Dog warden tells council ‘responsible dog ownership gone out the window’ in Belfast

By Michael Kenwood, Regional Democracy Reporter

A doggy warden has instructed Belfast Council that “liable pet dog possession has absent suitable out the window” as elected associates admitted the city services is experiencing a crisis in excess of doggy fouling.

Councillors listened to at City Hall this 7 days that the canine warden provider was suffering a resourcing and staffing emergency, with only 14 set penalties having been issued due to the fact final April for dog fouling, and only 12 personnel masking the whole of the city canine products and services.

At the Belfast Town Council People and Communities Committee assembly, elected associates talked about for above an hour irrespective of whether or not to raise fines for littering, doggy fouling and failing to leash a pet dog, just after Stormont granted new powers for council to high-quality up to a utmost of £200 on place fines.

The council now has a preset penalty fine for littering at £80, lowered to £60 if paid inside of 10 times. Recently the neighbouring Ards and North Down Borough Council elevated utmost fines for pet entrepreneurs and litterers from £80 to £200, and the decreased price from £80 to £150.

At Metropolis Corridor this week nevertheless, councillors agreed more was expected to deal with the issue than increasing fines, and agreed to defer the decision on new set penalties, pending a workshop on the issue and the development of a council targeted “intervention” all-around doggy fouling, the character of which was not fully described.

A senior canine warden advised the committee: “A large amount of emphasis is on detection and set penalties. 1 of the most aggravating items for a canine warden is that the effectiveness of operate is found around mounted penalties.

“When I started off in 2004, the laws had hardly ever been enforced by any of the pet dog warden company workforce. I was brought in with other colleagues to implement only doggy fouling offences and issuing mounted penalties on the place. We used eight several hours a day among 6.30am to 2pm patrolling non-quit for dog fouling.

“We bought 250 set penalties in the 1st 12 months, which averages about 20 a thirty day period. It does not audio like a lot, but when you set it in point of view, that was all we have been carrying out all day on break up shifts. We have been experienced by the greatest in the services, and there ended up no competency difficulties.

“It is a very really hard matter to detect even if people usually are not expecting you. Now, after 18 decades, the general public appreciates we are out there, and the individuals who want to avoid us, know how to prevent us. Now we perform 8am to 8pm, and the core doggy strolling hrs of 6.30am to 8am and 8pm to 10pm are lost.

“The 14 preset penalties for this yr sounds pathetic. But I know at least 50 percent of them have been caught by following folks home since they won’t cooperate, tracing auto registrations simply because they would not cooperate, calling police out to deal with it due to the fact they won’t cooperate. It can take a great deal to really get a detection.

“I tried out for an hour in North Belfast, about 4 months back, to capture a person who had enable his doggy foul in the Waterworks Park. I adopted him for an hour waiting for the police to capture up, and he finally bought away as the police ended up as well late.

“It is a nightmare trying to catch men and women. So rising the high-quality, indeed, you will get a lot more income from it, but you need the detections. We have 12 wardens, that is 6 for every day, with four regions of Belfast to protect, undertaking all the operate we do. It usually means if we have adequate workers there will be two wardens to cover pet fouling patrols. Almost never do we have 6 wardens on, due to illness and once-a-year leave etc.

“On any provided day I can promise pet wardens on dog fouling responsibility for no far more than two several hours a day. And you have to decide 1 area of Belfast to go to for the reason that there is no position in two several hours over the whole metropolis. Which is the methods we are functioning with.”

She included: “Pet dog possession has statistically not elevated more than Covid, but it has. Places of work were being shut down and so a large amount of licences could not be acquired. We are now spending time catching up with a backlog of licences, and the officers are inundated with new programs coming in. We are for good in the system of our duties catching up with individuals who have no licences for their pet dogs, ordinarily aged one particular or two, and gotten throughout lockdown.

“With the improve in dog ownership, so canine attacks have improved. The variety of dog assaults this calendar year to date is 30 more than the calendar year in advance of. Dependable pet dog ownership has absent fully out the window in every spot. And we are chasing our tails making an attempt to continue to keep on prime of it all.

“I am a large advocate for endorsing liable ownership as a total, and not just focusing on doggy fouling. There are a large amount of items we require aid with – we will need superior laws on puppy management orders, on matters these as trying to keep canine on leads. That will reduce down assaults, fouling and straying.

“Very simple things like that. We need to have to go to the main of the company, or the core of the issue, to deal with the outer challenges. The puppy fouling provider has been about for virtually 20 decades, and it really is not obtaining anywhere.

“I have been doing it for 18 yrs and items have not gotten much better, the grievances are not any much less. The fixed penalties have dropped as individuals are sensible to us, and our operational hours, which widened overall, have shrunk for puppy fouling.”

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