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Kansas is poised to increase penalties for killing police dogs and horses after legislators gave their final approval Tuesday to a measure inspired by a suspect's strangling of a dog last year in the state's largest city.The Republican-controlled state House approved a bill with a 115-6 vote that would allow a first-time offender to be sentenced to more than three years in prison for killing a police animal, an arson dog, a game warden's dog or a search-and-rescue dog and up to five years if the killing occurs when a suspect is trying to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/crime/police-and-law-enforcement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">elude law enforcement</a>. An offender also could be fined up to $10,000.The current penalty for killing a police dog is up to a year behind bars and a fine of between $500 and $5,000, and the law doesn't specifically cover horses.<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kansas-lawmakers-race-reckon-flat-tax-dei-disputes-before-spring-break" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KANSAS LAWMAKERS RACE TO RECKON WITH FLAT TAX, DEI DISPUTES BEFORE SPRING BREAK</a>"There is a lot of time and money put into those animals," said House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who was the bill’s leading advocate. "They have to continually train all the time and so to have one killed, there’s got to be a pretty harsh penalty."The GOP-controlled Senate approved the measure by a narrower 25-15 margin last week, and the bill goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who has not said publicly whether she will sign it. Kelly typically signs measures with bipartisan support, but most of the 11 Democrats in the Senate opposed the bill.Increased penalties have had <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/6-us-states-consider-harsher-penalties-harming-police-k9-dogs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bipartisan support across the U.S.</a> In Colorado, the Democratically led General Assembly approved a measure last month. Proposals have advanced in GOP-controlled Legislatures in Missouri and West Virginia and introduced in at least four other states.The Kansas measure was inspired by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/kansas-police-dog-allegedly-strangled-line-duty" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the November death of Bane</a>, an 8-year-old Wichita police dog. Authorities say a suspect in a domestic violence case took refuge in a storm drain and strangled Bane when a deputy sent the dog in to flush out the suspect.But critics of such measures have questions about how dogs are used in policing, particularly when suspects of color are involved. Their use also has a fraught history, such as their use by Southern authorities during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s."Police dogs have jaws strong enough to puncture sheet metal. Victims of attacks by police dogs have sustained serious and even fatal injuries," Keisha James, a staff attorney for the National Lawyers Guild's National Police Accountability Project, said in written testimony to a Senate committee last month. "It follows that an individual being attacked by a police dog would respond by trying to defend themselves."

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published: 2024-04-03 11:51:31.000000000 Z
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 guid: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kansas-police-dog-strangled-legislators-approve-harsher-penalties-k-9-killings
title: After Kansas police dog strangled, legislators approve harsher penalties for
 K-9 killings
categories:
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content: Kansas is poised to increase penalties for killing police dogs and horses
 after legislators gave their final approval Tuesday to a measure inspired by a suspect's
 strangling of a dog last year in the state's largest city.The Republican-controlled
 state House approved a bill with a 115-6 vote that would allow a first-time offender
 to be sentenced to more than three years in prison for killing a police animal,
 an arson dog, a game warden's dog or a search-and-rescue dog and up to five years
 if the killing occurs when a suspect is trying to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/crime/police-and-law-enforcement"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">elude law enforcement</a>. An offender also could
 be fined up to $10,000.The current penalty for killing a police dog is up
 to a year behind bars and a fine of between $500 and $5,000, and the law doesn't
 specifically cover horses.<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kansas-lawmakers-race-reckon-flat-tax-dei-disputes-before-spring-break"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">KANSAS LAWMAKERS RACE TO RECKON WITH FLAT
 TAX, DEI DISPUTES BEFORE SPRING BREAK</a>"There is a lot of time
 and money put into those animals," said House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican
 who was the bill’s leading advocate. "They have to continually train all the time
 and so to have one killed, there’s got to be a pretty harsh penalty."The
 GOP-controlled Senate approved the measure by a narrower 25-15 margin last week,
 and the bill goes next to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who has not said publicly
 whether she will sign it. Kelly typically signs measures with bipartisan support,
 but most of the 11 Democrats in the Senate opposed the bill.Increased penalties
 have had <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/6-us-states-consider-harsher-penalties-harming-police-k9-dogs"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">bipartisan support across the U.S.</a> In Colorado,
 the Democratically led General Assembly approved a measure last month. Proposals
 have advanced in GOP-controlled Legislatures in Missouri and West Virginia and introduced
 in at least four other states.The Kansas measure was inspired by <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/kansas-police-dog-allegedly-strangled-line-duty"
 target="_blank" rel="noopener">the November death of Bane</a>, an 8-year-old Wichita
 police dog. Authorities say a suspect in a domestic violence case took refuge in
 a storm drain and strangled Bane when a deputy sent the dog in to flush out the
 suspect.But critics of such measures have questions about how dogs are used
 in policing, particularly when suspects of color are involved. Their use also has
 a fraught history, such as their use by Southern authorities during the Civil Rights
 Movement of the 1950s and 1960s."Police dogs have jaws strong enough to puncture
 sheet metal. Victims of attacks by police dogs have sustained serious and even fatal
 injuries," Keisha James, a staff attorney for the National Lawyers Guild's National
 Police Accountability Project, said in written testimony to a Senate committee last
 month. "It follows that an individual being attacked by a police dog would respond
 by trying to defend themselves."
summary: Kansas lawmakers gave final approval for a bill that would increase the penalties
 for killing police dogs and horses after the November death of a Wichita police
 dog.
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url: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kansas-police-dog-strangled-legislators-approve-harsher-penalties-k-9-killings
image: https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/04/931/523/Police-Dogs-Kansas.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

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