John Spellar – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2014-04-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will introduce legislative proposals to protect police dogs by recognising them as an extension of their handler as a police officer.

Simon Hughes

The Government agrees that attacks of any sort on police dogs, horses or any other police animal should be dealt with severely under the criminal law. However, it is not necessary to create a new offence in order to do this.

An attack on a police dog can be treated as animal cruelty under s4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The maximum penalty is six months imprisonment, or a fine of up to £20,000, or both.