Runaway New Zealand sniffer dog shot at Auckland airport

[Super Kami Dende]

I'll take Airport safety and efficiency over a 10 month old dog any day.

[Verdugo]

Which would never happen, but whatever. I am sure Airports deal with birds all the time.

Yes, they either scare them off with trained birds of prey or shoot them.

[Celista]

For all of those individuals who seem to think that using a tranquilizer on a dog is super complicated and beyond the expertise of a veterinarian.

[Halyon]

A quick google search tells me that yes, "they are"

Fair enough, but then if it has an attached label with some tables, then the issue is again lessened.

[Crissi]

For all of those individuals who seem to think that using a tranquilizer on a dog is super complicated and beyond the expertise of a veterinarian.

Using it? No. Getting it to actually go in the dog and not just be a superficial nick? 50/50, especially if its moving around in a panic.

[IIamaKing]

Its a testament to how good life is that this is the sort of shit people get to bitch about.

[Grapefruitsnz]

Auckland zoo is like 20 minutes drive away from the airport (or so the Internet tells me), why couldn't they just get a tranquilliser gun from their?

It isnt. More like 40-50. Apparently he held up over 16 flights, so the decision came from the airport staff for the police to put him down.

[Celista]

Using it? No. Getting it to actually go in the dog and not just be a superficial nick? 50/50, especially if its moving around in a panic.

The point is that it is not beyond the expertise of veterinarians and the people claiming that nothing could be done is unjustified. Also it's an airport, not an open desert.

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It isnt. More like 40-50. Apparently he held up over 16 flights, so the decision came from the airport staff for the police to put him down.

God forbid people have to wait a few minutes for their flight to take off I'm sure there was an animal control vehicle or a local vet office that was even closer by.

[Crissi]

The point is that it is not beyond the expertise of veterinarians and the people claiming that nothing could be done is unjustified. Also it's an airport, not an open desert.

Last time I checked, tarmacs were fairly open, so lots of space to run. So if it was causing multi hour delays, at some point the cost of delays is going to outweigh the cost of shooting the dog dead.

and its not just a few minutes of delay. The dog was running around for awhile.

[Deleted]

I'm neither a cunt nor shifty and i dont likee dogs they terrify me

The latter part of you assertion unfortunately invalidates the former

[Celista]

Its a testament to how good life is that this is the sort of shit people get to bitch about.

I think it's a testament to shitty decision-making.

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Last time I checked, tarmacs were fairly open, so lots of space to run. So if it was causing multi hour delays, at some point the cost of delays is going to outweigh the cost of shooting the dog dead.

Tarmacs tend to be fenced off so people don't unsuspectingly drive on them, especially at major airports. Honestly this smacks of ineptitude.

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and its not just a few minutes of delay. The dog was running around for awhile.

So apparently they had lots of time to figure out what to do and never bothered to consider tranquilizing the animal. This in and of itself speaks volumes.

[Crissi]

I think it's a testament to shitty decision-making.

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Tarmacs tend to be fenced off so people don't unsuspectingly drive on them, especially at major airports. Honestly this smacks of ineptitude.

Dogs are rather remarkable at finding weaknesses in fencing, and or darting when a door is left open for whatever reason.

and yeah, but it is ineptitude on the part of the handler more than anything.

and well, for 2 hours they had to find the dog first. I suppose they could have sent someone to a zoo in the meantime, but hindsight is 20/20. I rather have a dead dog than greatly delayed flights.

[Splatter]

So apparently they had lots of time to figure out what to do and never bothered to consider tranquilizing the animal. This in and of itself speaks volumes.

It was considered and was ruled out as not a viable option by animal control. It was simply not possible to get close enough to do it with an agitated and fast moving animal. This decision was not taken lightly either. These dogs are hugely expensive tools that take a long time to train. But when you have aircraft in holding patterns running low on fuel the decision to shoot a dog or let people die as their plane crashes is quite easy. NZ is a small country, there are very few alternative landing sites for large aircraft and when you run out of space to divert aircraft there is no option. You may not like the choice but it was the right one.

[Deathquoi]

Because in locales where animal control is a responsibility - chief among them zoos (Harambe!) and airports (many birds and animals causing risk) it is a basic common sense approach to be prepared.

If you have enough light to shoot a gun you have enough light to shoot a tranquilizer.

You don't know how tranquilizers work, it's ok to admit that. Like I said in another post, a tranquilizer gun is not a magic object that incapacitates anything you fire it at.

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I think it's a testament to shitty decision-making.

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Tarmacs tend to be fenced off so people don't unsuspectingly drive on them, especially at major airports. Honestly this smacks of ineptitude.

