wightdogs.com ISLE of WIGHT DOGS and OWNERS

Does anyone know what the Dog Wardens do to unclaimed dogs?  In a recent conversation I was told that the Council have now given the job of Dog Wardens to an outside business and that if a dog is not claimed within a few days they are put down.  Maybe I am naive but I thought that on the Island these dogs were only put down if it was for health reasons?

Hi Debbiemouse, this is the first I have heard of this however as the council don't answer emails from "vexatious" people there would be very little point in me asking for clarification of the current system.

Where did you hear this? Obviously if t is accurate we need to know and bring that information to the publics attention.

You could always ask for this, or any other information you require, under the Freedom Of Information Act through the What Do They Know website http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/isle_of_wight_council

Unfortunately there is little point in my doing so as apparently by calling someone vexatious you are able to avoid questions you would rather not answer

I have requested the information. I wonder if i am vexatious as well? Couldnt they just call us all vexatious and avoid answering any questions.

Dear Isle of Wight Council,

I would like to request the following information, relating to the

islands dog wardens.

1. Are the islands dog wardens currently employed in house or are

they contracted externally?

2. If they are no longer in house the date of the changeover to an

external contract

3. The number of full/part-time dog wardens currently working on

the island

4. The current practice relating to stray dogs including details of

the procedures for disposal if they are not claimed, including the

time frame.

5. Under what circumstances are dogs in the care of the Council

destroyed (whether picked up as strays or otherwise)

6. The number of dogs the council have had destroyed during the

last 2 years (giving totals for individual years, along with the

individual reasons the dogs were destroyed)

Yours faithfully,

Miss Attrill

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/isle_of_wight_council_destroying#outgoing-136954

Thank you for that cookie, I have been somewhat incapacitated recently and unable to make requests in person. The welfare of animals on the Island in general, and dogs in particular, is of great concern to all of us.

All council's have to keep stray dogs for a minuim of 7 days and attempt to find the owner. After that they are free to do as they please. Most councils outsource kennels to a private company therefore sadly once the 7 days are up they have to get rid of the dog as quick as possible. If the kennels think they can rehome it they will take the dog and sell it. Charities such as Dogs trust and other resuces also take dogs but they have limited places. Therefore sadly there is no choice but to put the dog down. If the dog is injured or old then they stand a very good chance of being put down due to the costs of looking after the dog while a home is found. Some breeds are also automatically put down as there is either too many of them in homes at is or they are a breed that it is diffcult to find homes for. Staffordshire Bull Terriers are lovely dogs but few people will take them because of their poor image so are normally automatically put down. It sounds harsh but there are a large number of dogs that are given up or just kicked out and with limited funds there is little that can be done even for unwanted healthy dogs.

I am not saying Isle Of Wight Council do this but a majority of council's in the UK opreate in this way.

If the council will not respond to your e-mail then you after 28 days ask again and say you are not happy no reply has been given. Then after 14 days make an official complaint through the council's complaint procedures. This will in 99% of cases push them into a reply. Complaint officers will do everything they can to make sure you are happy as they do not want it to go to the next level which is Ombudsman [moderators link]. Just do not give up as some council officers will just hope if you ignore them you will go away.

Thank you WightNorthern, however your comments Re: the councils adherence to their complaint proceedures, council officers performance percentages and the Local Government Ombudsman strike me as naive to say the least, this based on my own extensive experience of all three.

http://www.wightdogs.com/localgovernmentombudsman.htm

The trouble is WightNorthern that the Councils Customer Charter makes the promise that all written correspondence will be acknowledge and a full reply will be sent within 20 working days:

 Isle of Wight Council Customer Service Charter

Dealing with correspondence –

where a reply is needed

We aim to reply to all written correspondence,

within 5 working days of receipt

Where a full reply is not possible within that time, an

acknowledgement will be sent stating who is dealing with

your enquiry and how to contact them. This

acknowledgement will,whenever possible, say how long it

will be before you will receive a full reply. A full reply will

always be sent as soon as possible but within 20 working

days of original receipt (there are exceptions to this; for

example, student loans and planning applications).

This simply is not the case as the Council regularly ignore correspondence. So if they ignore their own policies in this respect what makes you so confident that they will comply with their other policies? Especially as the ombudsman is a joke. They behave like this because they know they can get away with it as there is no effective regulator.

People who insist that the system must be fair because you feel it should be are burying their heads in the sand and are in denial of the way the system is skewed by design.

Where on the island is the dog pound?

Hi pepsi, and welcome to the website.

I would imagine that the dogs are put into boarding kennels if they are not claimedbyt the end of the working day and the owner would be charged for the kenneling.