‘Law should be changed to protect police dogs’

THE law should protect police dogs in the same way it protects police officers, Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor has said.

New statistics show that 92% of incidents involving police dogs have resulted in no charge, while 75.7% of dog handlers say their dogs have been punched or kicked.

The figures were revealed during a debate by MPs on Finn’s law, the e-petition calling for attacks on police dogs and horses to be treated the same way as assaults on officers.

Steve said: “Police dogs aren’t pets, they’re working animals and they’re trained and honed for a particular purpose, but the bonds that they create with their handlers and the people that those police dogs work with are real and strong and just like the bonds that you would create with colleagues.

“Why shouldn’t we reflect that in assaults on them? Were you to assault my colleague there are offenses against that.

“Were you to assault my colleague, the police dog, then it’s just criminal damage, it’s just a piece of property.

“That doesn’t quite strike me as being right. That doesn’t seem to fairly reflect the bond and the work that these animals do on our behalf.”