Madison County, Tennessee – A young police K9 with the Madison County Sheriff’s Office died after being left in an outdoor kennel, in the heat, for 36 hours. According to reports, K9 Bart did not have access to water and died from heatstroke on September 19.
In a social media video, Madison County Sheriff Julian Wiser addressed the preventable death of the two-and-a-half-year-old German Shepherd, noting that the dog’s handler had been put on administrative leave after Bart’s death and later resigned.
According to Sheriff Wiser, the K9 handler had not been home for 36 hours while Bart was left in his outdoor kennel; the heat index reached 101 degrees during that time. A necropsy determined that Bart died from heatstroke due to “severe dehydration.”
An internal investigation and a criminal investigation have been ordered. The investigation is ongoing.
Rest easy K9 Bart.
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69 Comments
Anyone responsible for someone, be it animal or human, needs to be held accountable. This was easily preventable. Bart suffering immensely before his death, admin leave and resignation is UNACCEPTABLE. This is cruel negligence. Where’s Bart’s justice?! This was a crime against an innocent, defenceless 2yr old! The handler will just move counties and do it again. That’s what shite cops do. UNACCEPTABLE.
How do these guys get these dogs assigned to them? There are too many reports of officers killing their K9 partners because of careless neglect! I wouldn’t trust any of these turds with a freaking pet rock!
Irresponsible cop should be fired and arrested! Killed a fellow officer! Too many of these hero dogs are dying at the hands of irresponsible cops! Punishment needs to be handed out to these cops who are responsible for the deaths of their fellow officers!
agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a horrible pos..how do these degenerates even qualify for public service.And to let the sack of shit resign is just shameful,his entire pension and restitution along with fines and incarceration is what should have been given,instead he’s given a slap on the wrist.
This is another heart-breaking story of a loyal hard-working k nine passing away from neglect. They make robot dogs now. That’s what they should use. No mis treatment with a robot.
I would however like to say that not all k nine handlers are abusive, just like not all dog owners are abusive. As I always say, if a person can treat an animal that way you know they are capable of treating humans the same way. It’d be interesting to see if the office had been reprimanded for other things as a police officer.
RIP Bart. Thank you for your service.
Godspeed K9 Bart. You deserve far more than who you ended up with. Hopefully he’ll pay for harming you and will have his money taken and donated to help other pets.
You’re safe now . Rest now poor Bart.
Cops don’t deserve to have dogs. How many have died within recent years due to neglect or being locked in hot cars. The military doesn’t deserve them either. When war is over, they leave the dogs behind to die. Dogs are more loyal than human will ever be and we still treat them like shit, like they don’t matter, like they are here only to serve our needs or be used as tools. Lock that cop in the dogs kennel and leave him to rot.
AMEN! These Highly trained dogs-K-9 Officers-ARE BEING ABUSED/suffer deaths by fellow officers routinely all over this Country and Nothing is ever done to the perpetrators. They never seem to get punished/held accountable. This is the same as slowly killing a fellow human officer. Also, when injured on the job or retired from the force, the K-9 officers are routinely dumped in horrible facilities or shelters to die if their partner cannot or does not want to adopt. They suffer immensley for doing great work and protecting fellow policemen and communities. It is very sad what humans do to these working K-9’s.
The handler should be hung!!! I hope street vigilantes will do it for that poor pup who needlessly died by hands of a piece of shit! The handlers should be watched as how they treat these k9s and if abuse is there, shut them down and no more dogs ever!!! They’re living souls and not disposable…. Sue said it right!
This ass needs to hang for the death of this dog and Shame on family and people if they knew he treated Bart like nothing!!!
Please stop using dogs to perform police jobs and change the laws and regulations to legalize stopping use dogs in police and military functions.
Please stop using dogs for military or police jobs. Change the laws and regulations to stop using dogs and Legally prohibit using dogs by police or military or any other rescue functions., with current technology, tools can be used easily to detect or locate lives in disasters or perform police/military functions. Leave these poor dogs at safe and better place.
Please stop using dogs for military or police jobs. Change the laws and regulations to stop using dogs and Legally prohibit using dogs by police or military or any other rescue functions., with current technology, tools can be used easily to detect or locate lives in disasters or perform police/military functions. Leave these poor dogs at safe and better place.
