Photo released of police dog injured in Northland shooting

December 3, 2020

The dog received critical injuries to his face and jaw after being shot in an incident Tuesday near Dargaville.

Police have released an image of the police dog injured in a shooting in Northland on Tuesday.

The German shepherd is making good progress but will need several more rounds of surgery in the coming weeks due to his injuries, police said today in a Facebook post.

The police dog received injuries to his face and jaw after he was shot by a man in Tangowahine, 12 kilometres north of Dargaville.

The man was subsequently shot by police. He remains in a stable condition in hospital. 

"Police would like to acknowledge the Dargaville vet clinic, with support from Kamo vets, who immediately provided lifesaving treatment to the police dog following the incident on Tuesday," Inspector Todd Southall said. 

"Our police dog was then airlifted to Veterinary Specialists Auckland, where Dr Alistair Coomer and his team have been providing ongoing treatment and assessment."

Coomer told 1 NEWS while the dog's injuries are severe, he "will fully recover". 

"I’m very confident he will survive this, and go home and be active," the vet specialist said. "The target we are working towards is that he will go back into active duty."

He added that the dog is "pretty chipper" despite the extent of his injuries. 

"There will be a long road to recovery, and it is still too early to say whether the dog will return to operational duties, however police remain optimistic," the police said in a statement.  

He has a dedicated nurse, vet and specialist with him throughout the day, and the rest of the clinic’s 40 staff are helping with care where they can.

Coomer has experience working with animal gunshot wounds.

“I guess I am fortunate enough, or unfortunate enough that I spent a lot of my training in the [United] States [of America] where gunshots happen a lot.

“They don’t happen often here, but we know how to deal with them when they do arrive.”

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