A Dalmatian Scaring the Neighbours Animal Saints and Sinners

-Nearly half of Britain owns a pet.

-Nice one, mate.

It's the council and the police, can you open the door, please?

But man and beast don't always live together in harmony.

There is reason to believe it's your dog

and you've had it for a fair few years and not two weeks.

When things go wrong, animal wardens are there to protect our pets.

-And keep their owners in check.

-I'm not having my dog taken!

But for some of us, our animals are more than just pets.

I wouldn't know what to do without him.

-They can change and even save lives.

-I owe my life to these horses.

This is Animal Saints And Sinners.

Coming up...

The animal welfare team in Newham are on the hunt for a Dalmatian

-who is terrorising the local area.

-And it's a Dalmatian, is it?

Have you got a photo of the dog? OK.

-In Kent, we meet a guide dog with a difference.

-Socks. Good girl.

Pull, pull, pull. Life would be very hard without her.

-And a lurcher found abandoned in the Fens.

-Hello.

-You're a bit undernourished, aren't you?

-Yes, he's a bit thin.

Oh, dear. Look at you.

Newham, East London,

is a sprawling urban area with its fair share of social issues.

Animal welfare manager Tina Delaney regularly works with

the police to make sure people and their pets live in harmony.

Tina comes face-to-face with ill-treated

and aggressive dogs every day.

She knows they're not the ones to blame.

I don't think any dog is naturally bad or inherently bad.

What makes a dog bad usually is no training or the wrong training.

Today, Tina is out on patrol with PC Sean Pickering.

We're going to premises now where it is alleged there is

a Dalmatian getting into the complainant's garden.

We're not actually sure where the dog is coming from,

we've left a couple of cards in the area already.

Nobody's got back to us, but he's still complaining the dog

is getting into his garden and behaving in an aggressive manner

and that him and his family are terrified of the dog.

So, we're going to go back there and see if we can ascertain

where the dog actually lives.

Dalmatians were bred to be family pets, but

if a badly trained dog is roaming the area, it could be dangerous.

Tina and Sean need to track it down as soon as possible.

First stop, the family who called in the sightings.

Hello, I'm from the London Borough of Newham Animal Welfare Service,

this officer is from the Metropolitan Police.

Have you still got a problem with your dog getting into the back

-garden?

-Not this time.

-It comes in the morning, sometimes in the evening.

-Can we have a look?

Because we left a couple of cards, just because we tried to see where

the dog was actually coming from and we've not been able to do that.

Do you know which area it comes from?

-From there.

-So, it's from next door.

-No.

-No, it's not from next door.

I saw upstairs, they come from... You know, the...

Two or three houses.

So, it comes through this garden, so when you say two or three houses,

this way or that way? That way? OK. And it's a Dalmatian, is it?

-Have you got a photo of the dog?

-Yes, a lot of photographs.

The kids get scared so much. They can't play.

Can you just flip through them for me? OK.

Right, OK. What's it doing there?

So, it's just kind of laying

and having a little snooze in your garden, as well.

Tina gets a copy of the photos in case she needs to use them

as evidence at a later date.

Do you know roughly what times it comes into your garden?

-Mostly in the morning and evening.

-In the mornings?

In the morning sometimes when I wake up to...

..You know, the kids going to school.

-So, what time is that roughly?

-Nine. Before nine.

-Before nine.

So, between about eight and nine o'clock.

So, basically, someone is probably coming home from work

and letting the dog out before they go to work and letting it out

when they get home from work.

If I give you a card, tomorrow,

-as soon as you see the dog in your garden, can you give us a call?

-OK.

Brilliant, thank you very much for your time.

They stay in the garden to see

if they can work out where the dog is coming from.

It's obviously broken their fence,

and the problem is the lady is saying it is coming from that direction.

There are so many gardens backing onto each other that it's

going to be quite difficult to ascertain where the dog lives.

I'm actually surprised it comes through that garden,

because that garden is full of branches and trees and stuff.

The majority of the fences behind the terraces are damaged,

meaning the dog could be coming from any one

of the houses down the street, and the one running behind it.

At the moment, all of the gardens are really overgrown, which is making

it even more difficult to try to find out where the dog is coming from.

None of them seem very well-kept at all.

Giving up on the overgrown gardens, Tina and Sean

look for clues from the street.

The main problem along here seems to be that everybody's fence is

damaged or has blown down and the gardens aren't kept very well.

