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Why has so little been achieved?
Dog business is not so perplexed by the problem of strays that they don’t know what to do about it. They know and we know that solutions will affect profits.
The solution
Allowing a dog to become a stray should be an offence in law. This could be provided for by an amendment to the Environment Protection Act 1990 where the responsibility for seizure of stray dogs (Section 149) has been assigned to local authorities.
Over the years, dealing with stray dogs by local authorities has been bedevilled by two obstacles; first, identification of a dog and its owner, second, the promotion by interested parties of the notion that the welfare of dogs is the responsibility of local authorities. The Environment Protection Act 1990 addresses the problem by requiring all dogs to be collared with means of identifying the owner. A non-returned dog would either be one without a suitable collar or no collar at all. Presumably all dogs that are identifiable and claimed, are returned. Non-return, in the vast majority of cases is a consequence of non-claiming, non-collaring and non-compliance with the law.
The question of other methods of dog identification has been well explored (DIG Report 2001) and there is now no practical obstacle to the implementation of compulsory implanting of microchips. Compulsory or not, lack of a microchip should define a dog as an unidentifiable owner’s stray. Stepping down ownership promotion and a registration scheme, coupled with micro-chipping from the start, seems to be the only solution to the strays problem.
So whose problem is it?
Over the years, some parties have fostered the notion that dogs are the responsibility of LAs in regard to dog welfare. There is in fact, no statutory obligation for them to be involved. Section 149 of the Environment Act provides only for dealing with stray dogs and not the current multiplicity of activities of dog wardens, which are sometimes tantamount to dog promotion.
Until there is a significant change in attitudes to stray dogs, the public will continue to pay for those dumped by their owners.
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