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So apparently they had lots of time to figure out what to do and never bothered to consider tranquilizing the animal. This in and of itself speaks volumes.

Have you ever even been to an airport? Google an image of Auckland Airport, especially the terminal and tarmac area. There's a ton of open space with very little fencing.

Just because you think tranquilizer guns are magic doesn't mean they can be used in every situation.

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It was considered and was ruled out as not a viable option by animal control. It was simply not possible to get close enough to do it with an agitated and fast moving animal. This decision was not taken lightly either. These dogs are hugely expensive tools that take a long time to train. But when you have aircraft in holding patterns running low on fuel the decision to shoot a dog or let people die as their plane crashes is quite easy. NZ is a small country, there are very few alternative landing sites for large aircraft and when you run out of space to divert aircraft there is no option. You may not like the choice but it was the right one.

Exactly, the only other airport in New Zealand even close to as big as Auckland is Christchurch and it's 500 miles away. A plane that's been circling for 2 hours might not be able to make it to Christchurch. Also, we are talking about a shutdown at an airport that handles 45,000 passengers a day for a loose dog. It's madness.

[Underverse]

meh, okay. How many mountains should be moved for a wild animal?

[Celista]

It was considered and was ruled out as not a viable option by animal control. It was simply not possible to get close enough to do it with an agitated and fast moving animal. This decision was not taken lightly either. These dogs are hugely expensive tools that take a long time to train. But when you have aircraft in holding patterns running low on fuel the decision to shoot a dog or let people die as their plane crashes is quite easy. NZ is a small country, there are very few alternative landing sites for large aircraft and when you run out of space to divert aircraft there is no option. You may not like the choice but it was the right one.

That is not what the article states.

"We exhausted every option available and could not catch it," an Auckland Airport spokesman told the BBC.

When asked why the dog could not be tranquilised, the spokesman said: "I do not have the answer to that. But there were no tranquiliser guns at the airport, and the police do not have them either."

That being said, there is one source in the article that states that tranquilizer guns are not common in NZ but considering NZ wildlife I have a hard time believing that there was no resource in the Auckland area that would have assisted in bringing in this dog alive (especially considering the locality of the zoo and I assume animal control in an urban area), especially when so much time was wasted trying to catch it.

If the zoo, no vets, and animal control in a city of 1mil doesn't have tranquilizer guns, then the city of Auckland is in deep shit if one of their expensive zoo animals manages to escape its habitat.

[Vizardlorde]

Dog people are the worst people.

I prefer rocks, they dont pee all over the place, they don't harass you for food and they don't make noise. rock = best pet.

[Deathquoi]

That is not what the article states.

That being said, there is one source in the article that states that tranquilizer guns are not common in NZ but considering NZ wildlife I have a hard time believing that there was no resource in the Auckland area that would have assisted in bringing in this dog alive (especially considering the locality of the zoo and I assume animal control in an urban area), especially when so much time was wasted trying to catch it.

If the zoo, no vets, and animal control in a city of 1mil doesn't have tranquilizer guns, then the city of Auckland is in deep shit if one of their expensive zoo animals manages to escape its habitat.

You definitely know more than this guy, for sure.

Callum Irvine, head of vet services at the New Zealand Veterinary Association, told New Zealand's Stuff website that tranquilising an animal was complex.

"There just isn't ready access to tranquiliser guns and darts in New Zealand, and even if authorities did manage to get their hands on one in time, there are so many other factors to take into consideration, like how close the animal is, the animal's weight, age and how much adrenaline was also running through the body."

He said tranquilising an animal on the loose could be very difficult.
"If it's not done right, a partially sedated animal can become even more distressed, and fearful and difficult to manage - and become even more of a danger to those around it."

You know that you can't just grab a "tranquilizer gun" and shoot it at any animal, right? Like a generic "tranquilizer gun" isn't a thing. You need a dose that's measured for the animal you're trying to bring down and the condition it's in. The zoos probably have tranquilizer doses ready to use for their own animals but not for every fucking dog in the city.

[Celista]

You definitely know more than this guy, for sure.

Yeah I think that guy is suspect if he's claiming that there are no tranquilizer guns/darts in the greater Auckland area. As I stated in my post. Thank you for agreeing with me through your reply that his claim is likely nonsense.

[Deathquoi]

Yeah I think that guy is suspect if he's claiming that there are no tranquilizer guns/darts in the greater Auckland area. As I stated in my post. Thank you for agreeing with me through your reply that his claim is likely nonsense.

That's not at all what he said, perhaps you should learn to read. He said they aren't readily available. That's not the same thing as "none". And as you know, I was being sarcastic, I would say that there are probably very few learned people that you know more than, and certainly not this guy.