Story By: Victoria Lyndon, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News 

An expert has said army dogs which mauled an Austrian soldier to death “are trained to kill” and blamed the victim saying he was was not “properly educated” to handle them.

Soldier Dominik R., 31, was killed after being attacked by two Belgian Shepherds at the airfield barracks in Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria.

One soldier described the incident as an “inexplicable tragedy” but Michael Schoenbauer, a legally sworn expert for veterinary medicine at the regional court of Innsbruck, told local newspaper Krone that it was a “completely false and absurd” statement.

Schoenbauer said: “There is no mystery here. These dogs are trained to kill! Only the human who is known as the ‘alpha animal’ has an influence on the animals who are trained for use in extreme situations.”

Dominik R. was reportedly not the head of the kennel that day. He had left his own dog in the car to feed the Belgian Shepherds. Hours later he was discovered dead. An autopsy is due to take place on Tuesday 19th November.

Shoenbauer said: “The soldier should not have gone to the access dogs. He had had no alpha education. The animals cannot help it – they are trained to be self-employed.”

The service dogs currently remain in quarantine, but whether they will be euthanised or not is still unclear.

Schoenbauer added: “Why should you kill them? It’s not their fault.”

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