The South African Police Service (SAPS) says it is experiencing a nationwide shortage of police dogs, affecting all K9 Units across the country.
According to the police service, about 500 dogs are required to fully capacitate SAPS’s K9 Units in all nine provinces.
Police in the Eastern Cape recently issued an urgent appeal to the public for donations of dogs to bolster its K9 Units, saying that a critical shortage of suitable dogs is impairing essential crime-fighting, search and rescue, and detection operations across the province.
Police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said all K9 disciplines are impacted by the shortage, which is due to several factors, including the limited availability of suitable dogs on both local and international markets.
She said the shortage is worsened by medical conditions, injuries sustained during operations, natural attrition, old age and the unfortunate loss of dogs in the line of duty.
“In addition to existing procurement processes, the SAPS continues to appeal for public donations of suitable dogs to sustain operational capacity within K9 Units. Donations remain a critical component of SAPS’s broader strategy to maintain and strengthen K9 capabilities,” she said.
Mathe said SAPS also operates an internal breeding programme that supplies both dogs and horses to capacitate SAPS K9 and Mounted Units nationwide.
“SAPS Veterinary Services is implementing a more scientific, sustainable and animal-welfare-focused approach to enhance the service’s breeding capacity,” she said.
According to SAPS, to be considered, dogs must be healthy, confident, energetic and not fearful of people or loud noises.
Preferred breeds include German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Labrador Retrievers, Rottweilers, Bloodhounds, Border Collies, Jack Russells and Dutch Shepherds.
Cobus Steenkamp, a lecturer in police practice at the North-West University says the shortage could undermine crime-fighting or disaster-response capability.
“The continued neglect or underfunding of these units would further erode SAPS’s capacity to fulfil its mandate of creating a safe and secure South Africa. It is important to remember that SAPS is, by its nature, a responsive service. Effective responsiveness often requires a state of readiness, including specialised capabilities that may not be in constant visible use but are essential when critical incidents occur,” he said.
Steenkamp said it would be a serious error of judgement to view K9 units merely as cost centres or unnecessary expenditures.
Given the finite productive operational lifespan of a police dog, typically between five and seven years, the supply pipeline must be actively managed through a structured and reliable breeding and procurement programme. This ensures continuity of capability and prevents operational gaps.
— Cobus Steenkamp, lecturer in police practice at the North-West University
“Their value lies not only in routine operations, but in their ability to respond rapidly and decisively when high-risk, time-sensitive situations arise. In my view, any police service that is not adequately resourced with well-trained and properly supported K9 units lacks a critical operational component. Without such capability, the policing system remains incomplete,” he said.
According to Steenkamp, outsourcing or donation-based sourcing is not sustainable as it would undermine the development of institutional capacity built through direct operational experience.
“K9 capability is not simply a service that can be procured; it is a specialised policing function that develops over time through training, deployment and organisational learning.”
He believes that outsourcing also risks shifting the primary focus from public safety to commercial considerations, where profit imperatives may conflict with long-term policing objectives.
“If public safety is to remain a transferable and sustainable institutional asset, SAPS must remain the primary custodian of K9 capability, including training, deployment and operational doctrine,” Steenkamp said.
He said the limitations of relying on donations have already been demonstrated.
“Given the finite productive operational lifespan of a police dog, typically between five and seven years, the supply pipeline must be actively managed through a structured and reliable breeding and procurement programme. This ensures continuity of capability and prevents operational gaps,” he said.
He believes that while donations may be accepted in limited and clearly defined circumstances, they should only supplement, not replace, a formalised system supported by verified and accredited breeders.
“A sustainable K9 capability requires strategic planning, institutional ownership and long-term investment rather than ad hoc or externally driven solutions,” he said.
Dr Mary Mangai, senior lecturer at the University of Pretoria’s School of Public Management and Administration, said in governance terms, the shortage suggests strain in a specialist capability supply chain, not only the number of dogs, but the upstream “inputs” that make K9 capability deployable: procurement or breeding capacity, veterinary screening, kennelling infrastructure, training throughput and lifecycle budgeting (food, healthcare, replacement cycles).
Mangai believes that the fact that SAPS is appealing publicly implies that ordinary sourcing channels are not meeting demand, and that the organisation is using an emergency, community-facing mechanism to fill a resourcing gap.
As a long-term model, Mangai said donation-based sourcing is usually supplementary rather than foundational.
“Donations can help close short-term gaps, but they introduce variability (quality of candidate dogs, timing, geographic inequity) and can shift critical capacity into an unpredictable stream, especially when the service requires standardised temperament/health and consistent replacement planning,” she said.
Like Steenkamp, Mangai agrees that the shortage can undermine crime-fighting or disaster-response capability.
“K9 functions are not easily ‘covered’ by general patrol without either losing speed (time-to detect/time-to-find) or increasing resource intensity (more personnel, more hours, more specialist kit). The Eastern Cape appeal itself states that the shortage is already hampering core K9 functions, including search-and-rescue and specialised detection, which implies a real-time capability deficit rather than a hypothetical risk.
“If you accept historical SAPS reporting that K9 units can support very high volumes of searches/arrests/recoveries, then a sustained reduction in deployable dogs predictably translates into lower operational outputs and reduced resilience during spikes (major investigations, border operations, crowd events, or disasters where search capacity is urgently needed),” Mangai said.
According to SAPS, selection criteria assess whether dogs have the right traits for specific duties.
Dogs considered for detection and search work, including narcotics, explosives, firearms or search-and-rescue, are required to show a high play/prey drive, shown by an intense focus on and desire to chase balls or toys.
Those intended for patrol and arrest roles must show a non-emotional, predatory sequence of prey drive, which is associated with controlled aggression necessary for suspect apprehension and protection work.
Mathe said donated dogs that do not meet operational training requirements are either returned to the donor, transferred to other government departments such as correctional services, or placed with the National Council of SPCAs for rehoming.
“When trained police dogs reach the end of their operational service, K9 handlers are allowed to rehome the animals. All dog donations to the SAPS are unconditional and irrevocable,” said Mathe.
She said once accepted into the SAPS system, donated dogs become SAPS assets and are allocated to K9 handlers for training in line with discipline suitability and operational needs identified by the service.
Mathe said dog donations form part of an ongoing procurement strategy, alongside purchasing and breeding, and are not limited to emergency interventions. She said this approach ensures the sustained capacitation of SAPS K9 Units.
“The SAPS is also intensifying training efforts to ensure that available dogs are trained without unnecessary delays. On average, a dog is deployed within six months of acquisition, depending on its readiness and suitability,” she said.
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