Newport City Council’s dog control service has achieved the Stray Dogs Silver Footprints award.
The award is part of the RSPCA’s Community Animal Welfare Footprints 2010 (CAWF) and the council achieved the footprint at its first attempt.
Councillor William Routley, cabinet member for environment and community safety, said: “The kennel staff and dog wardens are among Newport City Council’s unsung heroes. They work tirelessly to ensure that dogs in Newport are cared for and looked after and it is with great satisfaction that I am able to announce this great success.”
In order to achieve the award the service had to demonstrate a number of excellence standards. The service was able to show:
- All kennel staff and dog wardens had received basic dog handling and behaviour training
- There was a procedure in place to ensure injured and sick stray dogs were treated efficiently and humanely
- There was a procedure in place to ensure all stray dogs are scanned and ID checked
- All stray dogs are given a suitable environment and diet (including water), exhibits normal behaviour patterns and is protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease
- There was a procedure in place to take care of the needs of stray dogs picked up ‘out-of-hours’
- Information is given to all owners reclaiming stray dogs to prevent the dogs straying in the future
- Full and complete records are maintained for all stray dogs passing through the kennels
The additional excellence standards demonstrated by the service which lead to the awarding of the Silver Footprints Award were:
- The use of an excellent re-homing policy that ensured all dogs were assessed – behaviourally and physically – and those new owners were vetted
- The service promotes the use of micro-chipping as the best method of identifying stray dogs
Newport’s dog control service picks up stray dogs, deals with complaints about stray dogs and unwanted dogs are accepted from Newport residents. They are checked for illness or injury and a re-homing service is available.
