To think it’s cruel to bring police dogs into a a massive violent riot as was Southport last night? *edited by MNHQ

[Bullbreedbliss]

The tragedy at Southport has been horrific beyond description and touched us all. However I can’t help but think it was not only ineffective, but irresponsible and cruel to bring dogs into the scene that unfolded during last nights riots. The morning after and we are hearing that dogs have been injured from having bricks thrown in their direction, strangled, kicked and burnt. Bringing half a dozen dogs into a scene where hundreds of people are engaging in such extreme levels of violence and civil unrest was never going to achieve anything except traumatised and injured animals. A poor tactic employed by police at great cost to the animals that did not choose to be there.

What happened is beyond heartbreaking I still can't get my
Head around it I watched the sky news interview with the window cleaning man , he's going to suffer forever with his memories of this tragic day too
I've long thought the police shouldn't use either dogs or horses , they're a
Easy target to attack
Can't see how a police dog is helpful in a riot at all and not fair on them either

I think there are some people poised over their key boards ready to attack anyone not responding to the situation as well as they believe themselves to be.

Yep - I think this too. This blind, one issue thinking that seeks to divide people into Good and Bad based on subjective criteria is part of the problem that happened last night in Southport. We have got to collectively get better at debating that the tiniest thing doesn't turn us into frothing balls of anger telling someone who does not match up 100% to how we think they should think to "get therapy" or whatever.

As a world we seem to be being agitated to the point that even someone questioning the dogs' welfare means she has to receive a load of attacks about her moral priorities, worded in a way to try to make her feel small and worthless.

There's something about it that seems to give the attackers some sense of power, ego, justice? I don't know - but if we (all) do not get better at talking things through more respectufully, we are going to be part of a collective movement towards greater and greater disagreements and simplifaction of issues into binary viewpoints, that leads us to real trouble.

Ofcourse the dogs were going to get injured so why put them in that position in the first place? It did nothing to stop the riot
Are you an expert on stopping rioters ? I find it hard to believe that dogs were brought in when they don’t help stop rioting.
Police dogs are always going to face threats and are a great asset for saving human lives. Be angry at the men who caused awful injury to the dogs- they are scum who just wanted an excuse to destroy things and be violent.
It is very sad that dogs have been harmed too but the police must use the tools and tactics that quash the rioters quickly with minimal casualties. If dogs are part of that then dogs should be used.

I like this idea but none of them probably want to spend a second away from their kids, grandkids, nieces etc at the moment.

I thought the same, OP. These dogs are intimidating to most people, of course, which is why they're effective. Usually. But last night the police were overwhelmed.

But I think I did spot a non-police dog there. Certainly it was with someone who wasn't in uniform. It was a big dog at the front right of the screen for a few seconds.

What a contrast this lot were with the people at the vigil. This lot must just get their kicks out of attacking the police.

I initially misread the OP and thought it referred to rioters’ own dogs. I was so staggered that anyone’s concern would be for any dogs they might have brought with them that I probably overstated my indifference to the animals. Of course I don’t want to see dogs injured. But it’s very very low down the list of things that disturb me about last night.

In isolation yes, it does look pointless however restoring order and crowd control is a far wider picture in which the dogs only form a very small part. If you study crowd control closely by looking at CCTV of a riot you will see that the police deploy multiple different tactics at the same time to disperse and control.

It's also very much about the type of dog used too as shepherds are known to be very yappy and vocal and that can be intimidating which helps restore order. Rottweilers for example were trialed in Brighton many years ago for restoring order but they were too aloof and just not vocal enough and did not have the desired effect so the trial was scrapped and they went back to using shepherds.

If you have an amazing life and some people throw bricks at you, is t ok for others to show concern to you or not?

"othering" of dog people? Christ on a bike that's peak MN right there! My eyes have rolled out of my head! 🙄

You should seel therapy for shaming others for expressing their views.

Why can't you think of dogs too?
Is it ok to further hurt other innocent beings?

@Chrsytalchondalier

what??

why???

your post makes no sense?

just because police dogs exist it doesn't make it right to put them in a situation where they'll gets bricks thrown at them, strangled & abused.

They were not kicked and strangled during the disorder you read the Police post wrong but they were injured from debris and bricks being thrown.

From my understanding these people were not from the community who are quite rightly devastated and grieving, on top of the awful awful attacks other innocent residents have had their homes and vehicles damaged by the idiots who thought it was accepted to act in this way.

Thoughts are with the victims, their families, the emergency services and the community.

So throwing bricks at dogs or having no opinion to bricks thrown to them equals to caring for innocent kids being killed? How have you drawn such corelation?

@CornflakesOnTheSolesOfHerShoes

you realise these are police dogs, not the thugs dogs??

euther way, the dogs don't deserve to suffer. How can you not care about dogs having bricks thrown at their heads, being burnt strangled & otherwise abuse???

That's fine, you have very narrow emotional capacity. Some of us are capable of caring about dogs too.

I suspect that police dogs are often in danger while apprehending a suspect who doesn’t want to be caught and face dangers like guns, knives and other weapons. We humans are lucky to have police dogs and other working dogs but you can’t make the risk of them being hurt zero. Hopefully the people who have hurt dogs will have that charge added to their sentence and face suitable punishment.

It's unfortunate but the alternative is that bricks are thrown at people, the destruction goes on for longer and more people are hurt. You can't expect the police to put themselves in more danger. The blame lies with the mindless violent idiots.

Agree. Would rather they take in batons (extra large ones) and beat the hell out of all who are using violence. Plastic bullets even better.

They did not apply for their jobs, like the horses did not apply to take part in Olympics.

I am sure you see animals as a useful tool for human beings, rather than innocent victims? Surely for you whipping a horse 24 times to train for sports is also acceptable as they are not pets.

I totally agree. Are we not allowed to feel any sympathy for the poor dogs involved as well?;

It's still so sad that the poor dogs have been injured.

@Chrsytalchondalier

no, what's ludicrous is some people's complete inability to hold more than one thought in their head, I'd be embarrassed to be so hard of thinking.

Are we not allowed to think about the poor dogs as well in this? Or shall we just think about the humans? Are us as humans not capable of feeling sympathy for more than one thing at a time?

Totally agree OP, I'm amazed at the number of people that don't give a shit that police dogs were injured. I'd rather the police were better armed than dogs got hurt doing something they have no choice about.