Responsibility For Stray Dogs

[jools]

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After all the debate on the poor Greyhound in Scotland, many raised the opinion that the police should not have responsibility for strays - I'm sure that I have read somewhere that this will happen this year and that Dog Wardens will have to provide 24 hour care.

Can anyone on K9 confirm this - I can't for the life in me remember where I read it!

 

[Zephyr]

I think I remember my sister (who works for Hull police) saying that there will soon be a national non-urgent police tel no, and the switchboard will route calls onwards to the appropriate authority - ie any calls about lost dogs etc will be passed on to the dog warden, or you would be given their number to call.

This is just from memory, but someone may have more up to date info.

 

[FeeFee]

Yes, in theory the Clean Neighbourhoods & Environment Act 2005 takes all responsibility for stray dogs away from the police and places them with the local council/dog warden services.

In practice I *think* it has been left at local level to implement this when adequate dog warden services are available. Since providing 24 hour cover for stray dogs isn't particularly high on many council's agendas it hasn't come into force in many places yet.

On the face of it it sounds like a good thing; the police aren't intrested in stray dogs or particularly equipped to deal with them properly. On the other hand if the police give up responsibility for handling strays and there is no proper 24 hour cover in place it could be a disaster.

There's an interesting article here - apparently Hampshire police made the decision to stop handling stray dogs as soon as the Act came into force, and from the local Dog Warden's perspective it has been something of a disaster:

http://www.ndwa.co.uk/news.asp?ID=5

 

[wild whippies]

Ah beurocracy at it's best I see.

I had a quick google to see what goes on in america and it seems they have charity funded independant animal shelters but they do have a national database for lost dogs. I do hope that local authorities will work together to form some kind of national database too because if they operate a regional on call service as opposed to a local one, technically a lost dog could end up anywhere.

I'm not too sure but didn't America have drop off pounds where people could take dogs if they couldn't contact a shelter outside of working hours? I don't think they was manned though?

 

[FeeFee]

I caught a stray labrador a little while ago, it was running loose on the main road in a complete state of panic - so the neighbours came to get me

When I finally got hold of him (which was a story in itself), I realised I was then well and truly lumbered. It was a Friday evening, so no Dog Warden until Monday and the nearest police station that has holding kennels is 15 miles away and I don't drive. I didn't dare take him home with my lot, he was quite growly with a couple of dogs we passed (he also stank :blink: ).

I called the local police station who really didn't want to know and suggested I let him loose again to find his way home - despite the fact he'd nearly caused an accident already.

In the end I was getting desperate, and flagged down a police car (w00t) They were very peed off about being stopped for a lost dog, but called it in to the station and - thank goodness - someone had reported him missing from the next village and came straight over and collected him. Gawd knows what I would have done otherwise :sweating: