Army Dogs, Pit Bulls and a Parrot Seized Animal Saints and Sinners

-Good boy.

-Nearly half of Britain owns a pet.

It's all right, mate.

KNOCKING

It's the Council and police. Can you open the door, please?

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

I have reason to believe it is 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 of me, mate.

I love you too. WHISPERS: Yes, I do.

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.

DOG BARKS

Coming up,

animal welfare require the strong arm of the law

when they need to get to animals in a council flat.

Open the door. We have a warrant, we're going to force entry.

Hey, brindle dog. Hey.

A stray dog in Afghanistan touches the heart of a British soldier...

The idea of leaving him behind was almost too painful,

you know, an option to conceive of.

You're a good boy.

..and a man who runs a rescue centre for dangerous wild animals.

This is a 4.5ft caiman that was being kept in a 4ft vivarium in,

believe it or not, a 15-year-old boy's bedroom.

BARKING

Like all other local authorities across the UK,

the East London Borough of Newham

has rules about keeping animals in council properties.

BARKING

It's the job of animal welfare manager Tina Delaney

to confront the council tenants who allow their animals to be noisy,

aggressive or roam unsupervised.

You're not the only two people that live in that block.

This can not ever happen again,

or you allow your dogs to run freely on the communal area

then the London Borough Of Newham will take legal action against you.

DOG BARKS

Today, Tina is taking action against two people living in a council flat

who've ignored a warning about their pets.

So, we're going to a premises where it's alleged

that the dogs have been killing cats.

In addition to that, the two dogs are very aggressive.

We've gone round to assess them

and one of them did actually try to attack us.

One of them has also bitten the caretaker in the communal area

and there's a petition up from the residents

regarding the dogs' aggressive behaviour,

and people have been intimidated by them.

The owners have ignored a warning to remove the dogs

and a warrant has been issued for Tina to take them.

The police will be on hand to deal with any difficult situations

that may flare up with the owners.

There's two dogs on the premises

and we know one of the dogs is very aggressive,

so what we'd like to be able to do is to have a clear

in-and-out of the premises.

If we ask you to move, do not hesitate, just move out the way.

We want to target the most aggressive dog on the premises first

to be able to move it from the property.

If we give the time for the owners to become aggressive as well,

it's likely to really kick off,

so we want to move the most aggressive dog

as quickly as possible.

There's always a motive if you're taking away an animal

that they perceive as part of their family.

So, it is difficult, but at the same time,

if a dog is behaving in an aggressive manner and has bitten somebody,

then that isn't tolerated and the dog can't remain on the premises.

Tina has met the dogs before and isn't taking any chances.

Just cos we're going into the property and we know that the dogs...

one of the dogs does bite,

we're just putting some arm protectors on

just to make sure that, you know,

if it does manage to kind of get hold of one of us,

that we limit those injuries.

There's also an African grey parrot in the property,

and Tina has given the owners a notice

to improve its living conditions and have it seen by a vet.

If the owner hasn't carried out what Tina has asked for,

the parrot will also be seized.

From the council. Can you open the door, please?

BARKING

Dog's right there.

BARKING

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

Can you open the door?

We have a warrant, we're going to force entry. Open the door!

With no response from the tenants,

a decision is made to use force to get to the animals inside.

-Are you ready?

-Yep.

Hello, is there anyone in there?

-Hello, it's the police.

-Just hold on. Hold on.

Just give me a lead. Give me a lead.

One's coming out and he's fine.

It's in between my legs.

TWEETING

OK.

-Hello.

-Right, second one's not very happy.

-He's going to come out. Grasp him, go straight in there.

-OK.

Right. OK. Let's go for it.

Hello. You're a good boy.

It's all right. It's all right. Easy, easy. It's all right.

Good lad.

There you go. It's all right.

Good boy. Ready?

It's all right. Come on.

It's all right. Come on.

Come on.

Come on. TWEETING

WHISPERS: It's just coming out.

Good lad.

It's all under control.

Both dogs are contained in the cages.

