Dog breeders must ensure that puppies are microchipped and registered on the database by the time they are eight weeks old and before they are sold.

A microchip is the most effective way of ensuring lost or stolen dogs get reunited with their family. The dog owner’s contact details are logged on a central database, so should the dog ever go missing or be stolen it can be scanned by the authorities and returned to their owner swiftly and safely.

All dogs should wear a collar and tag which includes their name, address and a telephone number when out in a public place.

If your dog is picked up in public without a collar and tag you may be liable for prosecution under the Control of Dogs Order 1992.

By law you must return a found stray dog to its owner, you can do this by:

• Checking to see if the dog is wearing any form of identification that will enable you to return him directly to his owner
• If the dog doesn’t have a tag, call 07512 089777 straight away; someone will arrange to collect the dog from you, after investigating ownership.

Failing to hand in a stray dog may make you liable to allegations of theft.

• contact the police to report the theft

If your car is stolen with your dog inside it, make sure you contact the Police.

Call us on 07512089777. We are statutorily responsible for stray dogs and most likely to have picked them up or know their whereabouts.

The Community Protection Officers will contact you if we can identify you as the owner of the dog.

We will return your dog to you at a specified location. There will be fees payable.

We legally hold onto a stray dog for seven days before we can rehome them, pass them onto a rehoming organisation, or have them put down.

We legally hold onto a stray dog for seven days before we can rehome them, pass them onto a rehoming organisation, or in some very unfortunate cases when all the rehoming organisations are full, and we do not have an alternative option, we have to consider euthanasia. This is an extreme outcome and is a very rare occurrence.