The Daily News, Friday, August 20, 1999


NYPD has new animal-moving rules

By JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The NYPD last night issued new guidelines for transporting animals in police custody, trying to prevent a repeat of last month's tragedy when two Rottweilers were stowed in the trunk of a squad car, killing them both.

The new policy, which will be distributed to all police commands, specifically directs cops to secure the animal in a kennel cage, then place the kennel on the backseat of the patrol car.

The former policy was less specific, advising only that dangerous dogs should be transported inside the patrol car to a shelter if an animal-rescue squad is not available.

On July 28, two Rottweilers named Endiya and Tank were taken into custody for attacking a smaller dog.

In the blazing heat, the dogs were stashed in the trunk of a patrol car for a 45-minute drive from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to a pound on Manhattan's upper East Side.

When the trunk was popped open, the dogs were dead.

"I think you have to use some common sense," Police Commissioner Howard Safir said yesterday. "If it's 100 degrees, you don't put animals in the trunk."

Two Emergency Service cops -- trained to handle dog jobs -- face discipline in the Rottweiler incident for not ensuring that the dogs had sufficienf ventilation.

The NYPD is purchasing kennel cages for all police commands, leaving some anonymous cops to grouse about having to be in the dog catching business at all. The Center for Animal Care and Control operates only from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

"We're not open enough," conceded center spokesman Kyle Burkhart. "We need more funding."

The new policy covers "mammals, amphibians, reptiles or birds."