Dacorum Borough Council achieves gold standard in annual RSPCA PawPrints awards

Dacorum Borough Council’s Environmental Community Protection Animal Welfare service and housing teams have been recognised for good practice, exceeding basic and statutory service requirements with the aim of achieving higher animal welfare standards.

Since 2008, the RSPCA’s PawPrints Awards has been the only scheme recognising good practice from local authorities in relation to animal welfare.

The teams excelled in two areas including Stray Dogs Footprint and Housing Footprint.

The main aim of the Stray Dogs Footprint footprint is to set a level of good practice for stray dog provision ensure dog welfare, provide staff training, and promote responsible dog ownership. It also aims to encourage local authorities to look at this important and often undervalued service and address any resource and service issues that may help them to meet the footprint criteria in the future.

This housing footprint recognises housing providers who take positive steps to encourage and ensure responsible pet ownership in the properties they manage, and to recognise others that are doing so.

It also aims to encourage a considered pets-in-housing policy that is not simply a ‘knee-jerk’ response to problems that have arisen through a weak pet policy or tensions created by an anti-social minority.

Councillor Margaret Griffiths, Dacorum Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Housing Services, said: “We are so honoured to have achieved this recognition from the RSPCA Gold PawPrints Awards scheme. It’s an amazing achievement and reflects the high standard of our animal welfare service. To achieve the gold standard yet again is testament to the dedication of our staff and I congratulate all involved."

Councillor Julie Banks, Dacorum Borough Council Portfolio Holder for Communities, added: “This is a fantastic achievement by our hard working staff who are committed to achieving high animal welfare standards across the borough.

“So much hard work goes on behind the scenes to improve animal welfare locally and I’m delighted that they have met this standard yet again.”

The council has an animal welfare team who can assist with any concerns relating to neglect or abuse of any animal, including dogs, cats, horses, small household pets, exotics and wildlife.

Any concerns for the welfare of an animal can be reported directly to the team by emailing [email protected] or calling 01442 228455.