Dog Control Service

We aim to promote responsible dog ownership through education. We also pick up stray dogs and enforce laws in a professional, polite and firm way.

We have the largest local authority dog control service in the country, with six full time and six part-time staff.

It is our job to patrol the roads, housing estates, parks and open spaces in the borough.

For over fifteen years, we have:

• dealt with over 6,000 stray or dangerous dogs;
• prosecuted nearly 800 offenders for dog-related offences;
• successfully introduced dog bye-laws on housing estates;
• enforced various dog laws covering fouling, straying, dangerous dogs, guard dogs and cruelty; and
• attempted to re-educate some dog owners and make them more responsible

We have won two gold awards in the RSPCA's prestigious Community Animal Welfare Footprints scheme for 2008. Find out more.

Our responsibilities

• We pick up any stray dogs we find. A stray dog is any dog in a public place without an owner present.
• We are in the forefront of a radical new council scheme to microchip all dogs on Wandsworth housing estates.
• We check every stray dog we pick up to see if there are any identification tags. We will return any dog with identification tags to its owner advising them to be more careful in future. Those dogs without identification are taken to Battersea Dogs Home.
• We enforce any laws and bye-laws that relate to dogs.
  We investigate (and try to sort out) any complaints about dog nuisance
• We promote responsible dog ownership in a number of ways, including:
  
  • talking to children in schools;
  • organising and running roadshows; and
  • going to meetings run by tenants' associations, housing co-operatives, residents' groups, neighbourhood watch groups and environmental concern groups.
• We give advice to dog owners on all dog related matters.