So, it seems there are several dogs

running in and out of neighbours' gardens.

That's 21.

Dog barking. There he goes again. Barking from in there.

Find out later if they tracked down the problem Dalmatian.

In Kent, dogs have transformed the life of one family.

The whole family are extremely grateful, it's just

a fantastic thing that really gives me the ability to carry on my life in

such an enriched way that I wouldn't be able to do without my dog.

Tony Brown-Griffin is a 42-year-old mother of two.

She's been living with a life-limiting condition for 25 years.

I had my first seizure in my late teens.

I'd woken up with a wet bed, very bad headache and muscle aches,

and as time went on and I had more seizures,

we didn't really know what had happened.

I started having more, they put two and two together

and I got a confirmed diagnosis of epilepsy.

Despite her diagnosis, Tony tried to live a normal life.

She got married and held down a successful career.

But when she reached her early 20s, her condition worsened.

I had a very bad asthma attack and went into hospital

and was ventilated and was really quite unwell,

and it was during the time that I was ventilated that I went into

status epilepticus, which is where you have one seizure after another

after another, and really my epilepsy has stayed active since then.

My life kind of fell apart a bit. I hadn't been married for very long,

and I suddenly had to surrender my driving licence,

I was medically retired from my job of managing a wine merchant,

and we'd not long bought a new house

and suddenly we had mortgage implications of that

but no job for me, so, yeah, it changed life quite drastically.

Tony was experiencing 12 major and up to 40 minor seizures a week.

The seizures were very hard to deal with.

I didn't go out and I didn't want to go out

because if I had to seizure in public it was embarrassing.

-So, it had a big impact on life.

-Tony felt isolated and helpless.

When you receive a diagnosis for epilepsy,

you often don't get help to go along with that.

You get given a leaflet, and that is the help you get.

My husband wrote to the British Epilepsy Society

and they actually sent back a leaflet for Support Dogs in Sheffield.

Support Dogs UK is a charity which specialises in training

and providing seizure alert dogs.

The dogs are specially trained to pick up visual signs

of an impending seizure before it happens and warn their owners.

Having a seizure alert dog is absolutely phenomenal.

To have that early warning system so you don't have to worry.

It meant my husband could go to work without worrying about me.

He knew that if I was in a seizure or a permanent state of seizure

that my dog would call using a specialist button,

he'd be able to call an ambulance and summon help for me.

So, it made a huge difference to our lives.

Her support dog allowed Tony to establish a normal life.

She went on to have her first daughter, Grace.

But when giving birth to her second child,

her life changed dramatically once again.

During the birth, I suffered retinal bleeding in the back of my eyes.

My vision was affected initially with almost like flashing,

swirling lights in the central field of vision,

which meant it was very difficult to see fine detail of things.

It actually led to me

being registered blind some seven months later.

This had a devastating effect on Tony

and her relationship with her trusted support dog.

AJ obviously wasn't a guide dog, and when I started to lose my sight,

it became apparent that there were things that he couldn't do.

AJ was placed into retirement, but being blind as well

as suffering from epilepsy, Tony needed specialist help.

So, Support Dogs teamed up with Guide Dogs

to try to find a solution.

We needed to look for a dog that had both qualities.

A - the qualities to be a guide dog,

and B - the qualities to be a seizure alert dog.

We looked at various guide dog centres, we came across Hetty.

Hetty is unique because she is Europe's first dual-assistance dog.

She went through specialist training for 11 months to be not only

a guide dog but also a seizure-alert dog.

What have you got, Betty-Boo?

Hetty alerts to two types of seizure that I have.

And with these, she gives me a 42-minute warning

where she will touch me, rest her head on my leg initially

and then she'll touch me with her paws,

and that enables me to get somewhere safe and allow them to pass.

Up, up, up. Come on.

Come on. Lie down.

Good girl.

It means I can do all sorts of things like the cooking, the taking

kids to school, without the worry I might have a seizure en route.

And also, Hetty acts as Tony's eyes.

She'll pick things up that I drop, she will fetch me things.

If I've dropped something, she'll put her nose on it.

She's always there by my side ready to help, and desperate to help.

Hetty does a lot of other bits and pieces for me.

She will take my socks off. Socks. Good girl.

Pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. And she'll take my trousers off.

She will unload the washing machine.

Good girl. Life would be very hard without her.

