(Radio Iowa) – A bill that could ensure severely injured police dogs get speedier care is way to the governor. Senator Cherilynn Westrich, of Ottumwa, says K-9 officers often do dangerous work.  “These highly trained dogs help seize drugs, sniff out explosives, detain criminals, locate missing people, and uncover forensic evidence at crime scenes,” Westrich says. “This bill allows an emergency medical care provider to provide veterinary medical services by diagnosing or treating a severely injured police dog.” Under current law, a vet has to be called to a crime scene to provide care to a police dog that’s critically injured. Under the bill, E-M-Ts would not be required to provide care to a police dog, but could volunteer to do so under certain conditions.

“The police dog must be on duty, the police dog has suffered a severe injury and treatment is immediately necessary to stabilize the dog,” Westrich said. Representative Mike Vondran of Davenport says the bill also requires E-M-Ts to treat all injured humans first before attending to an injured police dog. “Our police dog friends, our partners in law enforcement, quite often are put into some of the very most dangerous situations,” he said. “As a result they can often by wounded by gunshot, by stabbing, by slashing — very close contact injury.” The bill also provides liability protection to E-M-Ts who volunteer to treat a police dog wounded in the line of duty. Representative Eric Gjerde (JER-dee), a Cedar Rapids police officer, says during a recent training session, videos illustrated how K-9 officers often deflect a suspect’s attention from human officers. “One of the videos a perpetrator was stabbing at the dog rather than coming at the police officers with a knife,” Gjerde said.

While the bill would let E-M-Ts to treat police dogs at a crime scene, the injured K-9s could not be transported to a veterinary clinic in an ambulance intended for humans. The bill cleared the House and Senate with the support of 137 legislators. One lawmaker voted against the bill.