A charity supporting serving and retired police dogs has expressed concerns about the way they were deployed during Monday’s riot in Plymouth.

The Thin Blue Paw Foundation said it was “extremely concerned” to see video footage showing muzzled police dogs being deployed in response to the protests, which resulted in serious clashes with police.

Six people were charged with causing violent disorder during the disturbances, four of whom later pleaded guilty.

Reuters video footage seen by this paper shows two muzzled dogs with their police handlers being used to keep an angry mob at bay during the incident.

The clip, which was uploaded to YouTube by The Sun newspaper, lasts about 13 seconds. Later in the footage, four police dogs appear without their muzzles being deployed in more determined fashion by their handlers.

Kieran Stanbridge, trustee of the Thin Blue Paw Foundation, said: “The dogs and their handlers were dealing with a violent and hostile crowd, but the welfare of these dogs was severely compromised by muzzling them as they would have been unable to defend themselves or their handlers – as trained to do – from attacks.

“Most police forces do not provide their dogs with personal protective equipment, so to restrict their natural defence to bite makes them even more vulnerable and places them at greater risk of harm.

“This comes following a number of recent incidents in which police dogs were injured while responding to riots in other towns and cities across the UK.”

The charity contacted Devon & Cornwall Police (DCP) to request “an urgent review” of its operational policy regarding the incident, adding that all police forces “have a duty of care to ensure the welfare of their police dogs at all times”.

In response, DCP issued a statement, stressing that no handler or police dog was injured during the riot.

It said: “Police dogs were used as support to officers involved in dealing with the disorder. In accordance with operational policy, as soon as violence escalates, muzzles are removed from police dogs.

“The safety of police dogs and their handlers remains paramount at all times and they are a critical part of our response to policing violent disorder.”