Looking at the relationship between Tony and Hetty...

..it really does take your breath away,

the way they are matched together. They are definitely true soul mates.

She's totally perfect. She is my perfect girl.

I couldn't wish her any other way.

Support Dogs had such an effect on Tony's life that she

turned to the charity once again

when she realised her daughter Grace had problems communicating.

Grace was diagnosed in 2007, when she was seven, with autism.

First in class.

One of them.

Grace's autism did make life difficult at home

because she was very rigid in her thinking.

Oh, agility.

She finds sudden changes very difficult,

and these could result in her screaming for a length of time.

She also suffered from severe separation anxiety, so if I was to

go out, she would try to climb out of windows, so she had to be restrained.

-Grace needed something to help keep her calm.

-Is that nice?

Merlin is a springer spaniel cross lab.

-He's mostly spaniel and mostly mischief.

-Thank you.

He's full of life, full of energy.

He's really special to me, and let's say he's my best friend.

Aren't you, Mr?

Like Hetty and AJ, Merlin was a Support Dog,

but his training focused specifically on autism.

I get meltdowns easily and he calms me down when I really,

really am upset.

Merlin was taught to lay down, and she would wear a waistband which

was connected to his jacket, so if she was about to bolt,

he would lay down and thus anchor her to where they were stood.

He didn't have to do it very many times,

Grace built a bond with him very quickly.

Good boy!

He transformed her life. It sounds rather dramatic, but he really did.

From having a child that would scream the house down

if I was to leave her, she kind of settles.

And I love him.

There's no other dog I would have in the world.

Merlin brought a whole new dimension to the family. Because Grace

was happier and calmer, it meant that everyone else was happier and calmer.

I love my boy.

The dogs all get on fantastically.

My retired dog is rather laid-back and takes everything

in his stride, but he's often a pillow for the other two.

They all get on brilliantly.

They are best buddies, they look out for each other.

Before I had the dogs, I was in a pretty dark place.

Now, I am a positive person.

Dogs are our family, aren't they?

Hackney, an inner London borough just north of the city.

The local dog warden is Tumer Hassan, known as T.

When I first started as a dog warden, dealing with dangerous dogs,

it was nerve-racking. I never know what the situation is.

No two dogs or jobs are the same.

Each day, he sees abandoned dogs that need help.

One such dog is Missy, who he's been caring for for the last two weeks.

This is Missy when she first came in, and basically, you can

see her nails are so long, she couldn't walk.

One of them was curling underneath and straight into her pad,

so it was in there up to two or three millimetres. It makes me so angry.

Someone had this dog and neglected this dog and it is animal cruelty.

The person should be prosecuted.

After a trip to the vet and some time recuperating,

Missy is ready to be re-homed.

Job satisfaction is just what I get.

The results are she's happy, she can walk properly,

she is going to go to a good home and it's just brilliant.

The results are brilliant.

Today, T has had a call about a lost dog.

A woman just called to say she picked up a stray dog last night,

it was running around the street, two months old,

Staffordshire bull terrier, typical thing.

We're going to go investigate and find out what is happening.

In this London borough,

a lot of dogs that need T's help are bull breeds.

To be honest, a lot of times people describe it as a Staffy,

it turns out to be a pit bull, vice versa. We've just got no idea.

I've learnt over the years just to get there

and just treat a dog as a dog and that's it.

Regardless of how they describe it.

Hi. I'm a London Hackney dog warden. Is this the dog you called about?

-Yes, I found her on Woodford Road.

-When did you find her?

-Last night.

-She's pretty young, isn't she?

-Yeah, she was scared. She's really scared.

If you put her down, I'll put a lead around her. Good girl.

-Have you called her a name?

-I called her Chelsea.

-Chelsea. Right.

And just in and out of the road, was she?

Yeah, yeah, so I took her in for the night. I fed her and everything.

-I'll carry her, don't you worry.

-Please, look after her.

-Right.

So, basically, found her last night, about 11 o'clock,

-and no-one's looking for her, you'd never seen her before.

-No.

All right, then. She's very sweet. You give her a kiss.

With five years' experience, T makes a quick assessment of Chelsea.

Come on, Chelsea. She's a bit nervous, a bit cold.

It seems like she's been kept inside quite a lot,

her claws are quite long.

For her age, she needs to be socialised, she is in poor condition.

Chelsea is so young she needs socialising with people and dogs.

