Death sentence for missing dogs
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Your support makes all the difference.London's dog owners are having to trace missing pets to kennels as far away as Cambridgeshire because of changes to the law. By the time they have found them the animals have often been sold or destroyed.
Local authorities are now obliged to keep stray dogs for seven days - but the law does not specify where.
Battersea Dogs' home, in south London, has started to lobby for new regulations to help owners find their pets.
'At one time it was relatively simple, said Lt-Col Duncan Green. 'When Londoners lost their dogs they went to the police. After that they came here. Now we're having to tell them to go back to their local authorities. Then their dogs could be kept elsewhere. It's hard to do all this in the seven-day period. The Earl of Buchan, a committee member of the dogs' home, has raised the issue in the House of Lords.
A particular fear is that difficult-to-sell dogs are being killed soon after the statutory seven-day period as some kennels may not want to pay for the animal's upkeep. Under the Environmental Protection Act of 1991, the council can sell the dog, give it away or kill it after seven days.
Since 1988 the number of dogs coming into Battersea has halved. Ceris Price, spokeswoman for the National Canine Defence League, said: 'If an owner turns up after seven days and the dog has already been rehoused there is nothing they can do. And the problem is that owners often don't know where to look. A dog does not just stay in one borough when it strays.
Last year eight London boroughs sent stray dogs to the Wood Green animal shelter near Huntingdon in Cam-bridgeshire. The 70-year-old charity reunites 40 per cent of the dogs with their owners. It also keeps a large database of registered dogs and is launching a national lost and found service for dog owners.
Its co-ordinator, Isabelle Grant, said: 'Owners should not only register their pets, they should contact the local authority as soon as it goes missing.
Other councils who sent dogs to Wood Green last year include Barking, Enfield, Hackney and Westminster, where Battersea dogs' home is situated.
In the London Borough of Havering stray dogs are usually kept for just three or four days before being taken to Wood Green. In Bromley they are sent to a local animal shelter where they are rehomed.
A council spokesman said: 'We're quite happy with our arrangements. It's better than taking dogs to Battersea, as people on income support find it hard to get there.'
(Photograph omitted)
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