Council’s a top dog at handling stray-ngers!
Published Monday 25th October 10 in Council - news and information releases news
A Southend hound is a happy hound, according to Britain’s biggest animal charity.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has presented Southend-on-Sea Borough Council with another Silver award under the special Community Animal Welfare Stray Dogs Footprints scheme.
The prestigious seal of approval is part of a scheme supported by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and Trading Standards Institute.
Councillor Tony Cox, Executive Councillor for Public Protection and Waste, said: "I would like to congratulate our Animal Warden Valerie Howells and her colleagues on this terrific achievement.
"We do a lot of proactive work dealing with the issue of stray dogs and strongly promote micro-chipping and other ways of being a responsible dog owner.
"In the past financial year alone we have retrieved 312 dogs and returned 199 of these to their owners.
"Those which were not micro-chipped had chips implanted before they were reclaimed by their owners. We had to re-home the remaining 96 dogs, which were also micro-chipped.
"The award is even more of an achievement this year because there were a record number of entries."
The RSPCA has invited the Council and all the other winning authorities to a special ceremony in London to celebrate their success.
More information on the Community Animal Welfare Footprints scheme is available at www.rspca.org.uk/cawf