WE were delighted to read coverage of Dave Hibbert’s petition for greater police dog protection in Stourbridge News (“Petition lobbies for greater police dog protection”, January 8).

Police dogs are officers, not things. They feel pain and fear which property does not, and they involuntarily risk and sometimes forfeit their lives in service to the force and the community.

PETA supports this petition as the least that we can do for these brave sentient beings.

BEN WILLIAMSON People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)