Carrickfergus Borough Council - Dog Control

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Dog Control

Dog Control

Following the introduction of the Dogs (Northern Ireland) Order 1983, dogs were required to be licensed and were prohibited from straying, attacking people or livestock and their owners prosecuted or fined for these offences along with allowing their dog(s) to foul in public places.

These requirements and offences are still in place but the recently enacted Dogs (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 have made some changes to keeping dogs and the requirements of responsible dog ownership.

Licensing

As before, all dogs (apart from exemptions listed below) are required to be licensed

by the keeper of the dogs. The keeper must be over 16 years old and not been disqualified from keeping dogs under the Welfare of Animals Act 1972.

Dogs which don’t require a licence (exemptions) are:

• A dog kept and used by a disabled person
• A Police dog
• A dog under 6 months kept with its mother
• A dog kept in a licensed pet shop where it is on offer for sale
• A dog kept under a block licence, on the premises to which the block licence relates.

A new requirement of the legislation from 2^nd April 2012 is that to licence a dog, it must be micro-chipped. FREE micro-chipping of dogs is available at participating Veterinary Surgeries within the district (please see below for details) and the Council, in conjunction with Dogs Trust, are offering free micro-chipping at Roadshows within the Borough week commencing 28 November 2011.

Previously it cost £5 to licence your dog but from 2^nd October 2011, the licence fees have changed. The fee is now £12.50 to licence your dog annually though reduced fees are now available and are listed below:

	Fee/Concession (per year)
Over 65 and first dog licensed	Free
Over 65 and already claimed a free licence	£5
In receipt of Income support or Housing Benefit	£5
The dog is neutered or sterilised	£5
None of the above	£12.50
Block Licence	£32

Please note that the Council may seek to confirm the accuracy of the declarations by seeking evidence of age, benefit eligibility or status of the dog concerned.

False Declarations will render the applicant liable to legal action.

Breeders Licenses are also available for owners of dogs who own 3 or more unsterilised bitches any of which is used for breeding, which breeds 2 or more litters of pups in any 12 month period.

You are also required to inform the Council if you sell your dog or give it to a new keeper.

To apply for a dog licence online please click here.

Responsible Dog Ownership

Carrickfergus Borough Council is keen to promote responsible dog ownership throughout the Borough. As before, the same requirements of dog control still apply but there are now some additional requirements of dog ownership and offences which are subject to Fixed Penalty Notices or fines on conviction.

Existing offences

·        Keeping a dog without a valid licence

·        Failing to display a tag

·        Allowing your dog to stray

·        Failure to control your dog (in a public place)

·        Setting or urging a dog to attack

·        Allowing your dog to attack people or livestock

·        Allowing your dog to foul (under the Litter (NI) Order 1994)

The new legislation provides the Council with additional powers to promote responsible dog ownership. Previously, incidences of dog attacks or straying could be taken to Magistrate Court by the Council. The new legislation allows these incidences to be dealt with less formally whereby the Council may apply conditions such as muzzling the dog in public areas or the dog be kept securely to the owners dog licence to prevent such occurrences happening again. However, where the licence holder feels these are unreasonable, they have a right to appeal these conditions to the Magistrates Court who decide if the conditions should remain or be repealed.

Additional offences from 2^nd October 2011

·        Allowing your dog to attack any other animal owned by another person

·        Failure to comply with Control conditions of a dog licence.

·        Failing to notify the Council of a transfer of a dog with control conditions attached.

The fees and fines for the above offences have been amended under the new legislation and the table below provides a summary of the changes:

Offence	Previous Fixed Penalty amount	Previous maximum fine	New Fixed Penalty amount	Fine on Summary Conviction
Keeping a dog without a licence	£25	£1000	£80 or £50 early payment	£1000
Failing to display a tag	£10	£1000	£80 or £50 early payment	£1000
Allowing your dog to stray	£10	£1000	£80 or £50 early payment	£1000
Failure to control dog in Public place	£10	£1000	£80 or £50 early payment	£1000
Setting or urging a dog to attack people causing injury	-	£500	-	£5000
Setting your dog on a person,  livestock or animal	-	£500	-	£2500
Worrying livestock or attacking animals		£1000	-	£1000
Allowing your dog to foul	£50	£500	£50	£500
Failure to comply with control conditions	-	-	£80 or £50 early payment	£2500
Failure to notify of transfer of dog with control conditions	-	-	£80 or £50 early payment	£1000

Dangerous Dogs

 Dogs such as the Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brasileiro are listed under the Dangerous Dogs (Northern Ireland) Order 1991. The legislation surrounding these dogs remains the same but legislation now allows for a Magistrate to make a Contingent Destruction Order on a dog which he considers to be a danger to the public or, if he considers the dog poses no danger to the public, allows him to impose conditions on the dog which must be adhered to. If the conditions are adhered to within 2 months of a Magistrate’s decision, the Council may then issue a Certificate of Exemption to the owner and licence the dog.

Dogs Trust Micro-chipping Offer

As it will be a requirement for all dogs that are licensed to be micro-chipped from 2^nd April 2012, the Dogs Trust have provided free micro-chips to participating veterinary surgeries which can be implanted for FREE until the 31^st March 2012. The surgeries offering this service are

• Farmhill Veterinary Clinic, 116 Woodburn Road, Carrickfergus, Co.Antrim BT38 9AB - Tel: 028 93351455
• Vets4Pets, 6 Woodburn Road, Carrickfergus, BT38 8HQ - Tel: 028 93361800