Partnership takes gold, silver and bronze at animal welfare awards

The Shared Regulatory Service for Bridgend, Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan has won Gold, Silver and Bronze awards at the 2019 RSPCA PawPrints initiative.

Designed to recognise achievements in stray dog services, contingency planning, housing policy, animal activity licensing and kennelled dog welfare, the PawPrints awards are supported by Welsh Government, the Welsh Local Government Association, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

The Shared Regulatory Service were recognised in three different categories – Stray Dogs (Gold), Animal Activity Licensing (Silver) and Kennelled Dogs (Bronze).

Set up in 2015 as a partnership between the three councils, the Shared Regulatory Service brings together services such as trading standards, licensing and animal welfare in the region.

Cllr Dhanisha Patel, Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations, said:

“This is an excellent result and I would like to congratulate the Shared Regulatory Service on their success.

“Since it was created in 2015, the service has been doing a fantastic job of looking after the rights of local people and animals throughout the area. I’m delighted to see their hard work and expertise being recognised with these awards, and I am sure that they will build upon this success.”

Pontyclun-based Hope Rescue picked up a gold award for the way they look after kennelled dogs for public bodies in Wales.

Lewis Clark, RSPCA public affairs adviser, said:

“For twelve years, the PawPrints scheme has celebrated public bodies going above and beyond for animal welfare – but 2019 has broken all records.

“We’re delighted to have given out two-dozen awards to organisations; including for the way they treat stray and kennelled dogs, support animals in social housing and plan for emergencies which could impact animals.

“All across Wales, public bodies are putting in so much effort behind the scenes to improve local animal welfare outcomes – but these efforts are too rarely celebrated. PawPrints is proud to raise awareness of these achievements.

“Despite the tough economic climate, it is amazing that the public sector in Wales has done enough to secure the best year yet for this well-established animal welfare scheme.”