Stray dog handling a 'postcode lottery'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22282688

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The handling of stray dogs handled has become a "postcode lottery" according to a number of animal welfare charities who carry out dog rehoming.

Since 2008 councils have a legal duty to deal with stray dogs in their area.

But the charities warned that cuts to local authority budgets meant services being "curtailed or cut", with charities left to "pick up the pieces".

They spoke to MPs at the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

The committee has previously recommended that the responsibility for stray dogs be passed to the police if dog warden services cannot be maintained by local authorities at a time of tight budgets.

Steve Goody of welfare charity Blue Cross said there was a "real concern" that local authorities were not able to meet their statutory responsibility to handle stray dogs.

'Squeezed'

He told MPs: "Our rehoming centres are contacted on a daily basis with regard to inquiries form members of the public who have picked up a stray dog and have absolutely no idea what to do with it, particularly out of hours and at weekends.

"What is of significant concern to us - and we recognise that local authorities are being squeezed in terms of resources - is the fact that services are either being curtailed or cut.

"Dog wardens are being laid off, or contracted services are disappearing. Quite often the responsibility is passed to a member of a department with little or on background in dog welfare at all. Therefore, the local authorities are as at sea, in many respects, as are the welfare agencies who are trying to pick up the pieces."

Gavin Grant of the RSPCA said there was now "a complete postcode lottery as to whether there is adequate provision or not".

"Their discharging of their responsibilities is at best random," he said.

Claire Horton of the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, which cared for nearly 9,000 animals last year, complained that some councils in the Greater London area "do nothing more than put a note on their website that refers them straight to us".

"Some have no services, some have part-time services and some have no dog wardens at all.

"We don't actually have a legal responsibility to take these animals, but of course we do," she added.

'Public safety'

Police rejected the suggestion that responsibility for stray dogs should be returned to them.

In a report in February into dog control and welfare, the MPs found that although the number of stray dogs had dropped in 2012, it had risen markedly since 2008 - when councils took on responsibility for strays.

It currently stands at around 118,000 per year, up from 97,000 in 2008.

Gareth Pritchard, the Association of Chief Police Officers' lead officer on dangerous dogs, said the police were happy with the current situation, arguing that "public safety" was better served with the police focusing on dangerous dogs.

He said: "Having moved that (responsibility for stray dogs) over, we want to focus on dangerous dogs. That's where we see our role and that's where we want to concentrate our resources."

The committee is looking into a draft law on dangerous dogs, which if passed could see dog owners in England and Wales no longer immune from prosecution for attacks on their own property.

Existing laws only cover attacks in public places and prohibited areas.