Houndmistress

Rhondda Cynon Taff Council

RCT Council will scan all strays for a chip and where possible, will notify the owner.  Dead dogs picked up by the Highways Department are taken to the animal pound for scanning before disposal. 

Numbers of stray dogs  - Please click here to see the table of stray dog statistics for the past four years (will open in new window). 

Microchipping - The Council provides free microchipping for dogs at its animal pound.  Simply contact the animal wardens to arrange this.  The Council is to be congratulated on providing this service.   

Contact Details for Dog Warden Service - email animalpound@rhondda-cynon-taff.gov.uk

Telephone 01443 425777

Website - from the Council homepage go to Community and Living then click on Animal Welfare.  Confusingly, information on stray dogs is split between the pages on Stray Animals and the Dog Warden service.  Click here to see the website checklist for this Council (will open in new window). The website gives only minimal information and I find it particularly baffling that even though they list the charges payable to release a dog, no information is given on how, where or when you can make the payments. 

Intriguingly, there is a brief paragraph that describes the duties of the Dog Wardens that says they (the Wardens) will "regularly patrol beaches" to enforce dog law.  Rhondda Cynon Taff is a Valleys authority with no coastline and definitely no beaches.  I decided to Google this sentence, and as expected this is a generic description of dog warden duties that is used by local authorities as varied as Hyndburn and Torbay; it is NOT based on the policies or duties of RCT's staff.   

The worst sentence is the statement "We have an excellent record of successful home placements."      On reading this, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  RCT, like many Councils does rehome dogs but the majority are rehomed through a local charity, Friends of the Animals RCT.  Click here to visit their website. I should stress I have no issue with a charity or rescue being involved in rehoming, many Councils do this, but it strikes me as being less than fair to claim an "excellent" record for yourself.  

What is truly shocking is the number of dogs killed by this Council - one of the highest, proportionally, in Wales. The table given above will show you the total numbers killed, which is awful.     Now take a look at what I call the "7 Day Dogs" - these are the dogs who have not been reunited with their owner within the seven day period, nobody has come for them, they are effectively abandoned.  After seven days, the local authority can then rehome or kill these dogs. 

Let's look at how many of these dogs RCT kills. 

For the past four years, I've given the total number of strays.  From this, I've subtracted the number of dogs reclaimed by their owners.  This leaves the "7 Day Dogs". 

The number killed divided by these yields the percentage - it is a shocking and upsetting figure. 

2007-08

674 -271 = 403

100/403 = 24.81%

2008-09

605 -225 = 380

127/380 = 33.42%

2009 - 10

557 - 195 = 362

109/362 = 30.11%

2010 - 11

629 - 234 = 395

127/395 = 32.15%

For the past three years, if a dog is not claimed in a week, it has a one in three chance of being  killed. 

Costs of Releasing Dog from Council Pound -

1- 3 Days - £25.00

4 - 7 Days - £40.00

Cost of purchasing a dog from the Council pound - £25.00

Kennelling  Services  are provided in house. They haven't been recently market tested and the Council has no immediate plans to do so. 

The revenue budget for the service is

2010/11  £176,000

2011/12  £176,000

This page updated on 4th August 2011. 

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