Beautiful dog, glad he's safe

Maybe he wanted to swim back to Germany?

Seriously, dogs really are that smart/dumb.

That's what I was thinking.  He's probably a Nazi dog.

Or a Nazi-hunting dog. Never know.

Definitely plausible.

"My job there is not yet done!  You can't hide from me, Nazis!  Woof!"

Was the dog 'pooped' because of all the feces in the water?

Real Men are kind to animals. 

"Charlie, who had just been picked up by his new owners after arriving from Germany"

I guess all the dogs sitting in pounds and adoption centers have already been adopted, so these people needed to fly a dog in from half-way around the world.

Felix?

That's an unfair assumption.  I have a friend who just sent her cat to Spain because a good friend there was taking her in.

However, if you want a well bred German Shepard, free of congenital defects, you really do need to get one from Germany.  English and US breeding programs are unreliable and don't keep an accurate register of who breeds with who, making inbreeding, temperament issues and disease more likely.

And if you want to be bitchy about it - look at the government.  Most police and military German Shepards are imported from Germany as well. 

I do want to be bitchy about it.

"However, if you want a well bred German Shepard, free of congenital defects, you really do need to get one from Germany." See, I don't WANT to fly in animal from 1,000 of miles away. For police and service dogs that's all well and good, but for the ordinary citizen to WANT an animal from that far away is absurd. Either you need it, and have a good reason for needing it, or you don't.

Why is it absurd to want the best?  And why is it okay for the government to get the best but private citizens can't?

And how do you know that this owner doesn't need it? Perhaps he trains seeing eye dogs and getting a skiddish pound dog would end up a waste of time, money and effort and the dog going right back into a pound?

I'll agree that if you're just getting a 'kicking around the house' dog, you should go to the pound.  But to hate on people who don't do that is counter-productive to your ultimate goal - which I believe is to reduce the population of animals in shelters.

Exactly. What cr17 and the felinewhowillnotbenamed don't understand is that people who want to buy a pet are the least of the problems. The main goal should be to get less dedicated pet owners to spay and neuter and not abandon animals to the streets when it's no longer convenient to keep them. One unspayed cat or dog can theoretically have thousands of descendents within a decade. I dare say that does much more damage in terms of overpopulation and strain on shelters than one person buying a pet.

Wait....so....a LOVED pup should have been turned over to a pound so a different pup could be saved from a pound? All to save money on airfare like the dog is some luggage?

You, sir, are a sanctimonious cat lover.

Don't you just love when NYPD does something that everyone can cheer about?   GOOD JOB GUYS.