Johannesburg - The agony a police dog suffered when beaten with a sjambok in Pretoria last year could have led to the animal's heart stopping, The Pretoria News reported on Wednesday.
It said veterinarian Dr Johannes Strydom gave evidence to this effect in the Pretoria district court on Tuesday.
This was in the trial of two police officers accused of beating the three-year-old Rottweiler, Freud, to death.
Captain Deon Linde, 37, a senior supervisor, and Inspector Warren Carl Kannemeyer, 38, an instructor, were stationed at the police's Dog Training School in Pretoria West at the time.
The incident happened in June 2004. Both denied guilt on charges of animal cruelty and malicious damage to property.
Strydom testified that a post-mortem was conducted on the animal.
"There were areas of haemorrhaging over the neck and body, typical of an animal that had been traumatised," he told the court.
"The injuries to the neck and chest are more likely to be caused by a choke chain, but those on the body were caused by multiple lashes by another instrument."
Gordon Mphahlane, Freud's handler, testified the dog was being taught to pick up objects on June 9.
Freud did not do this properly and Linde allegedly hit him several times with a steel pipe.
On June 15 that year Freud failed to pick up a teddy bear, as instructed.
"Kannemeyer hit the dog about 11 times with a sjambok. The dog then picked up the object. But again he did not do it properly," said Mphahlane.
"Kannemeyer ordered me to hit the dog again. I did. The inspector then hit the dog until it was unable to move."
He said there was blood mixed with saliva around the dog's mouth. Freud died that same day.
Mphahlane admitted that he had lied in his first statement, saying Kannemeyer told him not to mention the sjambok.
The defence denied this and stated that Kannemeyer hit Freud as he attacked Mphahlane.
But Mphahlane said: "My dog was a very gentle dog. He was not aggressive."
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