Official summary of the legal position on stray dogs in the UK

This is in fact from the Advertising Standards Authority website, which has published their adjudication on a complaint from a member of the public about the Dogs Trust's TV adverts, but it's a useful statement of the facts.

Issue

A viewer challenged whether the claim "Dogs Trust never put a healthy dog down", was misleading, because she understood that that the Dogs Trust handed strays over to the Council Dog Warden who, if they were not reclaimed by their owners after seven days, might put them down.

BCAP Code

3.13.216.3.1

Response

Dog's Trust said, under section 150 of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990, anyone finding a stray dog must "forthwith" either "return the dog to its owner" or "take the dog to the officer of the local authority (LA) for the area in which the dog was found". Therefore, if a stray dog was brought to one of their Rehoming Centres by a member of the public or was abandoned there, they had an inescapable legal obligation to immediately notify the local Dog Warden about where and when the dog was found. In view of that, it was not in their interest to suggest in their advertising that they could accept stray dogs found by members of the public.

Dogs Trust said it was rare for a member of the public to approach their Rehoming Centres to ask them to take in a stray dog. However, in those instances, the person was always advised of their legal responsibility to contact the dog warden. If the person was unwilling to do that or if the dog warden was unavailable, the Rehoming Centre might act as the "finder" of the dog and pass it to the LA at the earliest opportunity.

They added that section 149 of the EPA required the LA to keep any stray dog for a period of seven clear days in order to allow the owner to reclaim the dog. If the dog was not reclaimed after that time, it could be passed to Dogs Trust, or a similar welfare organisation, for rehoming; legal title to the dog then also passed to them.

Dogs Trust said, typically, their kennels contained over 1,000 dogs at any one time. They explained that their 17 Rehoming Centres around the UK cared for around 16,000 dogs a year; around 50% were handed over by members of the public no longer able to care for their dogs and the remaining 50% came from other animal rescue organisations or LA kennels after the expiration of the statutory seven-day period prescribed by the EPA.

Dogs Trust said the claim that they never put a healthy dog down was true. In 2009, they cared for 15,886 dogs. Of those, 226 either died in their care or were put to sleep on veterinary advice; that equated to less than 1.5% of the dogs in their care. Dogs Trust were proud of the fact that so few dogs were put to sleep given that many came to them with severe illness or injury. They said a dog could only be put to sleep on the advice of a veterinary surgeon and if there was any doubt about the dog's quality of life, then second opinions were sought.

Dogs Trust said they could not be held responsible for the fate of dogs passed to the LA under statutory requirements. They nevertheless pointed out that independently conducted market research for the year up to 31 March 2010 indicated that of the strays handed in to LAs, only 2.8% were put to sleep for reasons other than ill health.

They said the ad was not currently scheduled to be broadcast again but that they did intend to use it again in future.

Assessment

Not upheld

The ASA understood that Dogs Trust only put down dogs on the grounds of ill health following the advice of a veterinary surgeon and that, in 2009, less than 1.5% of the dogs they had cared for were put down on such advice.

We also understood that Dogs Trust had a statutory obligation to pass any stray dog handed in to them to the Council Dog Warden for the statutory seven-day period stipulated by the EPA. We noted that, after that period had elapsed, if the dog was not reunited with its owner, it might be passed to Dogs Trust or a similar welfare organisation or it might be re-homed by the LA itself. Furthermore, we understood that the only circumstance in which Dogs Trust would not accept a dog from the LA was if they did not have the kennel space to accommodate it. We noted from the independent market research figures provided that a small percentage of those dogs received by LAs for the year up to 31 March 2010 had been put down for reasons other than ill health. We nevertheless considered that the fate of those dogs was beyond the control of Dogs Trust given their statutory obligations and, because we understood that those healthy dogs whose fate was within their control were not put down, concluded that the claim was not misleading.

We investigated the ad under BCAP Code rules 3.1 and 3.2 (Misleading advertising) and 16.3.1 (Charities) but did not find it in breach.

Failing a miracle...

Unless something very unexpected "turns up" it is looking as though we will have no choice but to say we can no longer fund treatment for unowned strays over and above the initial £60 which the National Society pays for initial emergency treatment. 

Veterinary charges have increased all round over the past year and it is becoming less and less sustainable to pay for treatment costs which can run away with hundreds of pounds for every animal. 

One option would be to put a strict limit on the amount we can afford to pay per animal, but then what happens when (as would almost always be the case) our extra hundred pounds simply covers x-rays or tests that show a further £200 is required if the animal is to be treated? In a sense that would only mean we'd wasted the first hundred pounds, which could have helped more animals if it was used for something else.