In this case, I doubt if anyone is going to come forward to claim

this dog, and if they did, I'd be very reluctant to give it back.

I mean, how do you lose a two-month-old Staffy at 11 o'clock

at night at temperatures close to freezing point?

It is neglect, I wouldn't want to give her back.

T puts in a call to a local charity to organise a foster home.

Gave a description of the dog, I said it's a two-month-old puppy,

Staffordshire bull terrier type, too young to go to the kennels, and

she said to me, no problem, bring it in and we will take it into foster.

So, it's brilliant.

After a quick health check at the vet,

they're off to meet her potential foster carer.

We're taking Chelsea, as she's called now,

to a charity called All Dogs Matter and she's going into foster.

From foster she will be re-homed as soon as possible,

and that's the next stage for her, if it goes well.

The foster carer, Victoria, already has a young dog,

so living with her will provide the perfect environment for Chelsea.

-Just as long as everyone gets on.

-This is the happiest I've seen her.

Look at her tail go.

It's important - at this age they should be with other dogs.

Yes, I'm going to keep Chelsea until she's found a proper home,

so she can have nice cuddles. A lot of treats and calming down.

-That was a kiss, that was nice.

-Not shy, is he?

South Holland, Lincolnshire,

in the east of England, is a large rural area.

South Holland is Fenland,

so we've got quite a flat area around here, so you can see for miles.

Good boy. Rachel Thompson is the council's dog warden.

I love my job because you get out and about, every day's different.

You get to meet some nice people, you get to meet some fantastic dogs.

You are beautiful.

Good girl, aren't you?

Today, Rachel is on her way to collect a dog that was

roaming around in a small village nearby.

We've had a call into our office to say that the

local veterinary practice has had a lurcher brought in last night.

Obviously, it's got no microchip, they've scanned it, nothing there.

So far no-one's called in,

so it looks like it needs to get collected and taken to kennels,

so we'll head down there and see what it's all about.

I don't know what his condition is, hopefully it's not too bad.

Sometimes we pick up lurchers and they're in an appalling condition,

very, very undernourished, so let's hope this boy is at least well-fed.

There are a particularly high number of lurchers

abandoned in this area due to the illegal sport, hare coursing.

-Hear you've got a stray that needs collecting?

-We have.

-Brilliant.

-Found him in Moulton.

-Go fetch him for you.

-Thank you very much.

Hare coursing is when a group of people get together in fields

with their lurcher-type dogs and send three or four dogs after a hare,

and that's when the betting starts,

cos they'll bet on which dog will get to the hare first.

It's all about gambling really,

and that's obviously, where they exchange money, the whole

point of it is whose dog is the best and whose will kill the hare.

As well as being illegal in the UK, the sport also results in the

neglect of dogs and abandonment when they're no longer useful.

The dogs are usually very malnourished,

not well cared for, probably never seen a vet in their life.

This type of activity is not wanted on anyone's land,

and we certainly don't want this type of thing happening,

cos of the poor animals that are suffering because of it.

Be it the hares and the lurchers.

Hello. Oh, you're a bit undernourished, aren't you?

Yeah, he's a bit thin.

Oh, dear, look at you.

Oh, sweetheart. I don't know, why do they leave you like this, eh?

It doesn't look like he's going to get claimed,

since yesterday no-one's contacted us.

In this day and age there's more dogs than rescue spaces,

so it's a bit of a juggling act.

I'll have to contact the local rescue kennels and see

if they'll take him in.

Oh, hi there, it's Rachel, the dog warden

for South Holland District Council.

I'm just ringing up cos we're down at the veterinary centre at Sutterton

and we've just picked up, I think it's a greyhound lurcher,

I can never tell which is which.

Quite a large boy but a bit undernourished to be honest

with you, Joe. Is there any chance of being able to squeeze him in?

Cos he does need a lot of TLC.

Brilliant. OK, then, we'll see you soon. Thanks, bye.

There's every chance he's a coursing dog.

He's the right breed, he's undernourished,

which unfortunately is a characteristic of a coursing dog.

Rachel takes the lurhcer to the kennels,

where he'll get the attention he needs.

They use these dogs until they're no longer good, they can't run,

they're lame, they're too old et cetera, and then just discard it

and start with another one.

It's a throwaway thing, there's no love or passion for the animals.

They just discard them.

