Sam! Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.

Sam, local celebrity, Metropolitan Police Department officer and dog, appeared before a Council committee today for a hearing on a bill that would make it a felony to hurt a police animal.

The Prohibition of the Harm of Police Animals Amendment, introduced by Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and co-introduced by ten other Councilmembers, would make “willfully and maliciously” harming a police animal punishable by up to five years in prison. Permanently maiming or killing a police animal would be punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Wells allowed Sergeant Johnnie Walter to speak first, as Walter’s partner Sam was “getting a little restless.” Indeed, during Walter’s testimony, Sam was rubbing his face against his partner, flopping on the ground and in general being very cute. (“Sam’s quite a ham,” Wells noted.)

As Walter previously said, Sam is trained to track days-old human scent for miles. While Sam cost $8,000 to purchase already trained, patrol dogs cost between $40-50,000 after training and medical bills.

The majority of the people who testified this morning, including Washington Humane Society vice president of external affairs Scott Giacoppo, were in favor of the amendment.

Kristopher Baumann, chairman of the D.C. Police Union, called for mandatory minimums. “I know the pro-criminal lobby wants to argue that it should stay a property crime. I don’t know what to say to that,” he said. “They’ve obviously never been out to see what these animals are willing to do to protect their handlers and the public and anyone else. It’s heroic and it’s amazing.”

One person who had doubts about the amendment’s language was Richard Gilbert, co-chair of the District of Columbia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “Let me just say, first of all, I don’t hate dogs. And furthermore I’ve studied law enforcement issues and I understand just how valuable dogs can be,” he said. Gilbert spoke in favor of amending the cruelty to animals statute to double the sanctions for harming a police animal: “The value to doing that is that you would be working with existing language in the statute.”

“Do you really want to makes felons out of people that do something other than significantly injure or kill an animals? Now we agree that those … are serious offenses,” he said. “We need to have some proportionality in the law. We shouldn’t be prosecuting, and much less giving felony convictions, to people who harass or tease a police dog.”