When we think of the different types of working dogs, police dogs are among those that come to mind. We’ve all seen these clever canines hard at work helping their human counterparts, but some people believe they should become a thing of the past.
Police dogs are treated like any other dogs in some ways – like being given some of the best dog treats – but their job can come with risks.
Leading the calls against the use of police dogs is the animal rights organization PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, following injuries to police dogs in the UK after the riots in the country last month. During the riots, which spread following the mass stabbing in the town of Southport at the end of July, some police dogs were hit with bricks and burned.
As a result, PETA has called for dogs to be replaced with “safer, modern policing technology”. And while the police have not yet responded, the National Police Chiefs Council did introduce new standards in April in which they said the police “rightly place a significant emphasis on the welfare and care of police dogs" and paid tribute to the canines who "dedicate a lifetime of service, working alongside police officers and staff to keeping our communities safe".
PETA told Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner – the highest ranking police officer in the UK – in a letter that “unlike human officers, [police dogs] did not choose to enlist or put their lives on the line.”
It added that Merseyside Police dogs were “hit by bricks thrown by the unruly crowd” in Southport, and said, “Over the years, we have also read reports of dogs who have been punched or kicked or whose eyes have been gouged during altercations.
"The risk of injury while working, dogs used by the police are vulnerable because too often their wellbeing comes second to other priorities."
PETA added, "Dogs in Britain's police forces never signed up to risk their lives, but are being battered on the front lines of riots and left to bake to death in hot cars."
Over the weekend, the death of a police dog in the US made the news, too. On September 28, an off-duty police officer in Texas accidentally shot a police dog while trying to shoot his neighbor’s dogs, via the Miami Herald.
San Antonio police said that the officer, an experienced police dog handler, said he was trying to protect the canine, but that three dogs belonging to his neighbor had broken through a fence to his backyard and went after his dog. He tried to separate the dogs, but when he was unsuccessful, he opened fire, hitting both the neighbor’s dogs and his own. The officer has been placed on administrative duty while investigations are ongoing.
For more information about dogs with jobs, here are seven amazing jobs that working dogs can do.