So criminally neglectful K9 handler is allowed to resign — not fired — and then no federal felony charge for “felony animal neglect resulting in death” charge? wth… WAKE UP Madison County Sheriff’s Dept..
Time for a little street justice in Madison County, TN.
Agree 1000%
Road trip?!?
I’m in! Since this department clearly isn’t doing a damn thing about it!
How many peopIe keep missing my comments?
This is NOT NEW. It is entrenched in a cuIture which does not value the dogs! HandIers are taught and required to abuse their K9s – severeIy – and even bring them to the brinK of death by sIow hanging them to unconsciousness.
FAR MORE K9s die at the hands of their handIers than by the actions of any suspects. The ones that die from suspects’ actions are the ones which get press, soIeIy for the purpose of PubIic Relations. The rest are swept under the rug.
The handIers and the departments they worK for don’t have to pay for the dogs, so it’s no Ioss to them. But they are very expert at Iying to the pubIic (with heIp from most of the mainstream media) in order to continue getting supported by citizen fund raisers and IocaI businesses.
The units need to be SHUT DOWN, and every handIer and department heId accountable for this systemic violation of feIony crueIty Iaws. THey have been doing these horribIe things for over 125 years, and it’s time for justice.
They resigned, now they should be prosecuted. How did you even come to hire an imbecile like this? You should be ashamed of yourself just as much as the handler. 36 hours in a kennel alone much less without water?!?! This is a reflection on you and your dept as much it is on the piece of human garbage that you hired. SHAME !!!
Agree! The cops don’t care for human being lives why would they care about a dog? This cop should be registered as an animal abuser and banned from being recruited in any public service role. So hold the leadership responsible for hiring this POS!
Agree! The cops don’t care for human being lives why would they care about a dog? This cop should be registered as an animal abuser and banned from being recruited in any public service role. So hold the leadership responsible for hiring this POS!
Not much in the brain dept
Not much in the brain dept
First they abuse them by making them work in these “jobs,” and then they neglect/abuse/kill them. This is outrageous.
Can’t even trust a government worker who is also getting paid to take care of a Dog!
Not even people getting paid good money can take care of a doggy! It really makes you think what kind of IQ or requirements for any testing is done for the hiring of these people!
Certainly not very smart and beyond that; unthinking and cruel! Too many police dogs have succumbed to death from neglect or abuse from their supposed qualified guardians. Overdue for proper screening, training and monitoring as they obviously can’t be trusted to do the right thing. SHOCKING really!!
Another police dog DEAD 😡 why have the dog at home when obviously you do not care about the dogs welfare 😡 absolutely heartbreaking to read 💔 this so called police officer should be charged with animal cruelty and be sacked and jailed just like any other animal abuser 😡 unbelievable to read I always tell anyone never give dogs to be trained with the police they are cruely treated 😡
These dogs are NOT trained with treats for obeying etc, they are trained by punishment until it is ‘knocked’ into them so they quickly learn what to do to avoid beatings and suchlike! And these so-called cops enjoy the domination that they have over the animal that has been allocated to them. And the dogs are not stupid. These soon learn what to do otherwise punishment is inevitable! Gives these prick cops something to take out their frustrations on! The brainless cop who tortured this innocent and trusting dog to death really does need the same treatment but won’t happen as they will all close ranks so nothing will happen to this dog torturing and murdering bastard! If ‘dickheads ‘ like this cop with no brain are recruited to serve the people then we have no chance whatsoever. Just hope that someone can get to this turd cop to teach him the serious error of his ways. I wonder if he would have done this to a member of his family— which incidentally the innocent dog should have been!!! And yes— he probably would!
J..W.
We can only hope that street justice is served!! But you’re sadly right; bc he is a “cop,” he will more than likely get a slap on the wrist & just move to another PD. That’s absolutely unacceptable. These criminal cops do this all the time with no consequences. It needs to stop. If a civilian did this, they’d get life in prison!! This POS should be treated no differently!!
Another police dog DEAD 😡 why have the dog at home when obviously you do not care about the dogs welfare 😡 absolutely heartbreaking to read 💔 this so called police officer should be charged with animal cruelty and be sacked and jailed just like any other animal abuser 😡 unbelievable to read I always tell anyone never give dogs to be trained with the police they are cruely treated 😡