The two male mastiff crosses are surprisingly easy to handle.

Hello. Oh.

The parrot is being kept in a dark hallway,

and Tina believes little improvement

has been made to its living conditions.

She makes the decision to take it away.

We can't prove at this point that the parrot hasn't seen a vet.

If it has, it can go back. Um, but still,

they've done some things to do with the improvement notice

but not everything. The parrot is in bad condition.

It's pulled its tail feathers out, a lot of body feathers and stuff.

The dogs have been removed from the premises.

They haven't removed them and they should have done,

and in addition to that, they were quite easy to get out

and it run quite smoothly, so I'm quite pleased with that.

We'll find out later what happens to all three pets.

Next, a stray dog brings feelings of home

to a soldier on the front line.

It was inconceivable,

every bit as difficult as leaving one of the soldiers behind.

It just wouldn't have happened.

The British military have been present in Afghanistan since 2001.

But what is less well-known is that many animals

have been befriended over there by British soldiers.

Dog lover Captain Mark Townend

was sent out to Afghanistan in March 2010.

It's certainly the most dangerous deployment that I've done.

We would have fairly regular interaction with the Taliban,

that's a nice way of saying,

more or less on a day-to-day basis.

I'd been to Iraq before

when I've also had a previous tour of Afghanistan.

This was certainly the most dangerous one that I've carried out so far.

Mark had the toughest of jobs ahead of him -

to command seven men on a six-month tour of duty.

But there was one thing he wasn't expecting to find when he got there.

We'd been on...in the base by about three months at this stage

and we got requests to

come and have a look at this dog

that had been brought in by Afghan nationals.

They believed that they'd rescued one of our search dogs.

He was a lovely-looking dog.

We gave him a check over.

We wanted to see how his health was and what state he was in.

He clearly had been...you know,

he had a bad time before he turned up with us and he was very emaciated.

He was very flea ridden.

He was very tick infested,

so there was a lot of care that he needed.

Stray dogs are common in areas of conflict.

Over two months, this one, which they called Brin

because of his brindle colour,

became a crucial part of Mark's unit.

He was a regular feature of life in the patrol base at that stage.

We'd made a little compound for him away from this other main area.

He'd come for walks every morning, we'd give him his breakfast

and I'd put him outside my accommodation in the daytime.

He'd sit there and lie in the shade

and do what most Afghan dogs do and sleep.

But you don't start walking a dog and taking him out for walks

in the morning and feeding him without finding that you're building a bond to it.

It's kind of hard to describe what...the environment you're in

when you're in Afghanistan.

When you're deployed in operations in general.

You are away from home, you're away from your normal routine, um,

and...and that can feel quite foreign at times.

Often, with limited time to call their loved ones,

soldiers on a six-month tour like this

can feel they're a long way from home.

I'm a dog owner back in the UK,

so taking Brin for a walk and, you know,

and going through that dog care routine

was in some way, shape or form a little bit of home.

I'm sure the lads probably wondered why the boss was having a dog

and taking so much of an interest in him

but they were very happy to help out.

He was equally affectionate to all of us as well, you know,

he obviously felt that he'd found a family.

Mark completed his tour of duty and Brin hardly left his side.

But when it was time to go home, Mark faced a difficult decision.

The idea of leaving him behind was almost too painful an option

to conceive of, so I had to make sure,

in the same way that I was making sure that

the rest of my team were getting home to the UK,

I wanted to make sure that Brin was...

you know, in the same way taken care of.

Um, so, it almost was inconceivable

that I had to leave one of the team behind when we left.

You know, he was part of the group.

With the prospect of his loyal friend Brin

being destroyed when the troop left,

Mark sent word to family and friends back home

to see if they could help get Brin out of Afghanistan.

I must admit that it did seem like a fairly impossible thing to achieve.

I wasn't sure, in any way, shape or form, how to go about doing it.

But Mark had no idea of the commitment of one person

who was touched by Brin's story.

I first read about the story on the internet.

It was a newspaper online.

And of course, at the top of that article

it had the iconic photograph, which...