Oh, look. There's a good boy. There's your chew that the vet sent for you.

I'll pop it here with these toys, look.

There's a good boy. I'll pop it down there. Good boy, int' you? Good boy.

That's a gorgeous-looking dog.

It's so distressing when you see dogs in that state,

because there's no need or excuse for a dog to be kept like that.

You never see an underweight athlete,

so I'm never sure what the thinking is, why people want to keep dogs

so thin, because it doesn't make you any faster.

Speed comes from good food, ask any good athlete that.

If you eat well, you perform well.

You going to be a good boy? You are, aren't you?

And start eating your dinner, get some weight put back on, sweetheart.

Yeah. These'll look after you lovely, won't they?

You're a good boy. Lots of cuddles and fuss, yeah, I know.

Have a rest, had a stressful few days, haven't you? I bet.

The dog will need care,

food and medical attention to regain his health

before he'll be considered for rehoming,

and it may be a long process.

In Stoke-on-Trent, one man has turned his house into

a rescue home for some surprising creatures.

In this room in particular we've got hedgehogs, snakes, lizards, insects,

a ferret, some micro squirrels and a spider.

Dale started collecting critters when he was young.

Right now, he has 96 animals living in his house.

But since 2010, he's been using them for therapeutic purposes, too.

Animal-assisted therapy can be used in quite a wide variety of settings.

This is Bertie. Bertie's an African pygmy hedgehog.

Dale takes his animals to meet patients in hospitals,

psychiatric wards and care homes.

He thinks the interaction they provide can have a real impact.

It helps people who otherwise couldn't be helped.

People will engage with animals who remain disengaged for months.

Sometimes even years.

We have people in the psychiatric hospitals that we've helped,

haven't been out their rooms, haven't spoken,

and then all of a sudden they meet the animals

and begin to engage with others in conversation.

Each of Dale's exotic collection has something different to offer.

Snakes give a three-dimensional therapy, in terms of...

you're conquering a fear to start with,

because lots of people are wary of snakes

because they're portrayed as being quite an evil thing

right from the start of time, there was a snake in the Garden of Eden.

The sensory effect of a millipede walking on your skin is

actually quite therapeutic. It kind of feels a bit like Velcro.

You can imagine the sound it makes when you part two pieces of

Velcro, it's exactly the same when you take a millipede off your skin.

They're absolutely awesome.

Just pop him in there.

Today Dale is preparing to run a session with

dementia patients in a residential home.

This is Sebastian the chinchilla.

The last one in is Beans. In the boot. He's just caught on his lead.

And, eh...

30 miles away at the care home,

one of the people waiting Dale's arrival is Joan.

Mum is in her early eighties,

she was widowed just coming up to 12 months ago and she has dementia.

So, when my father passed away, it became very evident very quickly

that she needed to be somewhere that she was safe and looked after.

Well, the main one was the dog I suppose!

Her short-term memory is very, very short, within minutes

she will have forgotten or she will have repeated the same question.

And it becomes quite frustrating, and it's quite difficult sometimes

to answer those questions as if it's the first time you've heard them.

When in fact it's probably the 20th.

It's very hard because I think you lose your mother,

I've lost my mother.

And as the disease progresses,

she doesn't even really look like my mum used to look, which is odd.

But Pat found the one thing that really seemed to make

a difference was Dale's weekly visits.

We've got some animals, ladies and gents.

Within dementia, the crux of it basically is that you're

connecting to a dementia patient's memories of their past life

and helping bring them back into the now.

OK, so we've brought a good selection of animals.

Give me five, good boy.

Obviously, Beans, and then we've got a few others to look at, they're

all furry animals, so they all like a fuss and they like to be stroked.

So, what we're going to do is give him a treat,

but make him ask for it.

No, no, no, no. Now give me five. Good boy.

Most of our residents are dog lovers,

many have owned dogs in the past, so this is just like a little reminder.

Are you gorgeous?

Beans is a dog that I really rate, very highly.

-What's your name?

-He won't bite anybody. He's called Beans.

Come down here.

We had quite a few family dogs over the years,

and interestingly, knowing that Dale was coming today did

spark off several conversations about our pets

and she did do a lot of reminiscing over the last couple of days

about our dogs and having put them in kennels,

and how traumatic that'd been, and we never did it again!

So, it was nice to hear her talking about those things.

-He's a chinchilla.

-Chinchilla?

