Letter: K-9 should be treated as an officer

Published 12:00 am Sunday, March 7, 2021

Once again, Salisbury knows how to make the national news, and once again, for all the wrong reasons.

The police officer who cruelly mistreated a devoted K-9, needs to resign or be fired from the force by the chief of police.

Police dogs are officers. This is why, when they are killed in the line of duty, they are extended the same respect as a human officer who lost his/her life for service.

The officer who brutalized the dog is a coward and hypocrite, totally unfit to “protect and to serve.” Just imagine, for a moment, that the dog were a person of color. He/she would be dead, at the handling of this “officer.” This individual needs to be charged and do community service at the local animal shelter, where he can make amends by cleaning the dogs’ quarters and walking the animals, under supervision, of course.

Let us hope that the Salisbury chief of police has the courage to do what is right. We might then be lucky that the next time Salisbury makes the national news, it will be for the right reasons.

— Dr. Marie-Odile Langhorne

Spencer