Abuse claims at German police dog school

HERZOGAU, Germany, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Germany's top police dog academy has come under fire after allegations emerged of abuse aimed at cadets and the dogs.

The Herzogau-based academy prepares teams to use dogs to find drugs, explosives and corpses. However, a source inside the academy alleges the trainers commonly mistreat cadets, especially women, and often abuse the dogs, The Times of London reported Thursday.

The source said in an eight-page letter to newspaper Nurnberger Nachrichten that female cadets were forced to wear training collars designed to deliver an electric shock to a dog when it misbehaves. The letter said the female cadets were forced to crawl on all fours, bark on command and drink beer from bowls held between the thighs of instructors.

The source said some cadets were forced to drink steaming urine from beer mugs. "Trainees also had to drink a cocktail made up of rubbish fished out of bins and rotting food," the letter said.

The source said the dogs, some of which were forced to wear nooses instead of proper collars and leashes, were regularly kicked and their injuries were left untreated.

The letter also alleged widespread neo-Nazi sympathy among instructors.