Stroud District Council Animal Welfare Service strikes gold and platinum in RSPCA awards
Published: Monday, 10 September, 2018
Stroud District Council Animal Welfare Service has hit the gold standard again, and won a platinum honour as well for how it deals with stray dogs.
The RSPCA has today announced the winners of special PawPrint Awards for local authorities, housing providers and public service organisations who have gone above and beyond for animals over the last decade.
SDC’s Animal Welfare Service has been awarded a gold PawPrint Award in the stray dogs section for the fifth year running – which means it also qualifies for a platinum award. And the Ebley Mill-based team has carried off a bronze award for contingency planning.
Rachel Williams, Senior Parliamentary Advisor for the RSPCA said:
"It's fantastic to see Stroud continuing to have such success in the PawPrints Awards. They can be rightly pleased with their Bronze Contingency Planning award and their ongoing success in the Stray Dogs award - not only winning Gold but also our prestigious Platinum award to mark their fifth continuous year of Gold - is a great achievement. This is a real testament to the hard work of Stroud's staff and their commitment to animal welfare."
The RSPCA PawPrints Awards recognise and celebrate public service organisations that go above and beyond to ensure high animal welfare standards in their communities such as pioneering initiatives to see more stray dogs safely into kennels, schemes to safeguard pets whose owners have been taken into care and housing policies that allow tenants to share their home with their pets.
SDC Environment Committee Chair Simon Pickering congratulated the SDC team.
"We know we have an excellent Animal Welfare Team which does superb work in the community and these awards rightly highlight that,” he said. “We have our own in-house team which can link easily with other departments and partner agencies, to secure the best outcomes for animals, their owners and the communities they live in."
The gold, silver and bronze PawPrints Awards awards are for four ‘Footprint’ categories, to recognise achievements in Stray Dog Services, Contingency Planning, Housing Policy and Animal Activity Licensing.
"This is an extremely special year for us as we mark the tenth anniversary of the Awards and we have been so impressed with the standard of entries to both the PawPrints awards, and the special awards,"
said Rachael.
“It’s always so rewarding to celebrate the winners and their inspiring initiatives and hear just what a huge impact their work has had on animal welfare locally, but this year is particularly special because we are also celebrating the outstanding work that’s gone on during the last ten years. The PawPrints awards are something the RSPCA is immensely proud of.
"The organisations who have shown us year on year just how much hard work goes on behind the scenes to improve animal welfare locally really do deserve to be celebrated, and often their pioneering ideas have changed the lives of not only animals but local people too."
Two new awards have also been introduced this year, The ‘Innovator of the Decade’ award, open to all previous Innovator Award winners, and chosen by external expert judges, and a brand new ‘Individual Special Recognition’ award. These awards have been given to public sector staff members, nominated by RSPCA staff in recognition of their substantial impact on animal welfare in their area. This is alongside the annual Innovator in Animal Welfare, given to schemes that are improving animal welfare in genuinely new and exciting ways.
The charity received a number of outstanding entries, with the prestigious Individual Special Recognition Awards going to Mark Berry and Robert Quest of the National Companion Animal Focus Group, Vicki Bannon, Animal Warden at City of Westminster Council, Debra Sandling, Animal Control Enforcement Officer at Three Rivers District Council, and Ian Blake, Neighbourhood Enforcement Officer at Slough Borough Council.
Winners of the Innovator and Innovator of the Decade Awards will be announced at a special ceremony in November, which will bring together all of this year’s winners including special guest Lord Gardiner.
Rachel added: “The RSPCA’s PawPrints are the only awards that recognise the hard work of local authorities, social housing providers and public sector bodies across England and Wales, to improve animal welfare. The fact that we are marking ten years of the scheme shows just how successful they have been. It has been a pleasure to watch the scheme grow over the years and celebrate countless initiatives from the most dedicated public service organisations and their staff.
"It is no secret that these awards are a major achievement for any organisation or local authority and I look forward to celebrating with the winners on the awards ceremony evening in November."
The awards are again supported by the Local Government Association, along with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.
A full list of the winners of the PawPrints Awards are detailed on the link above, the winners of the special awards will be announced at a special 10th Anniversary winner’s reception in Parliament later on 27 November.