UPDATE: Police dog's operation licence suspended

A force spokesman said the dog unit at Leicestershire, which is investigating the incident, had made a decision to remove Falco’s operational licence while the incident is investigated.

The spokesman said: “This is normal practice for police dog teams where there are unanswered questions and is not a pre-judgement of the circumstances.”

They added the Police Dog Handler PC Mike Judge has not been removed from operational duties.

Wednesday, 7.55am - An official investigation is under way after a police dog fatally injured another dog on a private road near Boston.

The incident happened at around 10.35pm on Monday February 29, after an East Midlands Operational Support Service Dog Handler parked a marked police dog van in an isolated location on the private road owned by the Drainage Board, near Fishtoft, in order to exercise his police dog.

The officer was unaware that a local man and his dog were approaching them in the dark, and the man’s dog was bitten by the police dog.

Although the officer immediately escorted the man and his dog to a local vet, the man’s dog was later put down due to its injuries.

Police are in contact with the dog’s owner, and the full circumstances of the incident are being investigated.