Our first responsibility must be to maintain the clinic, which treats thousands of animals, and to rehome animals taken in by our inspectors.

Video showing some of the work of our clinic

Sadly, Star, the cat featured in the video, suffered heart failure a few weeks after it was filmed. He was given treatment at the Vet School as an inpatient, but died shortly after admission.

Heart problems are a common complication of an over-active thyroid (which is what was wrong with Star), because basically the whole of the cat's metabolism starts running at an excessive rate. This can overload the heart and weaken it.

Rabbits galore

An un-neutered male (presumably their dad, but what happened to mum???) and eight baby rabbits in from one of the Hertfordshire villages we cover.

Two strays from the Newmarket/Ely area and an abandonment at one of our local vets, mean that all our foster accommodation is now full up and we will have to use relatively expensive commercial pet boarding facilities if any more come in.

If your rabbit has gone missing, please email our rehoming co-ordinator in case one of them is yours.

Stray rabbits are quite often reported to us, and we take in any that can be caught as they are very vulnerable to predators and also at risk from myxomatosis. Often catching them is virtually impossible as rabbits are not easily attracted using food as bait because grass is everywhere.

61 Burleigh Street shop closed Monday 29th November

The RSPCA shop at 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge will be closed all day on Monday 29th November so we can reorganise the sales space and put up our Christmas decorations.

We'll be open as normal from Tuesday 30th, with lots of extra rail space for clothes. We depend on you to keep the donations coming so we can fill all of it (please!)

If you're having a pre-Christmas clear-out, we can raise funds from any textile items, even ones that are completely worn out, as these can be sold for recycling. 

Bookshop looking festive

Apologies for the rather gloomy picture of Sharon; the light inside the shop isn't really bright enough for non-flash photos in late afternoon.

Many thanks to the volunteers who worked so hard decorating the shop: it looks wonderful.

Lots of cards and inexpensive gifts inside and enough books to tide the most addicted reader over the festive season.

Rabbit Hutches/Runs

Does anyone out there have a rabbit hutch and/or run of a decent size that's in reasonable condition and that they no longer want? We have a new rabbit fosterer who needs to be kitted out with suitable accommodation. 

He already has one run that would be suitable for rabbits if a hutch was set up inside it for the rabbits to be shut in at night for safety, so a hutch on its own would still be useful.

Experimental news aggregator

The RSPCA official press officers and several RSPCA branches are now on twitter. The summary below is from Paper.li - a news aggregation service that will combine tweets from specified accounts into a daily report. Note that this is all done by a machine, not a human, and occasionally some of the headings selected are a little strange: Why does it think DogLost should go under "Entertainment"?

The adverts that are included are by Paper.li and presumably are what generates their income.

Nice to hear from one of our "EARS" pensioners

Ghost when he was in our kennels

Most of the time I groan when I open an envelope and it's yet another vet bill, but this time it was actually quite pleasing (at only £36) to know that Ghost is still pottering along and enjoying life in his adoptive home.

He's now had slightly more than two years of good life since being adopted (and hopefully more to come), and we feel that our decision to persevere with him has been vindicated. There's always a worry with older animals that keeping them in kennels long-term isn't doing them any favours if there's no realistic prospect of a decent future before them.

Some animals are clearly going to be slower to find new homes than others, particularly if they have the double disadvantage of belonging to an over-popular breed and being a little "over the hill" age-wise.

Where adopters may be put off because of the prospect of age-related vet bills it may be possible to arrange adoption under the "EARS" — Elderly Animals Rehoming Scheme, whereby we will cover part of the cost of veterinary treatment after adoption.

Novelty squirrel nutcrackers

Nutcracker

I don't know how effective this little chap is at cracking nuts, but he's very cute.

Recently donated to our Burleigh St. Charity shop.

Stray dogs

The National RSPCA website has a news item on the concern that dog warden services are likely to be selected for cutbacks. There are some indications that simply abolishing a statutory service as a cost-saving measure is being considered by some politicians—Hammersmith and Fulham's website bluntly states that "Passing the responsibility for stray dogs onto the RSPCA" would save council funds.

Which would be all very well if we really did have limitless funds, which we do not.

It may help if I give a bit of background to explain the current legal situation in relation to stray dogs.

Until 2008, responsibility was shared between the local authority and the Police. The LA was expected to run a dog warden service during normal working hours (9-5 Mon-Fri), while the Police would take in dogs brought to police stations outside those times, or when a dog warden was otherwise not contactable.

The LA was responsible for arranging kennelling for at least 7 days, after which the dog would either be transferred to a rescue organisation, rehomed directly or put to sleep.