-A chinchilla.

Oh, there you go, he's taken to you, hasn't he?

The chinchilla is amazing, because of that softness.

They used to farm them in this country.

Called Sebastian. Sebastian.

Sebastian.

Sebastian the chinchilla.

I think having a pet when you're well is therapeutic in itself,

so obviously for somebody that isn't as well,

be that physically or mentally, it's got to be a good thing.

And you can see how calming it can be

when they're stroking the animals, it's just lovely.

Beautiful, it's like silk, gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

-Did you touch him?

-Yes, I did.

-Very soft, isn't he?

-Yeah.

That's OK, yeah?

Next animal we've got is a hedgehog, and his name is Bertie.

-Bertie's about two years old.

-I thought he was a hairbrush!

Until I just saw...

-the nose go.

-You thought he was a hairbrush?

-Didn't...?

-We won't try it, eh?

-Ooh, prickly, isn't he?

Who remembers these guys?

Yeah.

Back in the '60s and '70s,

tortoises were very popular pets,

and you find quite a lot of dementia patients will say,

"I used to have one of these when I was a child."

Or they will remember having one as a parent for their child.

Tortoises do bring back a lot of memories in people.

He is beautiful. Don't take me jumper with you.

He loves jumpers. Gives him something to snuggle up to at night.

BACKGROUND CHATTER

-How did that one feel, Mum?

-Hmm?

-How did that feel?

Not soft, you know, when you pick up a little animal... It was just hard.

Well, it's a shell, isn't it?

And for Dale's grand finale, the star of the show is Stoosh.

There she is.

Just going to put that there.

What we've got here is a North American striped skunk.

They are very friendly animals.

Oh, you are lovely, aren't you?

How wonderful to be in your eighties and still have new experiences,

you know, touching and stroking new animals that you've never

seen before, I think it's marvellous.

She has fresh fruit and vegetables...

-Mm-hmm.

-..seeds, nuts, chicken.

She'll go in and make sure she's got space for it.

There's a lot of enjoyment in just seeing they're

delighted to see animals.

Animals brighten up anyone's day,

regardless of what your problem is on that particular day.

I can't really call it work.

I love my pets and I get to meet different people everyday,

to help people, I get to see that look on their face

when the animal's helping them, making them feel better.

You don't get any better job satisfaction

than helping other people.

It's lovely, it's absolutely lovely,

and it's difficult to say in words, but to see her face light up when she

sees the animals, and I know that she won't remember,

but for that snapshot in time, for that afternoon, this afternoon,

it's brought her so much joy.

Ooh, I could stroke you all day!

Many people do.

Back in Newham, Tina is on the hunt for a Dalmatian dog that is

escaping into a neighbour's garden and scaring their children.

Yeah, at the moment all the gardens are really overgrown, which is making

it even more difficult to try and find where the dog is coming from.

Dalmatians are not normally aggressive,

but if this one is terrorising the neighbours, Tina needs to find it.

It's a Dalmatian, do you know what a Dalmatian looks like?

KNOCK ON DOOR AND BARKING

Hello, I'm from the London Borough of Newham Animal Welfare Service,

this officer's from the Metropolitan Police,

do you have a Dalmatian on the property?

Have you had a problem with him getting out?

-No, no, I put him out in the back garden.

-Mm-hmm.

The problem is, how secure is your fence in the back garden?

OK, what your dog is doing is going into people's gardens.

Well, if he go outside and he gets the chance he'll want to run, so...

Right, OK, but you can't let him do that.

If you can't control him and make him stay in your garden,

then you need to either tether him in your garden when you

let him out or go out there with him on a lead.

He's not going across there any more.

He is, he's going over there

and the people have loads of photographs of him being over there.

What photographs?

Of your dog, of a Dalmatian. Is that a photo of your dog?

-That doesn't look like... Would you like to look at my dog?

-Yes, please.

Is there a reason you keep him in this cage?

Why'd you keep him in there?

-This cage isn't big enough for him.

-Yes, I understand.

So, he can't be kept in this cage, because it isn't big enough.

He can't stand up properly. DOG BARKS

It doesn't matter if you take him outside, he can't stand up

properly in that cage, you can't keep him in that cage.

Why'd you keep him in there?

He's not my dog, he's my son's dog.

No, he doesn't want to come out and bite me at all, do you, Buster?

No, you don't.

36 by 24. Good boy, Buster. He's frightened.

