A petition calling for the Metropolitan Police to be held criminally accountable for shooting a homeless man's two dogs dead has reached more than one million signatures. 

Louie Turnbull, 46, who was tasered and arrested at the scene, appeared in court earlier this week charged with being the owner of a dog that was dangerously out of control after a woman was allegedly attacked by one of them.

Police were called to Poplar, east London just after 5pm on May 7 to reports of a dog attack, where they found a woman with a leg injury which did not require hospital treatment.

Witnesses to the attack have claimed she became caught up in the dogs' leads and was not badly hurt. 

Animal rights campaigners have put their backing behind the petition, which describes the killing of the dogs, both of whom were on leads at the time, as 'barbaric' and 'abhorrent'.

They claim the dogs, named Millions and Marshall.

were not dangerously out of control, and also accuse officers of causing 'suffering' to the animals.