Hat trick of gold awards for Dog Warden Service

Published Tuesday, 13th November 2018

Staff at Hartlepool Borough Council’s Dog Warden Service are celebrating after winning a national award for a third successive year.

The service - part of the Council’s Environmental Services section - has won a gold award in the “stray dog services” category of the 2018 RSPCA Community Animal Welfare Footprint Awards.

Rspca award 1 web

Hartlepool Borough Council Officers Paul Hurwood, Joanne Taylor and Alison Carberry.

The awards scheme recognises good practice in stray dog provision by acknowledging local authority services that have mechanisms and policies in place to ensure dog welfare, provide staff training and promote responsible dog ownership.

The Council was informed that it had again won a gold award after submitting a detailed dossier highlighting the work of its Dog Warden Service

Councillor Stephen Akers-Belcher, Chair of the Council’s Neighbourhood Services Committee, said: “To win such a prestigious award for three years in a row is an excellent achievement and I would like to congratulate all staff who have played a part in this. It reflects the high quality of the service they provide.”

Statistics show that there was a 24% reduction in the number of strays picked up in Hartlepool between 2016/17 and 2017/18, and there has also been a 30% increase in the number of stray dogs returned directly to the owners due to the fact that they were micro-chipped.

Rspca award 2 webThe Council’s Dog Warden Service actively encourages owners to get their dogs micro-chipped by staging free drop-in “chipping” events with partner organisations in various parts of the town.

Alison Carberry, who is responsible for the Dog Warden Service, explained: “We have increased the frequency of the community events we hold in partnership with the Dogs Trust and Thirteen Group from quarterly to monthly due to an increase in demand. All events are actively advertised through posters and on social media and one event, held at the Phoenix Centre in Hartlepool, attracted as many as 78 people and their dogs.”

The Dog Warden Service provides an in-house stray dog collection service from 8.30am-3.30pm every weekday during the winter months. It has also been extended to cover weekends, offering a service from 10am-2pm on Saturdays and Sundays. At other times, members of the public are able to drop off found dogs direct to the kennels used by the Council – Stray Aid at Coxhoe – from 8am-6pm, seven days a week.

Alison Carberry added: “This award is also testimony to the excellent working relationship we have with everyone at Stray Aid and I would like to thank them for their on-going support.”