Dog Units throughout South Africa go on regular dog recruiting drives… Unfortunately for the Ladysmith Dog Unit, they are running out of dogs faster than any can be recruited into the unit.
In a recent farm attack, the Mooi River Dog Unit had to come to the Ladysmith K9 Unit’s aid, as they had no patrol dogs to carry out search operations. The fact that an elite unit like the K9 Unit can find itself in such a precarious position, with only five sub-par patrol dogs and two specialist dogs, is worrying. The unit is seriously understaffed when it comes to the number of patrol dogs it needs.
“A Dog Unit officer needs to bond with his dog and then undergo joint training with the dog at the Police Training College,” explained a former Dog Unit officer. This training takes three months. “You basically need to send both the dog and the officer for training. That means you are short an officer at the unit for a whopping six months.” With almost all the officers dog-less, the effectiveness of the unit is being questioned.
“The K9 Unit is an elite unit used in the war against crime. It has, however, been reduced to a normal patrol unit by long-term neglect.” The problems affecting the Ladysmith K9 Unit are not new, but appear to have been totally ignored by Ladysmith police management. A request for information regarding the current state of the Ladysmith K9 Unit was forwarded to the KZN SAPS Communications Centre last week. This was done as local police spokesperson Captain Charmaine Struwig indicated that it was being addressed at provincial level. To date, no response has been received from the KZN SAPS Communications Centre.
“While the unit suffers, Province appears to have washed its hands of the problem.”
