What’s the REAL Deal With Abandoned Dogs?
written by Cuthbert Jackson, NDWA. All rights reserved.
“ABANDONMENT”
We all like to think that we know what the words we use mean.
Over the years I have spoken to any number of people who have been desperately disappointed that the RSPCA would not act when they told them about an ‘abandoned’ animal. In each case I was able to uncover that they had not been able to provide the RSPCA with the additional required information that the ‘abandonment’ was such that it had led to ‘unnecessary suffering’ ( the wording of the Abandonment of Animals Act 1960 c43 requiring that the animal be abandoned in circumstances likely to cause the animal unnecessary suffering). If the abandonment (“permanent of not” as the Act says) was such that it did not lead to that ‘unnecessary suffering’ then ‘abandonment’ became irrelevant.
Abandon (common dictionary definition (• verb 1: desert or leave permanently. 2: give up (an action or practice) completely). So, for example; a dog, with a know owner, is picked up and kennelled by a dog warden, the owner is notified either in person or by letter that the dog has been so seized (in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act 1990) and the terms and conditions under which it may be returned are explained. The owner is perfectly entitled to tell the local authority that they will not be collecting their dog (i.e. be leaving it permanently) without any risk of charges of ‘abandonment’ being brought because they have not abandoned it in circumstances which might lead to unnecessary suffering as the local authority are caring for it. The authority must in fact pick up the costs of dealing with the dog with no comeback on the owner.
So what is ‘abandonment’? What proves that a dog has been deserted, left or given up completely and forever? Everybody likes to think that they know, but unfortunately each individual interpretation is likely to be a variant rather than a clear definition. Because of this, unfortunately, many cases where an individual’s interpretation is applied lead to the person, or even an organisation, to reach a decision incompatible with the most important facts.
If for example you see a dog being tied up outside and animal shelter and then the person tying it up driving away many people, and indeed many rescue and their employees, will instantly interpret the evidence as fitting the word ‘abandon’. From this assumption they go on to act as if the dog has no longer got an owner, taking it that it was the owner that abandoned it (by tying it up).
But what if the person tying the dog up was actually a totally fed up member of the public (just like you and me get sometimes) they did their good Samaritan bit as they were driving down the dual carriageway and managed to get a dog that was running around on the road into their car. They had no mobile phone with them but being good citizens they took the dog to the nearest police station, it was shut. So they drove off muttering under their breath and then remembered the animal shelter; “they’ll know what to do” they thought, and, thinking that tied it up because they were fed up. Doesn’t happen? Yes it does because I have just recounted a story from a person I spoke to, they had not subsequently called the shelter to tell them that they put the dog there or the police or local authority of the area they found it in (breaking the law but breaking it in circumstances which make their actions and omissions understandable).
By interpreting a dog like this to be abandoned it may be prevented from any chance of being re-united with its owner. For this reason, with new arrangements forthcoming in April 2008 placing responsibility for stray dogs with local authorities, The National Dog Warden Association (NDWA) is calling for all dogs found unattended to be defined and treated as ‘stray’ dogs. This would mean anyone dealing with them as a ‘finder’ would be obliged to, at minimum, tell the local authority about them and place the local authority register at the centre of searches for lost dogs as it should be.
It would be helpful if a definition is provided for a stray dogs and the NDWA has for some time presented the wording:
Any dog found in any public place, or any private place in which it should not be, which appears to be without it’s owner and not under the control of its owner or any person representing them.
This should be taken as the principle definition under which to deal with all ‘found dogs’ suppositions as to the dog’s past history (possible abandonment etc.) and future (concerns about what might happen to it if handed over to the local authority) must not be allowed to become the drivers behind what happens to such a dog.
The writer speaks from experience, an experience which had fortunate consequences however. Many years ago I spent over a week attempting to capture a collie crossbreed that was inhabiting a churchyard. It transpired that the dog had been seen being put out of a passing transit van. Many dogs ‘abandoned’ from vehicles will habituate the area near to where they were dropped of (as if waiting for the inevitable return of their transport and owner). When I eventually did capture the dog she was in dreadful condition having lived rough for such a long time and I knew that this would give reason for her destruction after seven days at our principle dogs home (many more dogs were dealt with in those days and many more destroyed than are in the current situation). So I negotiated with a smaller local shelter, which was totally resistant to taking ‘strays’ but I persuasively argued the case that this dog was ‘abandoned’. Three weeks a lady arrived at that shelter looking to adopt a dog when she saw what she believed was her friends ‘missing’ dog a few hours later owner and dog were reunited. Putting the story together we found that the only explanation was that the dog had been taken into the vehicle (who knows with what intent) some fifteen miles away when she went missing during a walk. The owner, quite naturally, had been looking in her own area and had not thought to contact me in the neighbouring district.
The only way to determine these issues less through fate and more through organisation is to begin by treating and recording each of these dogs as a stray and then encouraging people who lose a dog to check the records (which local authorities must, by law, maintain and must, by law, make available to the public) not just in their own area but also in neighbouring areas.
To help facilitate a search of this type the NDWA has placed on its website an engine through which people can find not only the details of their own local authority but of any authority in the UK through either name of postcode. We encourage member authorities to provide either telephone contact or direct website access through which people who have lost their dogs can both make their ‘lost dog’ report and conduct a search of other authorities.
This article should not be taken to say that there is no such thing as an abandoned dog, there are dogs abandoned every year by their owners. Shelters choose to call some of them ‘gift dogs’ handed over by their owner (who no longer wants them for some reason) directly into the shelter. The fact that the owner is known, and has chosen a course of action which prevents the dog from becoming subject to the worst elements of abandonment, will not prevent the trauma of a dog parted from its family the dog will never know their explanations for their actions, nor will it ever be theirs again. Without such a clear cut action on behalf of the owner ‘abandonment’ becomes a very fluid term if we allow it to be.
To suggest that ‘abandonment’ is some clear cut process which might indicate that a dog should not be treated as a stray may well deny many dogs the opportunity of being re-united with their owners. The NDWA therefore encourages DEFRA to delete section 46 of their guidance which says:
“With respect to abandoned dogs, kennels or welfare organisations should be contacted to see if they could re-home the dog.”
There is already provision for kennels and welfare organisations to re-home stray dogs which have been kept for the statutory period (7 days). To suggest in the guidance that there should be any variation of this because the available information has been taken to prove ‘abandonment’ is extremely unwise. Likewise it is unwise to make any assumptions about ‘abandonment’ without first dealing with the dogs as a ‘stray’ providing an owner with at least that requisite 7 days to find their dog.
The NDWA provides the content of this document for discussion which is hoped might lead to improvements in the way that all dogs are dealt with when no owner Is immediately available to provide information, and in the hope that now that the Abandonment of Animals Act 1960 has been superseded by the Animal Welfare Act (which makes no mention of abandonment) DEFRA will revise the guidance on the Clean Neighbourhoods Act ‘transfer of duties’ to say
With respect to dogs believed to have been abandoned, private persons, kennels and welfare organisations should primarily treat them as a stray dog and deal with them as required in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 c.43 s149 & 150.
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