Police animals

Factual Questions
1

Let’s say that the police are chasing you for something and they send a police dog in after you. You pull out a knife and stab the dog. What offense have you committed? What if the dog dies?

Thanks,
Rob

2

Here are some examples of the criminal penalties for assaulting a police animal (typically a horse or dog) in various states.
http://www.policek9.com/html/statutes.html

It is also apparently a federal crime, carrying a 10 year prison sentence, to injure a police animal under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government (FBI, DEA, etc) See 18 USC 1368.

3

Here’s a case in which the killer of a police dog was indicted for “assaulting a police dog” and cruelty to animals, and also sent a bill for the cost of the animal.

4

I’m wondering what happens if the cops send a dog in the building, woods, etc after you and it menaces someone else?
I don’t recall any police dogs wearing badges, coats or little hats that say “police” on them.

I had a co-worker that wound up locking a police dog in the server room at our job after the campus police freaked out because there were people in the computing center after hours… at the time he hadn’t encountered any cops, he just encountered a police dog, followed by the cops a minute or two later.

5

Generally, you are well aware that there is a police dog in the building – the cops have been outside for a while with a bullhorn telling someone to give themself up. You would have a hard time claiming you were unaware of this. (But a case like these campus cop clowns might be different. Sounds like they didn’t follow normal procedure.)

And here in Minnesota, there are specific laws about this. It’s much more serious than killing a neighbor’s animal. It’s classified as a form of “assault on a police officer”, and is a serious felony.

Plus it gets all little old ladies of the Humane Society after you, and they are much scarier than the cops!

6

(On a totally unrelated point, I’m annoyed my hometown got rid of our mounted cops. I’d have loved to be one.)

Don’t police dogs generally wear some kind of ID? Don’t want a jumpy cop to shoot a dog by accident.