Police Dogs in Politics, Literature and Research Missing Link Virtually, all the political parties in the Netherlands devote attention to welfare of aothas, and there is an animal rights
Trang 1working with I then turn to the impressions that I have gathered while interviewing the police officers Finally, I will propose some lines for further research in order to fill in the gaps in our knowledge about abuse
of police dogs
Police Dogs in Politics, Literature and Research
Missing Link
Virtually, all the political parties in the Netherlands devote attention to welfare
of aothas, and there is an animal rights party, theParty for Animals (Partij voor de Dieren), that promotes the interests of aothas in the Dutch parliament In addition, there are numerous animal welfare organisations active with the aim to improve the welfare of aothas (for example,Bird Protection (Vogelbescherming) and the Humane Society (Dierenbescherming) A number of indicators of animal welfare and animal health have been laid down for policy purposes However, the reportThe State of the Animal (De staat van het dier) (Leenstra
et al.2011) indicates that it is difficult to measure the status of animal welfare in the Netherlands At the European level, measurement protocols are being developed to provide more of an insight into the welfare and health of animals, for example, protocols on when and how to measure blood pressure and heart rate Currently, measuring protocols focus onthe animal environment Although
a satisfactory living and working environment is important, it cannot guarantee
an animal’s welfare or health The authors furthermore state that they focus on domestic animals that are directly subordinate to human animals Police dogs, however, are not mentioned in the report In a survey on the views on animal welfare in the Netherlands around a thousand respondents were questioned about the areas in which they had concerns about animal welfare Nearly a third mentioned the bio-industry, about 20 % livestock transport, another 20 % the care of animals, 10 % cited cruelty to animals while 8 % of the respondents mentioned laboratory animals (Werkman et al 2007) None mentioned the welfare of aothas active in law enforcement, not even under the category ‘other’
In 2010, the Council of Animal Affairs in the Netherlands (Raad voor Dierenaangelegenheden, RDA) presented an agenda for the policies on animal welfare One of the authors’ recommendations was that the Dutch government should give an answer to the question of how it is justified that animals are kept in Dutch society For which purposes and under what circumstances is it acceptable to keep them? In the report, there is no attention whatsoever for aothas, such as police dogs, that play a role in law
Harms to Police Dogs: Barking Up the Wrong Tree 419