..really, you know, set it all off,

this relationship between Brin and Mark.

It was something completely out of the ordinary.

I think it was also that the hopelessness of the situation,

the fact that they're not there to save dogs

but obviously there was a real friendship there.

It was a young man, a long way from home,

and I just wanted to help him save his dog.

But getting Brin out of the country was not going to be easy...

as Royal Marine Pen Farthing knows.

He'd also befriended a dog during his tour of Afghanistan in 2006

and couldn't bear the idea of leaving him behind.

He actually became sort of my best buddy

and my five minutes of peace and quiet

and just trying to pretend I wasn't in Afghanistan.

After a long and expensive process,

Pen managed to fly the dog, which he called Nowzad,

back to the UK to live with him and his other dogs.

So, when I came back from Afghanistan,

I wanted to do something more

because you leave Afghanistan and then that's it.

You're expected to just get on with the rest of your life.

And so, for me, I thought, well, hang on,

I can try and do something here

because I can help the people and the dogs.

So, starting the charity was the natural thing to do.

The aim of the charity was to provide a shelter

and clinic for the strays in Afghanistan,

as well as promote neutering to control their numbers,

and to reunite soldiers with the pets they looked after

while they were serving in the military.

Sally approached the charity to help get Brin over to the UK

so that he could be reunited with Mark on his return.

I was informed about the charity

and I immediately wrote to Pen Farthing,

asking him for help.

The reply came back incredibly fast

and the wheels were set in motion.

£4,000 was raised for Brin's vaccinations, flight and quarantine.

He was now ready to come to the UK.

It was very sad to see him go.

And obviously, once he'd left,

the patrol base did feel that bit emptier without him round the place.

I didn't have my routine to get up, go and give him breakfast,

take him for a walk

but I consoled myself with the idea that he was on his way home,

he was on the way back and I'd see him when he got back to the UK.

In September 2010, Brin landed on British soil

and spent the next six months in quarantine.

I was met with this incredibly dusty...

..very skinny...

but incredibly happy dog.

It took about three months for Brin to really feel settled

to come and sit next to me,

and it was one day I actually fell asleep.

And I woke up and he was curled up next to me.

And, um, I think that was the moment when he had realised that,

actually, I was OK.

At the same time, it was beginning to occur to Mark

that he may not be the best person to adopt Brin.

I did think long and hard about keeping Brin and taking him in.

There's too many reasons why I didn't.

The first is that I was still a serving soldier

at that point in time.

I was likely to be moving bases every couple of years, you know,

moving to new jobs and new areas.

I already have a dog

and I think it's hard enough on Sam to be bounced from place to place.

It would seem very unfair, given Brin's history

and what he's been through, to have to go through that same lifestyle.

It didn't seem to be the best.

Um, and the second reason is that after having, you know,

seen the amount of effort and work and...

..personal investment Sally had put into getting Brin home,

it seemed wrong to not ask her, at least ask her,

if she would like to take Brin in full-time.

When Mark asked us if we would care for Brin,

deep down we...we as a family were already very attached to Brin.

The option of giving him to someone else to care for

just didn't come into the equation.

We were totally smitten.

Can't believe your luck, can you?

You can't believe your luck.

-SHE LAUGHS

-It's all gone.

In March 2011,

Brin went home to live with Sally...

All gone.

..and she takes him to see Mark when he's home from his tours.

KNOCKING

Who's that?

I get to see him sort of maybe once, maybe twice a year,

when I see Sally, and we meet up for various events.

Hey, brindle dog!

Hey, Brinny-Brin.

Hey, big guy.

Hello.

Hey.

Hey, buddy. What's up?

I don't think the bond has changed since we left, you know?

I get the same wag of the tail and the same look from him

as I got the first day I walked in

and saw him standing there in the compound.

Hey, you showing me your best side? Can you show me your best side again?

It's the same look that I used to get

every time I'd come and see him in the morning.

And it's... He always remembers, which is brilliant.

-He's still got the weight but...

-But, you know, it's all muscle.

It's just all muscle.

