Dog Wardens Concern Over Untrained Staff
Published on November 7, 2008 by Freelance Contributors · 8 CommentsBy NDWA Reporter
Twenty eight years after councils were required to deal with stray dogs in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act 1990, it seems that a number of councils continue to use staff with little or no knowledge of dogs.
Every Borough, City and District council in the United Kingdom has a statutory duty to have a designated person who deals with stray dogs. The actual person at a particular council may be the Chief Environmental Health Officer, a Director or even the Chief Executive.
The high ranking officer will possibly never see a dog and will most certainly not be patrolling the streets of their council area promoting responsible dog ownership. That work falls on the actual Dog Warden, Dog Control Officer or Animal Welfare Officer, the job title is irrelevant but it is assumed and hoped that the officer is competently trained to handle dogs and is knowledgeable of dog legislation and animal welfare issues.
Some councils appear to have dispensed with the services of a designated dog control officer and have farmed out the role to either Pest Control, Streetscene Sections or Neighbourhood Wardens.
NDWA has always opposed the use of untrained members of staff being expected to handle dogs as an additional duty. If these officers have received competent recognised training in dog handling as well as in the relevant legislative areas they are working in, good, but if they have not then it is a dangerous turn of events.
All Dog Control Services should have procedures for dealing with difficult or out of control dogs, it will have carried out Risk Assessments and it will have also carried out Coshh assessments.
The employers of any persons expected to deal with dogs who have not had their duties properly risk assessed and their competency checked out are failing in their duty of care.
When a situation goes wrong, apart from the person or even persons injured and more than likely they will be asked why did they deal with the dog….because it is the primary role of a Dog Warden to deal with dogs, who else would be in trouble, the Line Manager, Departmental Manager, Director, Chief Executive or even Councillors?
Local Authorities use their Dog Wardens to promote responsible dog ownership, perhaps they should look at promoting their Dog Warden Services as fit for purpose as well?
NDWA as mentioned above is totally opposed to untrained people handling dogs for councils regardless of whether those persons be ‘in-house’ or contractors.
Dog Control staff contribute to community safety and are a valued part of a local authority’s service provision but they do need to be properly trained and supported in their work.
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Tags: Animal Welfare, Social Issues
If the Wardens should have relevant training and carry out risk assesment then how is this controlled? Eg. Animal Wardens Ltd say their staff have all the training required on their website but if you are a warden for them you would not receive a longer then 10 mins session on how to handle a dog. They do not have any relevant to job risk assesments done.
If a joe bloggs set up a dog wardening service and only said they have all the correct training and H&S but in reality there was no such thing in place then how would this be controlled or where would the councils stand if a serious accident happened?
Hi councils employ contractors and the contractor is supposed to ensure that all the relevant training and health and safety is up to date for its staff. As the contractors staff are under the overall control of the contractor, if something does go wrong or there is a serious accident, the council will body swerve the responsibility back to the contractor. Anybody who works with any animals who does not have sufficient knowledge or training should not be allowed anywhere near any animals.
The company Animal Wardens Ltd has an extremely poor image around the country amongst dog people but amazingly councils still fall for all the male cow poo that comes from the company's owner Paul Dunne. Poor service provision when it results in a failure of duty of care to staff, welfare provison towards dogs and the fleecing of councils is completely wrong.
Go to the Pet Owner Parliament website to read about untrained staff who as a total coincidence are employed by the so called dog warden contractor company animal wardens limited. There are also 300+ posts on this site about this company selling a dog that they failed to realise had an owner.
Hi! I have a contract with AW to provide my DW service. The DW they provided to me has had NO training from AW – I have trained them myself, so I am confident that the DW is capable & competent. I would just ask that folks please don't tar all the AW staff with the same brush as the one one Paul Dunne has been tarred with (although some of them do deserve it – not all of them are that bad)
I don't think anyone is slating AW Ltd staff who do their best with little experience and no training. They are slating a company which sends people out with no training and boast about their high standard of training on their website.
Alpha Bitch, why should you have to train a private contractors staff when it is their responsibility to ensure they are supplying competent staff in the first place.
However, thank you for confirming their dire service provision .
Hello AB, great to read that you have invested in your Animal Wardens Ltd 'dog warden' who had no training! You are doing all the investment and duty of care that Mr Dunne should have done before his worker came to you, he sends you an untrained person, who is trained by you at your expense? He seems to treat councils very disrespectfully, if other posts and forums about the gentleman are anything to go by. If any agreement is presumably legally binding, why is this man supplying untrained staff when he must surely be providing a trained person? It is appreciated that not all the Animal Wardens Ltd staff are in the same mould as their boss, but with no proper training they will know no better and carry on providing poor and possibly incorrect service to councils.
Councils are making a mistake by employing poorly trained or even totally untrained contractors such as the allegations made about theabove mentioned Animal Wardens Limited.. At the end of the day there will be a catastrophic incident that could have been prevented and dogs and people will be the victims.
this lack of training is leading to more and more family pets being seized and killed because the wardens don’t know what a dangerous dog is. They are judging on looks not the behaviour of the dog and causing unnecessary suffering to all concerned, not to mention incurring mounting costs