00:00Peter has sent a letter to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner urging him to recognise
00:05that the time has come to phase out the use of dogs in policing altogether.
00:09The group's calling for the use of dogs to be replaced with safer, modern policing technology.
00:14In the letter, the animal rights charity noted that a dog who was burned in the Southport
00:18riots had been bitten and strangled by an offender while on duty just weeks prior.
00:23We have been on the streets of Liverpool to get your opinion.
00:26It's a difficult one, really, because you can argue, yeah, they just take the paw up
00:31and say, oh, I want to be in the police force, but they're trained to do that.
00:34I think a lot of it's in the training, what to expect in the job, hopefully not what they
00:40had to put up with there.
00:42But I think how far do you extend it?
00:44You therefore say, well, police horses.
00:46Don't get rid of the police dogs because they do come in handy.
00:51Well, I think it's entirely wrong that the police dogs should come off the force, because
00:57they're well trained and they know their owners.
01:01The owners have them at home and they get attached to these dogs.
01:06If you get rid of dogs and horses and then other animals, what's in the police force
01:12as well, then you need to think, why don't you get rid of them?
01:15Personally, I would say they should continue in the police force, but perhaps there needs
01:21to be a little bit more judgements on the sort of situation that they're placed in,
01:26thinking, well, is that really where an animal should be, where the worst case happened,
01:31they could be killed?
01:32In addition to the serious harm or even death faced by dogs in the line of duty, Peter points
01:37out that the continuous breeding of these dogs exacerbates the UK's considerable homeless
01:42animal crisis.
01:44Each year, hundreds of puppies are bred into existence for police forces, but not all of
01:48them will graduate training and be used for work.
01:51These animals must then compete for a home with more than 100,000 dogs who are homeless
01:55in the UK at any given time.
Comments