New rules on strays - 'disaster' predicted

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FEARS continue that there will be an increase in stray dogs roaming urban areas when responsibility for them at evenings and weekends is moved from the police to local authorities.
It emerged this week that only half of Wales’ 22 councils have finalised their stray dog policy even though the new arrangements start in April.
Currently, the responsibility for strays is shared between local authorities and the police. Councils have a legal obligation to employ dog wardens to pick up stray or unwanted dogs during the working day.
At night and at weekends, the police have a long-standing legal duty to accept strays brought to them by members of the public. But many police stations no longer have kennels, so the system is about to change. Local authorities need to establish ‘acceptance points’ where the public can take a stray dog out of hours. People will not be able to take a dog to a police station.
Predictions have even been made that there will be more road accidents involving strays, more fouling in parks and on pavements, more dog attacks and even aggressive packs roaming some inner-city streets.
The handover of duty from police was included in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005, but was delayed over the allocation of extra funding to councils. The Government agreed last November that councils should accept the duty from April 6. An extra £4 million will be shared between 420 councils — about £9,000 a year for each authority. Officials say that this is insufficient to pay for a 24-hour pick-up service for strays.
Rowan Hughes, principal environmental health officer with the Vale of Glamorgan Council and chairman of the All Wales Dog Warden Liaison Technical Group, said councils will need arrangements with commercial boarding kennels or charitable kennels.

Not interested

“Although there are normally a number of boarding kennels within each authority, most of these will not be interested in receiving stray dogs out of hours because of the obvious disease risk,” he said.
“It can also be a big disturbance, set all the dogs off barking, and if the premises are near homes it can cause a noise nuisance.”
Dogs Trust, the UK’s biggest canine welfare organisation, takes in 1,000 strays annually in Wales alone. Its veterinary director, Chris Lawrence, said: “Our worry is that it’s going to be pretty much of a disaster for the first few months. We’re really concerned that this removal of the police from the equation completely is going to end up with a lot of stray dogs running around, nobody to pick them up, and nobody to care for them.
“Thanks to the combined efforts of ourselves and other animal welfare organisations, the number of street dogs has reduced by nearly 25 per cent over the past ten years. We’ve made, and continue to make, both financial and time investment through educating the public about responsible dog ownership, plus running subsidised neutering schemes in areas of greatest need. We feel certain these measures have contributed to this reduction in strays.
“However, there is no room for complacency as there is much more to be done.”
The Association of Chief Police Officers has welcomed the transfer of responsibility for stray dogs to local authorities. A spokesman said: “Strays dogs are essentially an environmental and public health issue which in modern times should not remain as a function of the police.”