-It's good to see you too, Sally, by the way. I'm sorry.

-Yeah, hi!

THEY LAUGH

-Yeah, I'm just on the other end of the lead, you know?

-I know, I know.

I can't explain what happened to me that summer in 2010.

I could definitely see there was a real love there

between the two of them, which remains even today.

I always say that I care for Brin.

He'll always belong to Mark.

-We just look after him.

-SHE LAUGHS

Hey, brindle dog.

Come on.

Good boy.

He has issues, as every Afghan dog tends to have.

You know, he's not sure of certain people,

he's not sure of certain other animals cos

he's had to get used to being very cautious, but, you know,

you compare the dog he is now to the dog he was when I first met him...

and, you know, he's made phenomenal progress.

He's rehomed really well.

HE WHISTLES In. Come here.

Mark and Brin's reunion is over for now.

But he knows his old pal is having a great life with Sally.

I will always be eternally grateful to her

because she was able to put the time and the effort and the...you know,

the attention into what needed to happen to get Brin home

in a way that I could never have done when I was in Afghan.

Sally was so taken with the plight of the stray dogs in Afghanistan

that she now works for the charity that helped rescue Brin.

You cannot save every dog.

And our soldiers are not there to save the strays.

They have very important and vital work to do.

But I think...

You know, we have to understand the relationship that does build up.

When you see a soldier in a photograph holding a tiny kitten,

or there's a puppy in their back pocket as they're out on patrol...

..there's a reason why that soldier has stopped to scoop up that animal.

There is something missing in their life also.

And yes, I think these animals...

They should be given a choice of being able to save these animals.

To date, the charity has helped reunite over 650 soldiers

from around the world

with the dogs and cats they've befriended on the front line.

Brin's journey, it's certainly one of the signature points

from my tour of Afghanistan.

It's a hell of a thing to see him in the UK.

I still can't quite get my head around it.

The impossible nature of what's been achieved

to get him from a war zone like Afghanistan

and to the home that he's now at

and how well he is in Surrey is...

It's hard to get your head around.

On the outskirts of Southend-on-Sea in Essex

is a rescue centre with a difference.

In the last 10 years, there's been a dramatic increase

in the desire for exotic pets in the UK.

In fact, there are believed to be over one million of them

in our homes.

But, unfortunately,

many owners can't cope with the huge demands of an exotic pet.

There he goes.

It's a big problem.

And it's why Iain Newby

has been rescuing and rehoming exotic and dangerous wild animals

that are unwanted, neglected or even abandoned.

We're licensed here to keep up to 25 dangerous wild animals.

And at the moment we've got things like bearded dragons,

corn snakes, king snakes,

reticulated python,

we've got Burmese pythons, boa constrictors,

caiman crocodiles, terrapins, turtles,

box turtles, tortoises, stick insects,

giant African land snails,

um, and a partridge in a pear tree.

I mean, where do we go from here?

You're a good boy, yes.

You're not going on my hat, no. No, you're not.

If you ask me, would I get on with animals better than people?

The answer is yes.

And there's one good reason.

If a person doesn't like you

they can say to your face what they want.

They can say they love you, they like you

but they're two-faced.

An animal, if it says yes, it means it.

If it says no, it means it.

If it says, "I'm going to kill you," it means it. It wants to kill you.

That's it. Who's a good lad?

-Shall we move it to the side?

-Yeah. There we go.

Scratch-free, for the first time.

Many exotic pets can be bought and sold without a licence

but some dangerous species require them.

This is a 4.5ft caiman

that was being kept in a 4ft vivarium

in, believe it or not, a 15-year-old boy's bedroom.

The only illegal thing about it

is keeping it without a dangerous animal's licence.

And I know licences are expensive,

and a lot of people argue the fact, you know,

"I could give it a very good home.

"I could look after it.

"I just can't afford the licence."

But the licence is there for a reason.

It's there to protect the public

and it's also there to protect the animals.

And that's why it has to be done.

Today, Iain's had a call about an aggressive male iguana

that its owner can't cope with any longer.

