Dogs purchased during the pandemic that have led to the MPS spending resources on incidents involving aggressive or dangerous dogs from 2017 to 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.025234

I note you seek access to the following information:

I am trying to find out if the increase in the number of dogs purchased during the pandemic has led to police forces having to spend more time and resources responding to incidents involving aggressive or dangerous dogs.

Please could I have the details for these four questions by calendar years 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and for (part of) 2022.

Please can you tell me:

• Q1: The numbers of dogs seized by your police force (dogs that are out of control, aggressive, have attacked someone or are considered dangerous) from 2017 to 2022?
• Q2: How many dogs have been put down/destroyed in your force area from 2017 to 2022?
• Q3: How many suspected banned breeds of dogs have been seized by your force from 2017 to 2022?
• Q4: What is the annual cost to your force of kennels, veterinary treatment, and of putting down/destroying these dogs? (From 2017 to 2022).

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

The data referenced below is held on a local sharepoint spreadsheet which was introduced in 2017. Data held pre 2018 is on a legacy system and not available.

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Q1. Dogs Seized	No data	898	806	857	881
Q2. Put to sleep	No data	185	115	92	81
Q3. Suspected banned breeds	No data	225	206	130	145

Costs are recorded by financial year as follows:

2017/2018	£1,305,830
2018/2019	£1,078,968.00
2019/2020	£868,299
2020/2021	£876,184