As we all know the Conservative government is imposing heavy cuts to local authorities. Brighton and Hove council needs to save millions and is planning on cutting many services. It is planned that as of the 1st of April 2016 one of those services will be the animal welfare team, who you might also think of as the dog warden. Thing is, they do a lot more than pick up and look after stray dogs.

We know that these cuts will affect a lot of vulnerable people in the city and not just our animals, but everybody has a right to voice their opinion on the things that are important to them, so we would invite you to respond to the council’s public consultation on their 2016/2017 budget and if losing the animal welfare team is important to you then do say so and sign the petition. If we don’t say it is important to us they will not know. They are worried about damage to their reputation if the service is cut (we know because it says so in their budget proposal!) so tell them what you think. Every opinion is valid, one way or another. We may not be able to save the team, but we can certainly say what we think.

As part of our research, we have found out more about the team and what they do. A lot of people think they just pick up strays but it is a lot more than that. This is our understanding of the potential loss we will face if the service closes:

* STRAY DOGS. The council has a statutory obligation to pick up and look after stray dogs, on a 24/7 basis, and look after them for 7 days until they are claimed and if they are not they then become council ‘property’. They have no obligation to look after them after this time but up until now they have looked after them until they can re-home them, find them a place in a rescue or, in the worst case scenario have them put to sleep because of aggression issues (which we have been told is very rare). The service would be outsourced to a private company. The Environmental Health Manager said he would like a similar service to be provided, but there is no guarantee. Kennel costs can be expensive and a profit-making company may favour keeping costs down. Dogs may be automatically put to sleep after 7 days. At this point we do not know what the policy would be and we would only know once the service had been outsourced. From our own conversations with the AW team we know that most abandoned dogs are bull breeds and these are more difficult to re-home or get a rescue place. What will happen to these poor dogs that people are wilfully abandoning across the city? At its worst, abandoned dogs numbered 200 per year in B&H alone but we are told that at the moment it is not quite so severe.

• DOG FOULING. There will be nobody to police dog fouling or issue fines yet the council receives approximately 400 complaints per year regarding this issue. Anyone who wants their dog to defecate on the street will no doubt simply be able to get away with it. “It simply will not get done” we have heard from someone in the council. You happy about that?

• ANIMAL WELFARE. The team has dealt with around 300 animal welfare cases in the last year. In some cases taking people to court. What will happen to the animals now the team no longer takes on these cases (which we are told they have now stopped already due to the impending cuts)?. Do you think the RSPCA can cope?

• DOG ON DOG ATTACKS. Let’s say many people had complained about their dog being attacked by a certain dog and the owner did nothing (which we hear about a lot). The AW team could build a case against this person and take them to court. With no AW team you would be left to do a private prosecution against that person. Would you have the evidence, the time, the money to do that? Irresponsible owners are going to get away with a lot and there will be little you can do about it.

We think the animal welfare team provides a vital service and we do not want to lose it.

If you agree please sign the petition!