Iguana can grow into quite a large lizard

and they can be aggressive occasionally.

Sexual maturity, obviously, is one of the main reasons for a male

to start becoming aggressive.

Another thing is,

a male iguana can also pick up on a woman's menstrual cycle,

and that can make them aggressive as well.

I'd rather actually handle a 4ft crocodile.

Reason being, once you've caught the crocodile, you've caught it.

That's it.

With an iguana, it will use its tail and whip you.

On the other end is obviously the head, the mouth.

And the mouth is full of serrated teeth.

And when an iguana bites,

the damage it can do is major.

It can give you a really nasty bite.

-Terry here?

-Yeah.

-Iain.

-Nice to meet you.

-Pleased to meet you.

Brilliant. Cheers.

-Nice size viv there, Terry.

-Yeah, thank you.

His name is Spike. He's two years old.

I've had him since he was probably four or five inches long.

He's turned a bit funny on me now.

He did go for me a few weeks ago.

I've got a scar on my nose.

But I also have small children,

so I can't risk him biting the children,

and that's the reason why I called Iain.

All right. All right.

All right. All right. No. No, no, no.

-I think it's a female.

-Oh, right.

That's a guess. It's just a guess, looking at it.

That is a definite female there.

I was under the impression that he was a male, obviously,

hence the name Spike.

She is very stressed at the moment.

The way to actually calm these down is actually get them, hold them,

and actually just spend some time.

But her condition, it's fantastic, isn't it?

Look, every spine there, and the weight is gorgeous as well.

-Yeah, she's well looked after.

-You must be quite sad to see her go.

I am very sad to see her go, yeah, to be fair. Um...

I've always wanted an iguana.

I done a lot of reading up on iguanas before and, no,

I am really wounded.

But that's one of the sole reasons why I wanted you to take her

because she's going to need looking after properly.

So if you slide the lid as if it's on. That side.

That's it, all right.

Then, we'll just carefully, without any stress, close her in.

That's it.

Yeah, I'm quite upset, to be honest.

An iguana was something I always wanted

and obviously I got one,

but I can't risk her biting my kids, you know?

I know it sounds like a cliche,

but she scarred me and I can't risk...

And you see how feisty that she was.

It's just not fair on her or the family, really. So...

Yeah, sad to see her go.

Spike is brought back to the rescue centre

where she'll live until Iain can find the right owner for her.

She's obviously... She will be a bit nervous.

I'm just going to carefully put her in here in the new viv

and let her have a little walk around and see what she thinks.

In you go, girl.

The good thing is she isn't racing around in there like a lunatic.

It's a shame that she had to leave the last home

because she was obviously well cared for.

Um... Yeah, she's gotten a little bit temperamental recently,

but these things can be overcome.

I think Terry's done the right thing. He's thinking of the family

and the lizard. So, but, uh...

I'm very confident we'll find her a very good home.

While Spike has been well looked after,

this three-year-old bearded dragon

hasn't had such a good start in life.

This little guy has been here for quite some time now.

He's actually quite a curious little fella. His story...

He came in with a group of bearded dragons.

It was about 12 of them came in the same time.

They were going to be destroyed

because they were no good for the pet trade.

The trouble is, there're still lots of people

actually breeding these guys.

There's no need to. There are so many in rescue centres.

But when people breed them, these guys will have 20, 30, 40 eggs.

Then you got 20, 30, 40 baby bearded dragons.

They keep them in a viv together and they do take a lot of feeding.

If you don't feed them properly and enough, give them enough height,

they then pick on each other and bite bits of tail, bits of feet off.

So, you can see this guy, he's missing his back leg.

He's got a little stump there.

It's totally healed.

He's fine, he gets around perfectly,

but we get so many with amputees come in and it's ridiculous.

It's just a husbandry.

And no need to do it. In you go, fella.

-Right, do you want to meet him?

-Sure do.

Hello, fella. There you go.

It's OK. It's OK, don't be grumpy. Want to hold him?

