The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday rejected the donation of two police dogs, sending the request back to committee after one council member raised concerns about the company that provided the dogs.
“I’m not opposed to donating dogs to police departments. That’s not an issue,” City Councilman Bob Blumenfield said at Tuesday’s meeting, “but what concerns me is that this company, Adlerhorst International, is the name of a Nazi bunker used by Adolf Hitler during World War II.”
Representatives for Adlerhorst International did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Blumenfield said he searched the internet to see if the company’s name had another meaning but couldn’t find anything.
“This is a company that glorifies Hitler’s bunker and this is a company that sells German shepherd dogs that have a history in the Holocaust,” Blumenfield said.
He added: “I don’t know if that was the company’s intention, but the fact is the name is creepy and not really associated with a company like this. They’ve had plenty of time to deal with it and I can’t support doing business with a company that glorifies Hitler’s bunker.”
Blumenfield enlisted the support of his colleagues to ask the Los Angeles Police Foundation to report the dog’s origins, which sent the donation back to the City Council’s Public Safety Committee.
In March, the Police Commission approved the adoption of two dogs, valued at $26,900, for the Metropolitan District’s K-9 platoon. The dogs will replace two others that were retired from the program due to old age and health concerns, police said.
The LA Police Foundation is an independent nonprofit that provides funding and support to the LAPD. Donations from the Foundation help the police department upgrade its technology and provide specialized training.
The invoice the department sent to the council said the dogs would be sent by Adlerhorst International, located at 3951 Vernon Ave. in Jurupa Valley.
VICE News reported on the company in 2021, calling it “one of the largest K-9 training facilities in the country, supplying dogs to more than 300 law enforcement agencies.”
Adlerhorst, German for “Eagle’s Nest”, was a series of World War II bunkers built in the Bavarian Alps to hide out Hitler. The site also served as Hitler’s headquarters in December 1944 and January 1945.
Vice magazine reported that David Lieber, a pioneer and founder of Police Dog Trainer, had been sued dozens of times for injuries allegedly caused by his dogs. Lieber has denied past allegations of racism and said his company’s name came from a German kennel where he bought dogs in the 1960s. He founded the company in 1976.