photo by Anne de Haas

"Gentle Giant" murdered on the streets of Toronto By Dan Sandor Saturday, February 25, 2006 Born in 1997, Brigadier, an 8-year-old prize-winning Belgian cross, has worked alongside his human partners at the Mounted Unit of Toronto Police since 2001.  Being 16 hands high and weighing in at close to 1500lbs, "Brig", as his riders called him, was no light-weight, and was commonly called a "Gentle Giant". On Friday, February 24, 2006, at 18:55hrs, Brigadier and his rider, PC Kevin Bradfield, were on Community Patrol in the city's east end, when, according to police, they approached a driver stopped at an ATM machine who was reportedly yelling and screaming at the driver in front of him. When the enraged driver was approached by the mounted unit he sped away, made a u-turn, and barreled, full force into Brigadier, leaving the officer and the horse for dead in the roadway. The officer suffered neck, back and rib injuries, and was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, "Brigadier", suffering from untreatable massive traumatic injuries, had to be shot and killed, for humanitarian reasons, on the street, by officers from the Toronto Police Emergency Task Force. This hit and run driver had little to fear, as in Canada there are no additional charges available in the Criminal Code of Canada for deliberately killing a law enforcement animal.  Unlike many other countries and several states that do properly and actively protect their Police Service Animals, the Canadian Government, it seems, does not yet realize the importance and critical functions that Police Service Animals provide on a daily basis; from Search and Rescue, Community Oriented Policing, Public Safety and of course building a bridge between the community and the police, which in this day and age is vital to ensuring safe communities. Dan Sandor, Founder of BRIGADIERS LAW, is trying to have the Criminal Code of Canada amended to include the protection of Law Enforcement Service Animals.