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The plethora of Staffordshire Bull Terriers and type dogs currently in local authority holding kennels is placing a strain on the rehoming system in general. There also seems to be reluctance by some rehoming agencies to take these dogs after they have completed their seven days with local councils.

The popularity of the breed has resulted in some stray dog holding kennels having exclusive areas of their kennel lines being turned over to almost 100% Staffordshire occupation now. What must be asked however is if the dogs are so popular, why are so many being seized as stray dogs by councils and not being reclaimed by their owners?

One senior kennel worker with a managerial role who has worked at a major holding kennels for several years has become disillusioned with the amount of SBT dogs coming into the kennels and claims that many of these dogs will never have an opportunity to be re-homed. It is felt that instead of moving forward with animal welfare we are moving back to the bad old days of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

The kennels that home many dogs through a number of major league as well as smaller sized rescues see many non-SBT types getting a place with a rehoming agency whilst the SBT’s are left languishing in kennels which is not good for the dogs in the long term as many will agree.

‘When a Staffordshire is accepted for re-homing it is the exception rather than the norm at the moment’ admitted the kennel worker who did not want to be named or reveal where they worked.

A small number of dogs have had to be euthanized because they had been at the kennels for so long and were not coping well at the kennels although they are subjected to daily exercise walks in the local neighbourhood. The non movement of dogs literally ‘kennel-blocks’ a kennel which results in a hold up for other stray dogs needing to be cared for. This blocking extends right back down the chain to the Dog Wardens seizing dogs. They may have to hold on to dogs at temporary facilities for a couple of hours or even half a day until a space becomes available or the dog’s owner is found which means the dog will not go to the kennels.

The kennel worker is literally heartbroken at having to work in these conditions as a job that was once enjoyable and meaningful has become very stressful and soul destroying and fears that as the situation remains unchecked more dogs are going to face destruction. There is a perceived reluctance amongst those in the front line of stray dog handling that some rehoming organisations will not take in Staffordshire’s, but the reasons they will not is not clear?

There does not seem to be a SBT bar, perhaps there are just too many of these dogs already in the system needing to be homed?

Another kennels that deals with stray dogs had to euthanize five Staffordshire’s recently because after three months of trying to find places for them, no organisation contacted whether it was big or small would take the dogs. The kennel owner was traumatised but had faced up to the reality that nobody was going to accept the dogs into their kennels.

Due to the improvement in the way local councils operate over the years, the number of healthy dogs euthanized each year has been dropping but due to the current impasse with Staffordshire’s blocking the rehoming system there must be more instances of healthy dogs having to be destroyed and this really is a return to the bad old days of the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Last year the Labrador Retriever was apparently the stray dog of choice in a lot of areas and was in the top five of many local authority ‘top breeds seized as strays’, however due to the image of Labrador’s, any unclaimed ones that were not transferred to Labrador Rescue groups would have easily been passed through the rehoming system, why is this not happening with Staffordshire’s?

What factors are contributing to the increase in these dogs sitting in council kennels and those rescue centres that continue to accept or already have some of these dogs in their care? Are fashion conscious ‘hoodies’ moving to different dogs, are dog owners becoming alarmed at the number of dog attacks in general especially those reported in the most salacious fashion by certain areas of the media? Perhaps there are lots of people breeding Staffordshire’s whether they are breeders or simply dog owners wanting to make a couple of quid to meet the current demand?

Something needs to be done to address the issue of the over abundance of these dogs for the benefit of the dogs themselves and other breeds and to release some of the pressure on hard pressed kennels and the rehoming system in general.

As a Dog Warden myself, since 1st April 2008 out of 103 dogs seized as strays and detained under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, 17 dogs have been Staffordshire Bull Terriers, not all remained unclaimed, which is just as well, but several did not get claimed. They are obviously a very popular breed of dog but for those dogs around the whole of the UK that currently remain unclaimed and those kennel workers and re-homers working tirelessly to find a new home for them, they are not popular enough second time around!

The majority of those working in the dog world especially kennel workers, rehoming organisations as well as Dog Wardens really do the job because they have an affinity with dogs, the last thing they want to be doing is putting healthy dogs down.

As a matter of urgency this problem needs to be addressed on a national scale before there is a return to the bad old days of stray dog control when a lot more dogs were euthanized merely because nobody wanted them.

Author Details
Neil Burton is a dog warden and chairman of the National Dog Warden Association. - See this author's webpage

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