Stray dogs

Research undertaken by Dogs Trusts indicates that the number of stray dogs across the UK was 105,068 in 2007.  Of these dogs collected by local authorities, 7,892 dogs were euthanized (“put to sleep”) because homes could not be found for them.  The stray dog situation is a considerable concern to canine welfare in the UK.

Responsibility for stray dogs lies with dog wardens attached to the local authority with responsibility for environmental health.  Their duties include collecting stray dogs, attempting to reunite them with their owners in addition to ensuring responsible dog ownership generally.

The Council will have a contract with a particular kennel which takes dogs for the council and pays boarding fees for each dog it takes in. The council will effectively pay 7 days boarding for each stray dog that is not claimed back by its owner. For larger, urban councils that runs to thousands of pounds a year. Some larger kennels have contracts with several different councils and purely take and rehome stray dogs. Smaller kennels may just have an isolation block and take in small numbers of dogs for a single council.  Legally dogs must be held for a minimum of seven days in order to allow owners to reclaim their dog.

Once the 7 days are over the council relinquishes ownership of the dog to the kennels that have taken it in, giving them the opportunity to deal with the dog as they see fit.  The kennels holding the dog may seek to rehome or “sell” the dog (which helps to raise funds), help arrange a rescue place for a dog or euthnase it (“put to sleep”).  In the UK in 2007, 7,892 dogs suffered this latter fate.   The approach taken by the kennels varies considerably, hence the large discrepancies in numbers of dogs and percentages of what happens to each dog. The larger kennels will rehome the dogs themselves, only passing on dogs to rescues who struggle to sell themselves in the kennels. Some kennels will not pass on dogs at all and will euthnase dogs that they cannot rehome. Smaller kennels may pass on or put to sleep all of the dogs and rehome none themselves.  After the seven days the kennel funds the care of the dogs and not the council, and therefore the reason so many dogs are euthanized are because not enough homes can be found, rescues do not have room and the kennel spaces themselves are scarce.  Largely it is due to physical impossibilities of keeping so many dogs; all councils have difficulties in finding kennelling spaces.

The numbers of stray dogs and dogs killed varies considerably throughout regions in the UK.  In London there were 9,368 stray dogs and 181 were put to sleep.  The Midlands had 17,730 stray dogs and 359 were put to sleep.  Yorkshire had 6,790 stray dogs and 770 were put to sleep.  The North West had 12,018 stray dogs of which 1,267 were put to sleep.  For full information on the Dogs Trust survey, visit http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/press_office/stray-dog-survey-2007/.

The Dogs Trust statistics on stray dogs have a number of limitations.  All figures are estimates based on an assumption that responding authorities are representative of authorities as a whole. Results relate to the period 31st March 2006 to 1st April 2007. The 2007 survey was produced by GfK NOP who mailed questionnaires to all 432 local authorities in the UK, with a response rate of 79%. Results are weighted to represent the 432 authorities.  Moreover in some cases a dog may have been put to sleep due to injury or ill health.  Overall, despite these limitations, the results are indicative of the problem.