Petition: Police Dogs Aren’t ‘Property’
News » Petition: Police Dogs Aren’t ‘Property’

Petition: Police Dogs Aren’t ‘Property’

  • Anne
  • Published on 7 January, 2014

CC Police Dog CropDid you know that currently, there are no laws in place that specifically protect police dogs from attacks and violence? Instead, the law classifies these loyal and hard-working officers as “property” so that injuring or killing them is treated as criminal damage – similar to damaging a building or a vehicle – rather than as an attack on an individual.

Police dogs are officers, not things. They feel pain and fear, which property does not, and they risk and sometimes forfeit their lives in service to the force and the community. That’s why we’re supporting an important new petition, set up by David Hibbert, calling for police dogs to have the same legal protection from criminal attacks as their handlers do.

Unlike human officers, dogs don’t choose to enter the police force. Protecting them from violence is the least we can do for these brave sentient beings.

Please sign the petition and help reach the goal of 100,000 signatures needed to get the issue discussed in parliament: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/57585.

Image: West Midlands Police / CC BY-SA 2.0

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