Poodle owner mauled by police dog
A 66-year-old woman is seeking damages after she was badly bitten by a police dog while out for a walk in Växjö in southern Sweden.
The exact chain of events leading up to the attack remains in some dispute and the woman is yet to receive compensation for her injuries.
"I just felt something in my hand," the woman said, maintaining that the dog, unprovoked, went on the attack as she bent down to pick up her poodle's excrement.
"She thrust her hand straight between the two dogs," countered the man who was looking after the police dog while its owner was on holiday.
Local newspaper Smålandsposten reports that the woman has undergone several operations as a consequence of the attack and has been told that her hand will never regain full mobility.
But the Swedish National Police-related Crimes Unit (Riksenheten för polismål) in Malmö does not consider the case grounds for an investigation and the issue of compensation to the woman has not yet been addressed.
Jan Bernhard, head of the Kronoberg police dogs unit, has declared his full support for the canine in question.
"It is a friendly and social dog," he told Smålandposten.
The man who was walking the dog at the time of the incident maintains that the woman's poodle started to bark and therefore caused the response from the police dog.
But this version of events is rejected by the woman.
"They just want to clear themselves. But I am not going to fall for that," she says.
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The exact chain of events leading up to the attack remains in some dispute and the woman is yet to receive compensation for her injuries.
"I just felt something in my hand," the woman said, maintaining that the dog, unprovoked, went on the attack as she bent down to pick up her poodle's excrement.
"She thrust her hand straight between the two dogs," countered the man who was looking after the police dog while its owner was on holiday.
Local newspaper Smålandsposten reports that the woman has undergone several operations as a consequence of the attack and has been told that her hand will never regain full mobility.
But the Swedish National Police-related Crimes Unit (Riksenheten för polismål) in Malmö does not consider the case grounds for an investigation and the issue of compensation to the woman has not yet been addressed.
Jan Bernhard, head of the Kronoberg police dogs unit, has declared his full support for the canine in question.
"It is a friendly and social dog," he told Smålandposten.
The man who was walking the dog at the time of the incident maintains that the woman's poodle started to bark and therefore caused the response from the police dog.
But this version of events is rejected by the woman.
"They just want to clear themselves. But I am not going to fall for that," she says.
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