In 2008 responsibility was transferred to the local authority, although instead of the dog warden service being expanded to cover 24/7, most LAs simply made some kind of arrangement for "drop-off" points where stray dogs could be taken. The major problem with this is that many people who find stray dogs don't have suitable transport, whereas at least some of them could have walked to their local police station.

Stray dogs never were "the responsibility" of the RSPCA, although most branches take in some dogs from LA kennels; sometimes after the 7 day period is up, and sometimes directly from the dog warden. Sometimes dogs may be taken in directly from the public, either because they're found injured, or because they're in danger, but most animal centres can't take in dogs round the clock. Branches like us which rehome from private boarding kennels can't reasonably expect the staff to turn out at all hours except in very exceptional emergency situations.

I get an impression that many people often believe that the local authority holding kennels are "the RSPCA"—probably in some circumstances because the LA and RSPCA both board dogs at the same private kennels.

We don't ourselves as a branch routinely take in stray dogs from local authorities, although we're occasionally asked to take a dog to save his life and would do our best to stretch funds to accommodate one in that situation.

It looks as though we may be facing a situation in which we are being asked to take up more and more work that's being offloaded from elsewhere.

In which case fundraising has to be our highest priority at the moment. It is no good complaining that we are "all about money". Without money we can't pay vets bills or buy cat and dog food. We can save some costs by getting animals into foster homes, but realistically we still need to use boarding facilities for some animals.

Can anyone offer a home to Charlie?

Charlie was handed in to the police and was  going to be put down because his 7 days were up, so we were asked to take him on.

He's a Staffordshire cross, but gets on well with other dogs. 

There's more information about him on our Rehoming Gallery.

UPDATE: Just to remove any misunderstanding; we stepped in to SAVE Charlie—the 7 day time limit is the statutory length of time a local authority is required to pay kennelling fees for unowned dogs. Once this time limit is up a dog may be passed on to a rescue organisation (us in this case), rehomed directly, or put to sleep.

Animal Welfare Statistics for October

During October our clinic treated 213 dogs, 117 cats, 3 rabbits and 4 miscellaneous "small furries", and also neutered 12 dogs and 5 cats - a welcome sign that interest in neutering is picking up again.

We rehomed 4 cats, 1 dog and 1 rabbit.

In the total year to date we've provided 3,595 treatments for sick animals, neutered 215 animals and rehomed 94 animals. Of animals taken in for rehoming, only 8 had to be put to sleep on veterinary advice.

RSPCA Cambridge photo-mugs now available

Branch photo-mugs

The mugs come in two different designs: cats or dogs (sorry, no rabbits this time). Both designs feature animals rehomed by the branch during the past year.

They're now on sale, priced at £4.75, at our second-hand bookshop, 188 Mill road, and will also be available at various stalls we're doing in the run-up to Christmas. We make 99p profit on each mug, which will be ploughed back into our rehoming program.

Paying vet bills in austerity Britain

Increased charges for veterinary treatment are very likely to be one knock-on effect of the drive to reduce public spending. Training to be a vet requires a six year course—potentially meaning a newly qualified vet could have a debt of £54,000 if he or she trained at a university that charged the maximum £9,000 p.a. 

The increased cost of becoming a vet is inevitably going to end up being passed on to animal owners, because vets have to survive and pay their mortgages like anyone else.

If you have a reasonable income and only a few pets, it makes sense to take out pet insurance. Read the small print and discuss it with your vet as some policies may be more suited to your particular circumstances than others. Be aware that pre-existing conditions will not be covered, and it may be difficult to get cover for older animals at all. Look for a policy that will give continued cover as your pet ages, and check the size of the "excess" which you will have to pay yourself for each illness. If this figure is more than you would be able to find the policy will not be much use! Check whether the company will pay your vet direct or if you will be expected to pay the whole cost then claim it back.

Some vets offer "in-house" insurance which may be a good buy as such policies often give discounts on the cost of routine treatments, such as annual vaccinations, and they usually mean you do not have to pay the full cost of treatment and claim it back.

If you have a large number of animals it may be more cost-effective to pay a set amount of money into a savings account each month and use that to cover the cost of vet bills. If you decide to do this you need to have the will-power not to dip into this emergency fund for any other expenses.

If you know you couldn't afford pet insurance and you couldn't pay for treatment at a private vet if your pet was ill you need to make plans to decide what you would do to safeguard their welfare. 

The RSPCA, PDSA and the Blue Cross all have schemes to help low income pet owners, but there is no guarantee that this will be available in your local area—although the RSPCA does its best to ensure at least minimal help is available throughout England and Wales.

Don't assume that there will always be a free or low-cost animal clinic available in your locality; it may well be the case that the only help available will be a voucher for part-payment at a private vet. More help may be available if you have registered your animal with the charity before an emergency arises, because this will make it possible for them to check your proofs of low income.

