Should police dogs be ‘phased out’?

National World - LocalTV

Following violent clashes across the UK this summer that left dogs used by police forces injured, animal rights group PETA has called on law enforcement to phase out the use of dogs in policing altogether.

Transcript

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.

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