FI17140

Request

Enquiries Outside the Authority Area 

1. How many occasions were there where officers responsible for stray dog functions needed to make enquiries outside your authority's district/borough area in order to identify, trace, or contact a potential owner of a stray dog where a dog has been found within your district/borough but information received suggests that the dog owner resides over the boarder and into another local authority area. 

2. If exact figures are not recorded, please indicate which of the following best reflects your authority's experience:

Frequency of enquiries made outside of your area? Please indicate

  • Never*
  • Rarely 
  • Sometimes
  • Often
  • Frequently

3. Please indicate whether such investigations are conducted in person (officer visits the address) or writes to the individual. This assumes that email/telephone contacts are not held within in a microchip data set. Please indicate which best describes your approach. 

We write a letter to the potential owners address?

  • Never
  • Rarely 
  • Sometimes
  • Often
  • Frequently 

4. An officer visits the potential owners address in person to enquire as to potential ownership.

  • Never
  • Rarely 
  • Sometimes
  • Often
  • Frequently 

*If ‘Never’ please set out any alternative steps that would be taken to reunite the dog with its owner (again, this assumes that information has been provided to the local authority which suggests the address of a potential owner).

Cross-Boundary Cooperation

5. Does your authority have any formal or informal arrangements with neighbouring authorities regarding enquiries, investigations, or visits connected with stray dogs that originate from outside your area?

6. If such arrangements exist, please provide copies of any relevant policies, protocols, guidance documents, service specifications, or operational procedures that govern these activities.

Response

1. We do not record figures as no date range specified

2. Rarely (We would only contact by phone or email)

3. Rarely (For most dogs we don’t write to potential owners as we only have 7 days and writing to an owner would take too long)

4. Rarely (Only if we had just a correct address and no email or telephone on Microchip)

5. As this occurs infrequently we do not have a formal agreement in place with our neighbouring authorities but would look to work collaboratively with them in appropriate circumstances.

6. Not applicable.