was the story.
HE Queensland Police Service will be investigated by the RSPCA after a litter of dog squad puppies froze to death for want of a cheap heating box.
The Sunday Mail has learnt five newborn german shepherd puppies died in Brisbane’s police academy kennels at Oxley after a bitterly cold night last winter.
Sources have revealed the squad was down one of its two kennel hands so could not maintain a 24-hour watch on the animals, as done for previous births, and no one was on duty the night the pups were born.
By the time the pups were discovered about 6am the next day, their body temperatures had plunged and they had suffered organ failure.
RSPCA chief inspector Mick Pecic said he would investigate whether there were any breaches of animal welfare laws, which carry a maximum $30,000 fine or a year’s jail.
At least from what the Police say on their Facebook site, this was mostly nonsense.
Some of you may have read about the deaths of some puppies at the QPS Puppy Development Program last year. We thought you might like to see some of the facts surrounding this sad incident which weren’t included in the story. . . .
In five years of breeding puppies, this is the only incident where we have lost a number of puppies soon after birth. We have a very low puppy mortality rate compared with dog breeders generally. . . . Last May, ‘Freda’ an inexperienced bitch in the QPS dog breeding program whelped six puppies (the ‘M” litter) several days before her due date. At the time, she was in a room which was equipped with a heater and lighting.
When a whelping is imminent, staff are rostered on 24-7 to provide care for the bitches and puppies, however as ‘Freda’ whelped early, no staff were rostered on overnight.
Veterinary assistance was sought, as the puppies were not drinking normally. They were found to have low body temperature, and despite the temperature being unseasonably warm (they were born on the hottest May day of the year, with a recorded day time temperature of over 27 degrees, and a night time temperature of about 15 degrees) and the room being heated, an additional floor heater was purchased by the staff member.
As it was a Sunday, he did this out of his own funds, and was reimbursed within days for his purchase. The QPS purchased waterproof electric blankets the next day.
Despite ongoing veterinary involvement and handfeeding, sadly, five of the puppies faded and died over the next four days.
Specialist veterinary advice was that the deaths were due to the inexperienced bitch not providing necessary food and warmth to five of her six puppies. She successfully reared the sixth puppy.
The Sunday Mail got two comments at the bottom of their story. At the time of writing the QPS Facebook post has 133 comments, beginning with the one which forms the heading to this article.