PANORAMA PROGRAMME BRITAIN'S UNWANTED PETS

BBC’s Panorama programme “Britain’s unwanted pets" tackled the issue of stray and unwanted dogs on a UK wide level. Battersea Dogs & Cats Home agreed to participate in this programme in order to highlight, at close hand, the harsh realities of this growing problem in society.

Claire Horton, Chief Executive at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home said, “Battersea has become so concerned about the unprecedented increase of stray dogs in London - especially bull breeds, and the massive pressure this has placed on the Home, on the community and on the dogs themselves - that we agreed to participate in the making Panorama’s programme, “Britain’s Unwanted Pets” and show the public how the dogs we take in are a mirror on what is out on the streets today.

We know that the programme made uncomfortable, viewing and that its content will shock a great many people but in Britain's inner cities in particular, the plight of dogs bred, bought and sold as accessories, weapons and status symbols and the unrelenting pressure rescue organisations are all facing needs to be known and the cause? Irresponsible ownership and back street breeding.
 
This is not just a Battersea Dogs & Cats Home problem; this is a bigger society problem affecting all animal welfare organisations, the police and all local authorities across the UK. It's not necessarily just about dogs either; it's often about crime, intimidation and anti-social behaviour.

With around 50% of our intake being Staffordshire Bull Terriers and bull breed crosses, Battersea's biggest challenge is how to ensure we are able to give every single dog that comes into our care the very best possible chance of finding a loving and secure home. Often many of these dogs have been so badly treated from an early age that, despite all our rehabilitation attempts, it is simply just too late for these animals and we could not in all conscience home them back out into the community for the risk they would pose

Battersea has and continues to work hard to reduce the number of dogs it has to put to sleep due to temperament through closer monitoring of an animal behaviour during its stay, a dedicated kennel enrichment programme to make their stay more relaxed and a quicker assessment procedure. Out of the 2815 dogs we put to sleep in 2009:

• 321 were because they were a banned breed and legally we have no other option but to put them to sleep 
• 482 were because of severe medical reasons
• 81 because the dogs behaviour was aggressive and the owners gave the dog up to Battersea for safety reasons.
• 1931 because of temperament reasons which includes aggression.

Owning a dog is easier than ever before and back street breeding and internet sales are creating a major problem across the UK - especially of so called 'status dogs'. The responsibility of properly caring for a dog is simply not recognised by a growing section of society and all too often dogs that either don't live up to their aggressive reputation, grow too big, become too old or tired to breed
from anymore, or are just seen as "too much trouble", are simply thrown out onto the streets.

For these dogs, beyond local authority pounds and rescue centres like Battersea there is nowhere else for them to go.

For the past 150 years the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home charity has been about second chances. We rely almost entirely on the generosity of the public to carry out the work we do. We receive no government funding. We have cared for over 3.1 million dogs and cats, doing all we can to offer shelter, compassion and hope for a happy future, but in 2010 the situation shows no sign of improvement and the pressure on the Home is becoming critical.  Action needs to be taken by Government and local government to help tackle the problems at source.

Battersea is working with other animal welfare organisations across the UK to be a voice for dogs. Battersea Dogs & Cats Home would like to see changes in legislation that enforces a traceable connection between a dog and its owner.  Whilst we don’t want to see responsible owners penalised, we would like to see more onus being put on the owner to take responsibility for their animals and most responsible owners we know would welcome that.

• We would like all dogs to be easily traceable back to their owner - with this comes more accountability – and microchipping would help in this regard.
• More generally we would like to see some form of licensing scheme but it would need to be set up so that it did not merely put more pressure on existing responsible owners. 
• We’d like to see more housing associations and local authority housing services build restrictions into individual tenancy agreements for numbers of dogs that can be kept and restrictions on breeding from these properties.
• We’d like to see a national dog control strategy so that all local authorities across the UK were set up to provide a consistent service that enables them to fulfil their statutory duties.

In its long history, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has survived two world wars, the Blitz, a rabies epidemic and helped over 3 million animals. In 2010 we’re facing our biggest challenge ever. With an average of 22 new dogs and 7 cats coming through our doors every day, we are stretched beyond breaking point trying to ensure that every animal (including the 200 Staffordshire Bull Terriers in our care today) get that second chance of a new life. And that those people looking to offer a home to a dog, come to us and make that dream a reality.