Dogs - Stray, found and lost

All dogs must by law wear a collar and tag. Failure to do so could result in a fine of up to £2000. It is recommended that you only put your contact details on the tag and not the name of your pet, as thieves may be able to use this information to pass off your dog as their own pet.

From 6^th April 2016, all dogs over 8 weeks of age must by law be microchipped. Vets and animal charities will be able to microchip your dog either for free or for a small cost (approximately £10 - £20). If your dog is microchipped then you must also ensure that its details are updated, such as your address and contact details. Failure to microchip your dog can result in a fine of £500.

Owners must make sure that their gardens are secured appropriately to prevent their dog from roaming and must never deliberately allow their dog to roam free.

If you have contained a found dog in your home or garden, there are a number of options open to you:

• If the dog has a collar and tag, you can contact the owner directly and have the owner collect the dog
  
  
• You can contact the council and arrange for the dog warden to collect the dog. Dogs collected by the dog warden are taken to our Boarding Kennels to await either collection by the owner or re-homing. If the Dog has an updated Microchip, The Dog Warden will make every attempt to reunite the Dog before it is taken to our Boarding Kennels.  Please complete the Report a found dog form below. 
• The dog wardens are available to collect dogs between 8am and 4pm Mon to Fri, You may be required to keep the dog until the next working day due to the high demands of this service. If when the Dog Warden calls you with the telephone number provided, and they are unable to contact you, no further arrangements will be made to collect the dog and you will be required to take the dog to the kennels yourself.
  
  
• If you can not contain a found dog in your home or garden, contact your nearest vets to check the vets have space. if you take a found dog to the vets, you must provide photo ID, your name, address, telephone number and give information where you found the dog.
• Report a found dog
• You can take found dogs to our Boarding kennels yourself at the address at the bottom of this page. However, if you do this, you must complete the report a found dog form prior to your journey; this registers the dog on our database and provides you with a reference number that the Kennels need in order to book the dog in. If you do not have the reference number you may find that the Kennels refuse to take the dog until one is provided.

• You can choose to continue to hold the dog in your home. Again, if you choose to do this, you must call the Contact Centre in order to inform us. This enables us to reunite the found dog with its owner, should the owner come forward.
• If you choose to do this, you must be aware that by law, you must continue to contain the dog for a minimum period of 28 days, should the owner not claim their dog.
• Please note that you will be asked by the Contact Centre to allow your contact details to be passed to the owner, should the owner come forward. If you are not prepared to do this, then the dog warden will schedule the collection of the dog.
• Additionally, if you continue to hold the dog in your home, but subsequently decide that you cannot keep the dog after the minimum 28 day period, you must take the dog to our Boarding kennels yourself. The dog warden will not collect the dog at that point. Therefore, when you contact the Council you must consider whether or not you have available transport, should you wish to continue to contain the dog in your home
  
  
• Finally, if you or the Council cannot locate the dog’s owner and you subsequently decide to keep the dog for yourselves, after the minimum period of 28 days, you must inform both the council and the Police (on the non-emergency number 101) of your decision. As a responsible dog owner you must ensure that the dog has a collar and tag with your contact details and you must ensure that the dog is either microchipped or has the microchip details updated to reflect your new ownership. One thing to bear in mind in this situation is that, should the owner contact you at any point in the future and are able to provide proof of ownership, they have a legal right to collect the dog from you.

A stray dog is defined as any dog in a public place that is not under the control of its owner. All reports of roaming stray dogs will be checked and patrolled by the dog warden.  Stray dogs can be reported using the form link below.

• Report a stray dog

If you have lost your dog, Phone your dog's microchip database and report them missing. 

You can also check web sites, such as:

• • doglost.co.uk
  • animalsearchuk.co.uk
  • nationalpetregister.org 
    (You can use these web sites for free in order to both advertise your lost dog and search for information on found dogs. There are also Facebook pages for lost and found dogs).

• Please note that if you have lost your dog and it is found not to be microchipped, you may be given a period of grace for 21 days to rectify this. During this time, you must have your dog microchipped or you could face a Fixed Penalty Notice of up to £500.

If your dog has been taken to our Boarding kennels then you will need to provide two forms of identity, in addition to this, you have to prove that you are the dog's owner (photographs, pet passport, vet documentation).

A fixed fee is also payable to the kennels before dogs can be returned. This is £62.50 to cover the cost of boarding for the dog; the Kennels will also apply a caring charge per day.

If your dog is not collected within 7 days, then they will be made available for re-homing.

Dangerous dogs are dealt with by the police under Dangerous Dogs Act. In an emergency contact the police directly on 999. Banned or stolen dogs should be reported directly to the Police on 101.