Foul play - dog fouling campaign

Dog owners in Wolverhampton who allow their animals to foul in public places and do not remove it will be hit with a £65 fine.

The city council is getting tough on the anti-social problem by making it an offence for owners not to clean up after their pets – punishable by a fixed penalty fine. Failure to pay the notice will result in prosecution with a maximum fine of £1000.

Did you know?

• Estimates put the UK dog population between 6.5 and 7.4 million, producing 1000 tonnes of faeces every day - that is enough to fill 3 Olympic sized swimming pools every week.
• There are around 1.2 million dog bins in Britain.
• Local authorities in the UK receive approximately 226 000 complaints about dog fouling every year.
• The cost to British taxpayers of clearing up after dogs is around £2.3 million per year.
• It is an offence for anyone in charge of a dog on public land to fail to remove dog faeces deposited by that dog.
• Dog faeces can be harmful to human health. An infection called Toxocara canis can be caught if the waste is not removed immediately.
• The potential harm to human health from this infection is quite high, and can cause blindness in some cases.
• Dog faeces is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria such as salmonella and other forms of infection.

Pick up after your dog. Bag it and bin it!

Find out more about Dog Control Orders in operation in Wolverhampton.

For further information about the Foul Play campaign, please contact our environmental information officers.