Branch Volunteers Meeting

Put a note in your diaries.

The next informal RSPCA Cambridge volunteers meeting will be on 18th November at our charity shop, 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge. 7.30pm start.

All welcome, coffee and biscuits provided. We will be continuing to plan our fundraising diary for the run-up to Christmas and the following year.

Next year will be the 75th anniversary of an RSPCA clinic in Cambridge and we need to fundraise hard to ensure it continues to provide a service over the next 75 years!

As the cost of veterinary treatment continues to rise, the clinic becomes more and more important for very low income pet owners in this area. At the same time the costs involved in running the clinic are also increasing and there are times when we feel we are on a treadmill with no way off.

In the current economic climate it's unlikely that we can increase donations of cash, so it's ever more important that we develop fundraising activities like events and shops which also benefit those who spend money in terms of entertainment or good value bargains.

More on the "feed-in" to the branch from RSPCA frontline activities

If you're following RSPCA_Frontline you'll have seen that the staff responded to 1,442 complaints and collections on 2nd November. One of these was in our branch area and was a concern over a pet that had been noticed limping. An inspector visited the owner and advised them that the animal needed to be seen by a vet. 

As it turned out that finance was an issue, the owner was given details of the veterinary services provided by our branch and told to contact us for help. They did this and the animal was seen and treated.

This is why it's so important for us to continue providing a service to local owners who may not be very organised or competent. It's far better to Prevent cruelty than prosecute afterwards.

Beautiful walnut wardrobe donated to our shop

The photo doesn't do it justice, but this is a really attractive antique wardrobe, kindly donated to us together with a large amount of other furniture, including a lockable bureau and various tables.

All now available at our charity shop at 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge.

Many thanks to the kind donor.

Christmas mug designs sent off

Just approved the designs for this year's limited edition, must-have, Christmas animal mugs, featuring photos of some of the animals we've rehomed during 2010.

Cats design

Dog design

They should be available at our bookshop at 188 Mill Road from mid-November at £4.75 each. Our supporters' Christmas presents sorted, I hope.

Incidentally I'd be grateful for any feedback on how people feel about using pics of actual rescue animals. I do try not to feature any that might be upsetting for fosterers or adopters—for example if an adopted cat was run over and died. I do wonder how someone might feel if they suddenly came across a photo of much loved animal years down the line after they'd grown old and died? 

Mystery Cat

In case you've missed it, the National RSPCA has a new twitter feed: RSPCA_Frontline, illustrating a selection of real incidents being responded to by RSPCA Inspectors and Animal Welfare Officers.

It's well worth looking at to get some idea of the sheer number of incidents staff are called to investigate, and also the inconclusive nature of many of them - for example call-outs to injured, but mobile, wild animals which are impossible to find.

For many of the incidents which actually do have an outcome of some kind, the local branch forms the next step in dealing with a problem. As a nice example, the final tweet for 1st November was:

"On 01/11/10 our officers were allocated 2093 incidents to attend. Good night."

Each of the 2093 incidents is given a log number so that it can be retrieved from the computer system at a later date, and lo, and behold, a cat is now sitting in the emergency vet in Milton with number 17** - fairly close to the tail end of the day. She's a feral cat who's been trapped and taken there by a member of the public, using a trap loaned by one of the inspectors. 

This was initially a complete mystery to us because the first we knew about her was a call from the vet asking what we wanted to do with her. There followed a daft conversation reminiscent of James Herriot and the dog who was "pretty lively" because we'd got no idea why someone thought she needed to go to a vet, and none of the vets fancied putting his hand inside the cage to do an examination. Best guess was that someone wanted her spayed, but it might have been need for a dental or something entirely different as the person who borrowed the trap seems to have assumed the vet would know. 

The only information the surgery had was her log number and the system does work, because I was able to phone in to the control centre and discover that she was being fed by an elderly lady who had to go into hospital and the person who took over the feeding was concerned her fur was very matted. No-one seems to know for sure whether or not she's been spayed (or has been having kittens) and the plan is to de-matt her under sedation and look for a spay scar at the same time. If she's not got a scar they'll do the spay operation.


Callers who are very concerned about individual animals sometimes think we're over-bureaucratic and causing delay when we insist on administrative details such as log numbers and post codes. The sheer numbers of animals handled by the RSPCA each day mean it's impossible to rely on memory and we have to record information in a systematic way. This cat was a perfect example—without her log number it would have been impossible to track back and verify that the people feeding her are happy to have her back on site. That's hugely important for her future welfare as she's completely unsuited to long-term confinement in a cattery and will have a much better quality of life in the familiar surroundings from which she came.