This eight-year-old Red Tegu lizard is being re-homed to a new owner

who understands the kind of environment

and attention he will need.

I'd just watch him for the first week.

-I don't know how much handling he's had.

-Yeah.

-You know?

The Red Tegu, which originates in South America,

can live up to 20 years

and needs a vivarium that's about half the size of a small bedroom.

There are a lot of animals now available in the pet trade.

A lot of them I personally don't think should've ever been

on the pet trade, but they are. They're there.

I can understand the fascination with snakes and reptiles,

and yeah, I love them all,

but I personally wouldn't own a Burmese python as a pet.

The only animal, only exotic animal,

that I've ever decided to keep as a pet,

and it's taken me 22 years to take one on,

is the little Salvator water monitor up the end there.

Because at the end of the day I know he's going to grow to eight feet.

I know he's going to be a considerable size

when he's an adult.

But I know I've also got the accommodation

to be able to look after him properly.

You know, we've got to look at the animal and think about them.

Now, an abandoned farm animal

that helps in the emergency rescue of others.

I think the fire brigade see Dominic as an important part

of their training team.

Yes, I'm surprised they haven't promoted him yet.

Two years ago,

a horse charity in Bristol were contacted by a local authority

in South Wales to rescue some animals

that had been abandoned in a field.

It was hammering with rain, terrible day.

We trudged through the mud and in fact came across

this rather delightful animal who was completely compliant.

This cooperative animal was a young pig who they called Dominic,

and his character shone through from start.

What's this? What have we got here? What have we got here? What's this?

What d'you want? Pigs can be tricky sometimes.

If they're not certain about people

and if they haven't got much experience or been handled,

they can be fast and very clever at avoiding capture.

This wasn't the case with Dominic.

Dominic was brought back to the rescue centre

and settled in immediately.

Good lad.

I consider myself Dominic's best friend,

but he falls into easy friendship with anybody roundabout,

be that human or any other species.

He seems to have an affinity for other individuals.

If he was a human,

he'd be the kind of bloke you'd meet down at the rugby club

probably knocking back the odd pint and being friendly with everybody.

Dominic's easy-going nature soon carved out

an important role for him at the centre.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service come here to train their firefighters

in the rescue of large animals.

It took us quite a while to find a pig that we could use for training.

They're very strong animals.

The male pigs will have tusks which can be dangerous.

They can cut your leg if you don't realise that.

And also, they've got teeth and they can bite.

Well done, Dominic.

Because Dominic was a friendly pig,

he obviously made it safer for us to use him.

Unlike firefighters in more urban areas,

the Avon Fire and Rescue team need extra training

for more unusual emergency cases.

It's the duty of firefighters to respond to calls

when farm animals become stuck or trapped.

They need to be able to deal with the situation safely,

so training with real-life animals is key.

Slow him down. Slow him down.

Dominic likes to perform to the crowd.

If he's in the middle of attention

and he's got the opportunity to gain attention

by perhaps being a little bit wicked, a little bit naughty,

then that's what he will do.

And he will run them around and challenge them and test them.

Don't go so close.

We've been using Dominic the pig to help us

with our animal behaviour training for approximately two years now.

And along the line, he then got the name of Fireman Ham.

It should be remembered

that there's a very serious component to all of this.

He is there for a genuine purpose.

They expand their skill level greatly because of him.

That wouldn't be possible without hands-on activities with a pig,

and Dominic happens to fit that just perfectly.

Same again. We've done really well, just going to do it one more time.

Nice distance. Stay close enough but not too close.

If he starts to run away, back off a little bit.

Nice and gentle. Nice and gentle.

That's better. Nice and gentle.

We are trying to train with most farm-type animals

because of incidents that we're attending.

We go to incidents where there's fire on farms,

whether it's a barn or a house, and there may be animals

that are they or nearby and they need to be moved.

If we're lucky, there may be a farmer there that's able to help us,

but quite often they're not.

So in the past, we might've just opened up a gate

and hoped the cows have gone from one field to another,

whereas now we actually know how to herd them.

