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Council helps responsible dog owners
Herefordshire Council is set to change the way it manages its stray dog functions with effect from March 1, 2010, to help responsible dog owners avoid unnecessary charges.
The changes will mean that responsibility for dogs collected as strays will pass to the owners, allowing the council’s dog wardens to spend more time carrying out enforcement or educational work around responsible ownership and dog fouling rather than transporting dogs around the county.
Fees associated with administering this service will also rise as a part of this change to more closely reflect the actual costs incurred.
Owners of dogs seized as strays will be required to pay an administration charge of £50, a statutory fee of £25, plus £8 per night for each night their dog is boarded at kennels. The administration charge will be reduced to £30 in cases where a dog can be returned directly to an owner without being boarded at kennels.
Shane Hancock, regulatory services manager with Herefordshire Council, said: “In future, an owner whose dog has been collected as a stray and taken to a kennels for safety will have to collect their dog from the kennel and pay a fee for its return. A big advantage of this is that it will release time for the dog wardens to actively promote responsible dog ownership and carry out enforcement where education is not working.
He added: “The vast majority of dog owners are very responsible and do not incur any charges because they keep their dogs under proper control. Dogs that are not kept under control and are left to wander unsupervised in public are a hazard. They can cause a danger to traffic, they may attack people or other animals, they may foul in public areas, and they may also get injured or killed.
“It is only right that responsible dog owners and non dog owners do not disproportionately fund, through their taxes, a service that has to be provided because of the actions of a minority. It is acknowledged, however, that on occasions dogs can ‘escape’ the control of even responsible owners.
“In such cases, charges may be avoided if owners comply with the legal requirement that dogs must wear a collar giving the name and address of the owner when in a public place. A telephone number is also useful. This allows a finder to contact the owner direct without the council stray dog service being involved.”
Anyone wishing to report a stray dog or a lost dog should contact Herefordshire Council’s INFO in Herefordshire service on 01432 260500
Posted
: 15/02/2010 14:58:24
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