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Written by Daphne
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 This lucky chap came in as a stray, he spent ten days in kennels, wasn't claimed but was handed over to us and then we found him a super home. For many of the other strays out there life isn't so kind. The policy regarding abandoned and straying dogs changed this month. The police are no longer responsible for taking them in. So what happens to the dogs that are lost, thrown out, abandoned or knocked down by a car? It's now down to each Borough Council to take care of them. How does that happen? And where do the dogs go?
They system is still in the early stages of adjustment. How it worked before was that dogs were picked up by the Dog Wardens during office hours and then taken to a designated kennels (St.Bernard's in this area) to be cared for, the Council accepting responsibility for them during the first ten days. Out of hours the dogs were taken to the nearest police station by members of the public. This was a 24 hour option but now they no longer are involved with stray dogs, it is no longer available. The public now have to take a stray dog or one they have found, to a designated kennel in their area. They can find out the whereabouts of the kennel by ringing a council care line - and then the kennel will take the dog in evenings and weekends. Again, the Council accept responsibility for the dog for the first ten days.
There have been teething troubles. The care line doesn't always seem to be manned and people have found themselves holding a dog at 11.0 o'clock at night and not knowing what to do with him. It's not always possible to take a stray dog home with you if you have other dogs or cats yourself. There's been a reluctance to publicize the system in case it leads to more dogs being dumped - the Councils don't want to encourage people to dump even more dogs as the Dog Warden and kennelling service is paid for out of the Council Tax.
If the dog isn't claimed within the ten day period then he or she will either be destroyed by the Council or handed over to an animal sanctuary. We have a non-destruction policy but there is a finite number of dogs we can take in. Only so many kennels available. Such a lot of funding and donations of dog food are needed in order to care for these poor homeless dogs. The abandoned dogs are mostly unseen and unheard about in the u.k. but this is a massive problem and extremely distressing for the poor animals and the people who have to deal with them.
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