Government spending curbs mean fewer police dogs and horses

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27757477

What do people think about this? I think it's horrible. These animals provide such an amazing service and aren't just pets to their handlers; they're partners.

I think it would be huge mistake to deplete the Police Dog force - the dogs do work that no human could ever do in so many areas.

Police Horses - I am undecided.

I'll admit that I don't know quite as much about the horses, as we don't often get them around here. The dogs, though, are so important!

We don't have police horses around here at all. From what I have seen though their purpose is largely ceremonial, and when they have been used for crowd control some hooligans will torment them as they know the horse can't hurt them. A couple of snarling and barking GSDs would be far more effective, imho. So, as horses are immensely expensive to buy, equip and maintain, I think that if push comes to shove they could be done without in the future.

The dogs should be retained - no question.

I honestly wouldn't know when it comes to police horses. I think they definitely come in handy with crowd control, but the dogs seem to be more practical for every day duties. It would be a huge mistake to get rid of them!

It doesn't bear thinking about if all police dogs were to go.

Thankfully, I doubt it'll ever come to that!

The horses were always used for crowd control (football grounds, riots etc) but they use other methods now. Although recently I think they used horses again for a football crowd & it worked very well!

Off topic but I saw a show where they train police horses and OMG! those horses are amazing but unfortunately not as useful as they were.

It's just a shame that the decision to cut down on training has been made due to government cuts, instead of whether or not the training is useful.

The training is incredible!