Dangerous Dogs Act 1991

Thankyou for your email, I have passed it to the appropriate section and
asked that they reply to you direct.

show quoted sections

Hi Amanda

Thank you for your email of 22^nd April. I believe that the first 5
questions were answered on the 20^th March under reference number 97.09 by
Andy Gumbley. Please let me know if this response was not satisfactory.

With regard to questions 6 - 8, I will forward your request to the
appropriate officer to respond by 22^nd May.

If you have any queries in the mean time, please do no t hesitate to
contact me quoting the reference number 204.09 - my contact details are
below.

Regards

Ami

Ami Dennison

Information Protection and Assurance Officer

Rochdale MBC

6th Floor, Telegraph House

Baillie Street, Rochdale OL16 1JA

01706 926211

[email address]

This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also
be legally privileged. They are intended solely for the intended
addressee. If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to
the sender and then immediately, permanently delete it. Do not
read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it. This e-
mail may be monitored by Rochdale Council in accordance with
current regulations. This footnote also confirms that this e-mail
message has been swept for the presence of computer viruses
currently known to the Council. However, the recipient is
responsible for virus-checking before opening this message and any
attachment. Unless otherwise stated, any views expressed in this
message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily
reflect the views of Rochdale Council.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this
email and/or any response under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 unless the information in the email and/or any response is
covered by one of the exemptions in the Act.

Thank you for your freedom of information request below

1) How many dogs have been seized by the council under Section One

of the Dangerous Dogs Act in each year from 2000 to 2008?

2) How many prosecutions under Section One of the Dangerous Dogs

Act did the council proceed with in 2007 and 2008?

3)How many dogs have been seized under Section One of the Dangerous

Dogs Act so far this year (2009)? Of those seized, how many have

been signed over for destruction by their owners?

4) How many applications have been made to the Magistrates court

under section 4b of the Dangerous Dogs Act in the last three years?

Of those 4b applications, how many resulted in destruction orders

and how many resulted in registration onto the Index of Exempted

Dogs?

5) How many dogs are currently held under Section One of the

Dangerous Dogs Act by Rochdale Borough Council?

6) How many dogs have been handed over by their owners to Rochdale

Council dog wardens as dogs prohibited under the Dangerous Dogs Act

- illegally owned pit bull terrier types?

7) How many dogs held as stray dogs by your council have been

identified as "pit bull type" during 2007, 2008 and so far this

year 2009? Of those stray dogs identified by council dog wardens as

prohibited types-what number were destroyed by Rochdale Council in

each year stated?

8) How are Rochdale Council dog wardens trained to identify

prohibited types of dogs as defined by the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991

legislation?

Questions 1 to 5 seem to replicate your previous request so I include my
reply below

In our area the Police deal with the direct offences i.e. owning,
breeding etc and would deal with offences after the fact as they have
superior powers of entry under the Act.

We have not taken a prosecution specifically under this legislation in the
past 5 years and I can not recall any in preceding 5 years.

We have not seized any dogs specifically under the legislation in the time
period 2000 to 2008 - if Dogs are found straying they are seized under the
Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Since April 2008 our Dog Warden Services have been contracted out and the
contractor has trained their staff to recognise the Pitt Bull etc type
dogs and 5 such dogs were identified in 2008 they were destroyed when they
were not claimed.

We have seized no such dogs so far this year.

We do not current hold any such dogs

With regards questions 6, 7 & 8

We have not had any dogs `handed in' that had been formally identified as
Pit Bull Types

We have not seized or collected any dogs that had been formally identified
as prohibited types

As I have indicated above RMBC does not directly employ any wardens - Our
contractors advise that their wardens have been trained to recognise the
prohibited types by the Metropolitan Police - they are not qualified to
legally declare dogs as such; just work out those that there might be a
question about.

This work is currently in its infancy so more detailed information is not
available.

I hope the above deals with your issues with regards to Rochdale MBC

Many thanks

Andy Gumbley

Environmental Control Manager

Rochdale MBC

Tel 01706 924137

email [email address]

This e-mail and any attached files are confidential and may also
be legally privileged. They are intended solely for the intended
addressee. If you are not the addressee please e-mail it back to
the sender and then immediately, permanently delete it. Do not
read, print, re-transmit, store or act in reliance on it. This e-
mail may be monitored by Rochdale Council in accordance with
current regulations. This footnote also confirms that this e-mail
message has been swept for the presence of computer viruses
currently known to the Council. However, the recipient is
responsible for virus-checking before opening this message and any
attachment. Unless otherwise stated, any views expressed in this
message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily
reflect the views of Rochdale Council.

As a public body, the Council may be required to disclose this
email and/or any response under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 unless the information in the email and/or any response is
covered by one of the exemptions in the Act.