Both runs were good, but the first run, the pig went a little bit quick,

and that's because we encroached on his space.

If you encroach on an animal's space, it'll normally tend to go away,

so we did it a second time whereas we had a bigger space,

and as you can see the pig then went round

at a much slower pace which suited us

and we was able to get him in better.

Out of all of the animals we use,

we've only ever used Dominic the pig.

We use different cows, we've used different horses,

and it's always good because you're never 100% sure

that he's going to play along.

So he does still keep us on our toes.

There we go, Dominic. Well worked.

Come on, Dominic. Well worked.

Good boy.

Dominic has proved to be a lucky pig, really.

A bit of kismet involved.

He was kind of in dire straits in his early life, but here he is.

He's progressed on through.

He's proven himself to be a youthful and fulfilled character

and will continue in that vein, I'm sure.

I'm now coming up to 35 years within the fire service

and if you'd have asked me when I first started

that one day part of my training within the fire service

would be moving a pig from A to B, I would have laughed at you.

But now, he does become a bit of a member of us.

Earlier, we saw two dogs being taken from a council flat

in the Borough of Newham.

Tina had decided to seize the dogs

because they were dangerously out of control

in the communal areas and had bitten a council worker.

From the Council. Can you open the door, please?

At the time, the dogs' owners weren't in,

but as Tina had a warrant, force was used to get inside.

The two dogs are now being looked after at the Council kennels.

The dogs have been very aggressive.

Rear up on their back legs, show a full set of teeth

and try to attack.

They've not done that with us.

Often if you remove the owner from the dog, the dog does calm down.

Dogs will often behave in an aggressive way because

that's what their owners teach them to do when they're with him.

We may take legal action against them

for the dogs intimidating people in a public place and biting somebody.

At the moment that's still all part of an ongoing investigation.

Tina also took away an African grey parrot from the property

as the owners had failed to improve its living conditions.

Hello.

Hello.

We haven't had any contact from the owner yet,

so we don't know if he's seen the vet.

When we gave him the improvement notice we did tell him

that parrots need light and they need a kind of good quality of life.

Again, he was in total darkness.

You know, it's near enough midday

and he should be in a room that's quite well lit that...

And he has some interaction in.

You know, we spoken to them about the cage being barren,

so they've put some bits and pieces in it now.

However, if you look at the back of him, you can see he's nice...

Where he should have nice red tail feathers,

he's got sort of remnants,

sort of remaining feathers left where he's pulled them out.

Most of the time they do that through boredom,

but they should have also had that check by a vet.

The parrot is on its way to a specialist vet

outside the borough to be assessed.

The problem with parrots is often people don't understand

the work that goes into them.

Some people will obtain a parrot and it will live its life in a cage.

He becomes very bored, sometimes the cages are very barren.

They don't have toys, they don't have stimulation at all.

A parrot is a very intelligent animal.

If you leave it in a cage it's likely to start feather plucking.

It's likely to have behavioural problems

where it becomes quite aggressive and starts biting.

What you need to be able to do is interact with it.

You need to be able to handle it,

and you need to give it stimulation and environmental changes, as well.

Tina believes the owners didn't provide the parrot

with these basic needs.

An independent specialist has now examined the parrot

to help her decide its future.

Hello, hold on.

The vet's supporting our application to take legal action.

He agrees the bird shouldn't be going back,

but if he does, his environment is likely to cause suffering.

So we have several breaches of section nine

under the Animal Welfare Act

which we will look at the possibility of taking legal action against

so he won't be going back. Not going back.

Wee.

To obtain a parrot and just leave it in a cage is actually quite cruel.

A lot of the time people obtain parrots

and think it's just going to be nice.

It will talk, it will entertain them, and it will just sit in a cage.

A parrot is not happy just sitting in a cage.

Alfie, come. Come on, Alf.

Good boy.

Tina knows from first-hand experience the commitment needed

to look after these creatures.

This is Alfie. He's my parrot and he comes to work with me every day

which gives him a nice change of environment and it stimulates him.

So, he likes that.

