Owners urged to do more to prevent dogs being put down

Dog owners are being urged to get their pets details updated. Credit: PA

The UK’s largest dog welfare charity, Dogs Trust is appealing to owners across the region to update their dog’s microchip details to help reduce the increasing numbers being put to sleep.

Figures from the charity’s annual stray survey reveals 10% of the 6,667 unclaimed dogs in our region will never find their way home, and could even be put to sleep.It‘s thought that many of these cases could be prevented if owners updated the details on the microchips. It comes despite microchipping becoming compulsory for all dogs in England, Scotland and Wales as of 6th April this year.

Figures show there were 838 unclaimed dogs that were put to sleep by our local authorities last year.

Despite the numbers, the figures have improved on previous years, and there has been a decrease of cases of strays of around 17% in the last 12 months alone. Calls to owners to get their dogs chipped or update their details come after it was revealed around a quarter of the cases of dogs being reunited was entirely owing to them being correctly chipped.

Ella Tonge, Supporter Relations Officer at Dogs Trust Loughborough said:

Numbers of stray dogs are on the decline but more still needs to be done Credit: PA