Dangerous Dogs (1399A/22)
Request
- Q1: The number of dogs seized by your force (dogs that are out of control, aggressive, have attacked someone or are considered dangerous) in 2022?
- Q2: How many dogs have been put down/destroyed in 2021 and 2022 thus far? (hoping reducing the years will provide some data).
- Q3: How many suspected banned breeds of dogs have been seized by your force in 2022? Please can I clarify that the data you have given me for question 3 for previous years is numbers for banned breeds of dogs that have been seized? Specifically the 4 breeds of dog that are illegal to own in the UK? The data you have provided suggests that a significant numbers of the overall dogs that are seized in the West Midlands are banned breeds.
- Q4: The combined annual cost (in financial years) to your force of kennels, veterinary treatment, and of putting down/destroying these dogs? I note your last reply which said “We have a yearly budget of £337,000 for the cost of kennelling, vet treatment etc for seized dogs”. So would it be fair to say this was the annual cost in 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22? Or might costs be going up or down?
Response
Our data are not organised in such a way as to allow us to provide this information within the appropriate (cost) limit within the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act (see ‘Reason for Decision’ below).
Although excess cost removes the force’s obligations under the Freedom of Information Act, as a gesture of goodwill I have supplied information, relative to your request, retrieved before it was realised that the fees limit would be exceeded (attached). I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of the request.
REASON FOR DECISION
Please note that researching each individual case would exceed the appropriate limit (FOIA, s.12). In relation to question 2 – In order to locate and retrieve this information we would need to conduct a manual review, this search would exceed the FOI time limit.
The cost of compliance with the whole of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information would exceed the appropriate costs limit under section 12(1) of the FOI Act 2000. For West Midlands Police, the appropriate limit is set at £450, as prescribed by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004, S.I. 3244.