Welsh Police force spends £104K on putting dangerous dogs in kennels

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

North Wales Police has revealed it is spending £104,000 a year on placing dangerous dogs in kennels.

The figure was revealed at a North Wales Police and Crime Panel meeting at Conwy Council’s Bodlondeb HQ this week.

The additional expenditure follows changes to the Dangerous Dog Act in February last year which made it illegal to own an XL Bully without an exemption certificate in England and Wales.

The dogs are illegal to rehome, breed, abandon, or sell.

Dogs with an exemption certificate must be neutered and kept on a lead and be muzzled in public.

Retainer 

During the meeting, Conwy councillor Louise Emery said: “The dangerous dogs kennelling, £104,000 a year, which does seem quite a lot.

“But is that a retainer you pay kennel companies so that they are always able to take the dogs?

“I’m just thinking, how many dangerous dogs have we got that cost £100K a year?”

North Wales Police’s chief constable Amanda Blakeman said the large bill was a reflection of the new law.

She said: “So this area has been really problematic for us.

“As you can imagine since the legislation came in, we get more and more calls to these types of offences where we are in a position where we end up seizing dogs in order for us to be able to do the enquiry.

“We do pay a retainer in relation to the type of kennelling that will take those types of dogs. It’s really difficult.

“It’s been a national problem. You might have seen that in the national news and raised by the national lead for finance, in terms of the cost of it. But it is clearly a problem that has grown for us and one which we’ve been able to identify a provision for.”

Abandoning dogs

Flintshire councillor Chris Bithell added: “I’m glad Louise (Cllr Emery) asked the question about the dog kennelling because I picked that up, because as a local authority that comes under my particular portfolio in my county, the pest control for example.

“We get a sum of money we have to pay, and it is increasing, because people are just abandoning dogs.

“Those who’ve got dangerous dogs are just letting them free, and somebody has got to pick up the actual bill for that, either the police or the local authority.”

He added: “So again, I think measures need to be taken nationally to tighten up on that.

“I believe dogs have to be clipped (chipped). Surely there is something on that clip (chip) that says who the owner of that dog is or was. It’s a big problem.”