Month: September 2022

Dogs On Beaches – Have Your Say

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dogs on beach at North Foreland Cornwall Council have opened a consultation onto their summer restrictions on dogs on beaches.

This is a welcome opportunity for dog owners to represent their case, not least their legal obligations under the AWA 2006.

Only 20% of the population has children but 27% own at least one dog. Children are often not only a nuisance to other beach users and dogs but parents allow them to use the beach as a lavatory or dump used nappies.

Every beach user has moral and legal obligations to behave well and it is unfair that dogs have been excluded.

Have your say now – the consultation closes in November.

Dead Dogs and Dogwalkers

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Yet another story of a dog walker allowing a dog to run into the road where it was killed was reported this week. In this instance, the owners have also initiated a petition calling for dog walkers to be regulated, the so-called Digby’s law.

Of course dog walkers should be regulated and trained by an accredited training provider but the fact remains that the owners of this dog also bear responsibility for their puppy’s death.

It is vital to undertake due diligence when placing your dog in the care of strangers, whether it is a dog walker, boarder or groomer.

Even when warned, many owners do not bother checking that boarding suppliers are licensed – my own clients included – and yes, both of their dogs were injured and they had a big vet bill because they also did not pursue a case with the illegal boarder. She is of course free to do it all again and maybe the next dog will die.

There are simply not enough resources to police this and it behoves owners to report illegal boarding businesses and negligent dog walkers as far too few come to the attention of the law. Signing a petition is the easy bit.

For dogs’ sake don’t place your dog in the hands of untrained or poorly trained or unlicensed people; it may be for the last time.

Law Or Lottery?

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There are more than 50 statutes in the UK that deal with dogs and, in many ways, legislation has, at least on paper, offered the chance to greatly improve canine welfare.

Laws are useless though, without resources to enforce them.

I was judging at a local dog show this weekend and hardly any of the competitors had legal tags. Many had purchased customised engraved tags from a local branch of a large chain. More than one had been told that it was “illegal” to have there dog’s name on the tag (it is not illegal, bit it is inadvisable). The others had not been told that they must, by law, display their surname and full address.

The number of fines and prosecutions are low in comparison to the number of offences – especially dogs off lead on roads, fouling and illegal boarding.

Local authorities are allowed to levy their own fines for many offences and this places offenders in a national lottery. Some authorities are very active, others not at all, even with fixed penalty fines. North Somerset handed out 1,313 fixed penalty notices, Bristol just 2.

It is good that people are being called to account for their actions, but it shouldn’t be a gamble.