MPs debating Finn's Law punishments for attacks on police dogs after petition

MPs will today debate whether attacks on police dogs and horses should be punished as severely as assaults on officers.

It follows an attack on a German Shepherd police dog called Finn who almost died after he was stabbed in the head and chest while trying to catch a suspected robber.

Finn's handler, PC Dave Wardell, was stabbed in the hand during the attack in Stevenage in October.

PC Wardell's injuries amount to actual bodily harm in law, but Finn's wounds, which required a four-hour operation, are classed as criminal damage, a less serious offence.

More than 120,000 people have signed an online 'Finn's Law' petition, meaning it must be debated in parliament.

Another police dog was also badly injured after an incident in Swindon.

A man who had been holed up in a flat came out and attacked PC Neil Sampson but his German Shepherd police dog Anya managed to fight him off.

Mr Sampson, now retired, said the man came at him with the knife. He said: "I shouted at him to drop the knife and that I was a police dog handler. He kept coming so I set the dog.

"Some time during that she got stabbed in the chest. I was stabbed seven times, it was quite horrendous really. I am lucky to be alive.

"I've no doubt that she saved my life, and if it wasn't for her other police officers would have been injured."

The man was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, but prosecutors were not originally going to bring any charges for the attack on Anya.

Mr Sampson insisted that they did and said: "This is happening to dogs or horses all over the country and there is no recognition.

"It was only when I said they have got to put the charge on there that they did."

Anya recovered and picked up a PDSA gold medal for her bravery

Hertfordshire police and crime commissioner David Lloyd told Sky News that the punishment for attacks on police dogs needed to reflect the seriousness of the crime.

"While I'm not calling for parity with the punishment given for killing a person, I think we have to show that attacks on police dogs will be punished."

Responding to the petition, the Government said attacks on police animals could already be punished with 10 years' imprisonment and that a change in the law was "unnecessary".