He's a bit worried.

If you put a dog in a cage with some water or you just put

a dog in a cage generally, on its own, without anything to

do for long periods of time, you're going to have behavioural problems.

Has he got some sores on him, have you had them looked at?

-Has he been chewing his feet, the tops of his feet?

-I don't know.

He's been chewing it on the top of that one, see that there?

There, and that one as well. He's just nibbling the tops of them.

(Good lad.) OK then.

BUSTER GROANS

Who complaining about the dog?

Well, the dog's getting into people's gardens.

I didn't get the chance to go across the fences, dogs is dogs, so they...

No, dogs is not... That can't happen, I'm afraid.

There's some little children in a house over there, where we

got the photos from, they're scared to go in their garden.

-Really?

-Cos he's getting into their garden

and they're scared of being bitten.

The thing is, if you own a dog it's up to you to

make sure your dog is kept on the premises.

At the same time, I'm going to issue your son with an

improvement notice, cos your dog cannot be kept like that.

An animal, if it's confined in an area,

needs to be able to stand up and turn around. He can't stand up.

He can't even sit up straight. OWNER LAUGHS

It's not funny, I'm afraid, he can't even sit up straight.

This dog can't be kept like that. And is your garden secure?

You just saw outside, you can look out there.

OK, yes, please, can we go out this way?

Is that the way he's going, out the back?

He's going out through that gap there.

Climbing up on the rubbish.

Does that go straight back into that woman's garden?

Yeah, cos that's, erm...

Do they remember she had a brick-built shed down there?

That's that. That's the fence we were standing on.

-You see, when he goes down there...

-Mm-hmm. Cos he's also going this way.

And going into people's gardens along there.

And they've got the photographs of him,

and they're terrified of going into their garden.

And sometimes he lays out there in the sun,

there's a picture of him laying out in the sun.

-In somebody else's garden?

-Yes, over there.

-Seriously?

-Mm-hmm.

And obviously, they've got young children and they're quite scared.

I didn't know that.

No, but that's what I mean, if your dog's leaving your garden,

you don't know what your dog's doing.

But letting the dog out is not adequate exercise for him,

especially when he's confined to a cage.

For long periods of time.

In situations like this I don't really understand why

people have a dog. It's confined in a cage,

she doesn't want the dog running around in her house,

and I just find it amazing why people would want a dog

if they're just going to confine it that way.

I think the worst part of my job is

when you know an animal's being ill-treated

but it's not being ill-treated to the extent that you can take it away.

It's really, really difficult.

So, what we're going to do next,

if your son contacts me we'll talk to him

and give him some advice, I'll also give an improvement notice,

which means that Buster's accommodation,

he needs to be able to sit up properly in,

he needs to be able to stand properly in,

and we will give him advice regarding habitat enrichment as well,

like having a KONG that he can chew,

and how to have him out in your house so that he isn't a pain for you.

Whenever you let him out, he's just so desperate for attention

and to be out, that he's really excited and over the top.

So, you kind of have to get through those stages so that he's going

to be a nice, healthy dog that you enjoy having round your home.

You know? But while he's confined like that, he won't be.

OK, then, thank you very much for your time.

Later that day, Tina receives a call from the owner of the Dalmatian.

Right. Thank you, cheers, bye.

So, since we returned form the property we've had

a call from the owner of the dog, who's the lady's son, stating

that he understands the dog is not living in an adequate environment.

I've spoken to him at length about the kind of environment the dog needs.

It needs to exhibit natural behaviour, sit up properly,

stand up, lay down fully extended.

He understands that and has ten days to comply with that,

otherwise the dog will be seized under the Animal Welfare Act

and legal action will be taken against him.

The dog isn't well-socialised, people are frightened of it,

and neighbours have been terrorised by the dog chasing them,

so whether it's a Dalmatian, a pit bull or a Yorkshire Terrier,

if it causes somebody to be concerned in their garden and bites them,

they will be prosecuted.

BUSTER GROANS

Good lad.

In Hackney, after her time in foster care, Chelsea was rehomed.

In Newham, ten days after her first visit,

Tina returned to check on Buster the Dalmatian.

The garden fence has been repaired so he can no longer escape,

and he now has a larger cage.

The owners of the lurcher in Lincolnshire never claimed him.

Sadly, due to underlying medical issues, he never fully recovered

and was put to sleep.