FOI 626-2025 / June 2025 / Seized dogs
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 626-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 13th June 2025 as follows:
For the period: 1st January 2024 to 31 December 2024
Q1. How many suspected Section 1 dogs (per type) did your force seize under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 (DDA).
Q1.2. For each S1 dog seized the average length of time between seizure and court hearing.
Q1.3. For each S1 dog seized the cost per day per dog for kennelling.
Q2. The number of dogs seized as suspected prohibited types, deemed by the courts as being of each of the five different banned types Pit Bull Terrier Dogo Argentino Japanese Tosa Fila Brasileiro American Bully XL .
Q3. How many Section 3 offences were taken to court?
Q3.1. Of these how many were Section 3 offences including a dog of a type proscribed under Section 1 of the DDA?
Q3.2. For each dog involved in a Section 3 offence, what was their breed or type?
Q4. How many dogs were seized for S1 offences and euthanised
Q4.1. how many of those were each of the four banned types Pit Bull Terrier Dogo Argentino Japanese Tosa Fila Brasileiro American Bully XL
Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.
Response: Please be advised that the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. In order to provide the requested information relating to seizures of suspected banned or dangerous dogs, including their breeds, time between seizure and court hearing, whether euthanised and kennelling costs, it would be necessary to manually review the wider records and documentation of each and every seizure for the specified period. The business area has advised that there were 131 dogs seized in 2024 and that it would take approximately 20 to 30 minutes to review each seizure for the requested information, which equates to between 44 and 66 hours of work. Therefore, the work involved in locating and retrieving the requested information for these parts of the request exceeds the cost threshold of £450, which equates to 18 hours work at a standard rate of £25 per hour, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
Further, with regards to Q3.1 and Q3.2 and dog breeds involved in Section 3 offences, notifiable Home Office offence code ‘8/21 – ‘Owner or person in charge allowing dog to be dangerously out of control in any place in England or Wales (whether or not a public place) injuring any person or assistance dog’, considers that a dog shall be regarded as dangerously out of control on any occasion on which there are grounds for reasonable apprehension that it will injure any person or assistance dog, whether or not it actually does so. Where such an offence is recorded, there is no way of readily identifying from the crime recording system the breed of dog involved. In order to provide the requested information relating to the breed it would be necessary to review each and every one on an individual basis. For the specified period there were 401 such offences recorded and, at an estimate of 3 minutes per record to review, this would equate to a further 20 hours of work and therefore this will also exceed the fees limit.
In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance; however, due to the volume of records that would need to be individually reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way to reduce the request into one that could be managed within the fees limit.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB