Time for DEFRA to Get Real on Stray Dogs

written by Hamish Lazari

The DEFRA ‘guidance’ letter sent out to Local Authorities and dated 19th October 2007 in relation to the implementation of section 68 of the Clean Neighbourhoods & Environment Act 2005 is a fine example of a half hearted response to a very serious subject.

The Government has decided that £4 million pounds will be sufficient via the Revenue Support Grant (RSG) for local authorities to cover the additional costs of informing finders of dogs where they can take them.  The number crunchers in Whitehall have exceeded themselves this time as years ago when the police were asked how much they expended on dealing with stray dogs, a figure of £17 million was bandied about, this was subsequently changed to £1.7 million when it seemed that responsibility might be removed from the police at the time.

We are told that there is no requirement for local authorities to provide a ‘search and collection’ service for stray dogs out of office hours as this was something that was not typically provided by the police.  We are also informed that the funding via the RSG is not intended to cover an out of hour’s collection service.

The paltry amount left for each local authority once it has been divided amongst approximately 433 council’s amounts to a figure in the region of £9,237 which the letter informs must not be used for stray dog collection?  Instead this money is to be used to let finders of dogs know where they have to take them to, the so called ‘acceptance points’ and to cover the admin costs for councils to provide the government with information that they can use to monitor the arrangements.

The government had a great opportunity to improve the lot of dogs that are lost and found out of hours but with the, ‘where practical’ approach for which read ‘massive body swerve’ they have literally left the door open for the following scenario:

‘Is it ‘practical’ for a council to have a place where a stray dog can be taken and accepted by the  council?’

‘No, end of story, it is not practical we do not have enough money to fund it’

Who advised DEFRA on this way of dealing with stray dogs out of hours?

How about, is it practical that the advisors DEFRA uses for stray dogs are fit for purpose?

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Tags:  Social Issues