We congratulate Sir Oliver Heald MP, PC Dave Wardell and the Finns Law team
The Animal Welfare (Service Animals) Bill passed unopposed at its second reading in Parliament on Friday (July 6).
It aims to remove a section of the current law of self-defence often used by those who injure a service animal.
The “Finn’s Law” Bill would amend a 2006 Animal Welfare Act to address concerns about defendants’ ability to claim they were justified in using physical force to protect themselves from a service animal.
It is named after Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police dog Finn who was brutally stabbed while protecting his handler, Pc Dave Wardell, in 2016.
Pc Wardell, from Hertfordshire, said Finn – now retired – had saved his life when a robbery suspect they were pursuing attacked them with a knife in 2016.
Finn was stabbed in the chest and head and Pc Wardell in the hand. The suspect was charged with ABH in relation to wounds to Pc Wardell but only faced criminal damage charges over the injuries to Finn.
The Bill will now pass to Committee Stage