He likes the interaction with people and, yeah,

he comes to work with me every day, so...

He's quite happy to do that. Aren't you, Alf?

He's a rescue bird.

I got him when he was 12 weeks old and he's now 13 years old.

He's quite good. He trains my dogs.

He gets all three of my dogs to sit and he feeds them,

and he gives them treats.

He lives with two cats as well which is absolutely fine with him.

He will sit with them and just talk to them as well, so he's quite fine.

He also does chicken noises cos I've got a couple of chicken

so he does chicken noises as well.

Go on, go up there for a minute.

PARROT WHISTLES

Newham Council's dog kennels are the second largest in London.

Any stray dogs found in the borough are brought here

and held for seven days.

For three of the dogs, their time here is coming to an end.

This guy here, he was tied to a road sweeper's dustcart

and abandoned there.

He went off for a moment and came back and the dog was tied to it.

Yeah, it is quite surprising.

You don't imagine that someone would be that calculated that they think,

"Oh, there's a dustcart there.

"I'm going to tie my dog up there and run away quick."

He's an older sort of Staffordshire terrier type.

He's a really nice dog with people. He's actually really friendly.

Sit.

Most of the dogs that we pick up are bull breeds.

They're either Staffie types, Staffordshire bull terriers.

They're some kind of terrier.

Bull breeds at the moments, every rescue is so inundated with them.

They far outnumber the amount of homes that are out there.

People just don't want them.

80% easily of all the dogs we pick up are stray dogs are bull breeds,

so to actually go and breed a Staffordshire bull terrier type dog

is so irresponsible.

A lot of places will offer either reduced neutering or free neutering.

We can't stress the importance of neutering them.

Good girl. Come on.

To help decide what to do with each stray dog that isn't claimed,

Tina needs to assess their temperament.

Sit, Duck. Good girl. Sit, Duck.

So, this is Duck. Duck is a stray dog as well.

She's a cross Staffordshire bull terrier type.

She was found stray running along the road in a little close.

She's been with us for seven days now and no-one's come forward for her.

Duck, sit. She's got good command...

basic commands which is nice and she's of nice temperament.

She's really nice with people and she's really nice with other dogs.

Come here, Duck.

Seven days is the required amount of time for councils to keep strays.

After that, they're no longer responsible for them.

At Newham, the aim is to always try and get the dog

into a re-homing centre.

This is Puddles.

We called her Puddles because she likes to run through the puddles.

She was found running in and out of traffic in quite a busy road,

so she's lucky not to have got hit by a car

and seriously injured or killed.

She is absolutely fine with people as you can see,

and she's been temperament tested

and she's absolutely fine with other dogs.

Puddles! Puddles!

But if the dog's behaviour isn't right for re-homing,

there is only one option left.

If people that don't socialise their dogs and they come into us as strays,

there are very, very few places that will take a bull breed for re-homing,

and none if the dog is dog-on-dog aggressive.

So the only option for that dog is to be euthanized

and we bear the brunt of that.

It's all right, Puddles.

That is really, really difficult to sit...to look after a dog

for seven days and then to sit and hold it while its life is ended.

It's very difficult.

And very heartbreaking.

Good girl.

When I first started in Newham 22 years ago,

we put to sleep four dogs a year.

Last year we put 101 dogs to sleep

for aggression or through build or type.

That's a huge increase.

And then when you say that we're a nation of animal lovers,

well, I don't think people that are doing hard core animal welfare

are actually agreeing with that.

We need to, generally as a society, we need to look at why

and we need to look at how we can change that because dogs are dying

and people are just turning their backs

and pretending it's not happening. And they are.

The female iguana, Spike, is now with a new owner

who has other iguanas, and has settled right down.

The spectacled caiman and the bearded dragon with the missing leg

have also been re-homed.

The parrot is now in a foster home,

but the two dogs are still at the kennels.

The Council is taking legal action against their owners.

Duck has since been claimed by her owner.

Puddles is up for adoption at a re-homing centre.

But sadly, the dog that was abandoned tied to the dustcart

has been put to sleep.