I am a dog behaviourist in Sussex working with aggression cases daily and was appalled, although not surprised, at the outcome of Bruce the police dog's case (April 11).

Some of the comments made by the Assistant Chief Constable Nigel Yeo are quite incredible and I quote: "At the end of the day, a police dog is not trained to do what it did."

So they are not trained to bite or attack? You can imagine adrenaline levels would be running high when breaking up a brawl in any case, even more so in a dimly-lit street.

"A police dog is not a pet, it is a piece of equipment. If we had a car that did not work or had faulty brakes, we would get rid of it."

So Mr Yeo views police dogs as equipment as he does cars. Has anyone told him they are a living species and, as with all living species, have instincts and can act in a instinctive manner, unlike cars? Dogs think - cars do not.

"We have to be as bloody minded as that for the sake of public safety."

Of course, public safety has to be priority but hundreds of dogs have aggression problems, many of which are still alive today and safely rehabilitated with specialist help.

Even using a muzzle would have been an option other than destruction.

Aggression to humans is serious, especially children, but the circumstances in this case should be highlighted.

The fact that a 14-year-old-boy was in a brawl that needed a police dog handler to intervene should not be overlooked.

A police spokeswoman went on to comment: "The dog was checked by a nationally-accredited police dog training instructor and did not pass. Police dogs which fail cannot be rehomed."

So, police dogs that fail cannot be rehomed, would this be due to the fact they have had intensive training in aggression? Therefore, if they bite, the police could be held liable should anything happen.

With this factor in mind, I have to ask myself why a police dog that had intensive training in aggression was then destroyed for doing such?

Am I to believe the police force does not have total control of its dogs?

-Gill Minter, gill@behaviour-problems.freeserve.co.uk