PLANS to increase stray dog fines to £100 have been slammed as a 'death sentence for dogs' by councillors and a rescue charity.
A council officer has recommended that Pendle Council increase its stray dog fine by 150 per cent, sparking concerns that more dogs could be put down as their owners can't afford to pay it.
Paula Knowles, who runs kennel and rehoming charity Pendle Dogs in Need, branded the move 'ridiculous'.
She said: "Dogs here are dying every day and if they agree to increasing this charge, they may as well just kill the dogs themselves.”
In a heated debate in the council chamber, Pendle’s Executive Lib Dem councillors questioned the proposal to increase the penalty from £40 to £100.
Burnley Council charges £25 while owners in Rossendale have to pay £48.
The 2014 income review report advises adding or increasing the charges of services in an attempt to generate income for the cash-strapped council, including upping the stray dog fine and introducing a new charge that would see the owners of microchipped dogs falling foul of a £20 ‘returner’s fee’ if their dog is caught on the street by a dog warden.
Lib Dem Councillor David Whipp fumed: “I don’t agree to this at all. I fear that increasing these charges will end up with even more dogs being killed.
“Dogs that are unchipped and wandering the streets aren’t necessarily stray dogs. They could have run off from their home and left a genuinely worried family behind.
“£100 is a lot of money to most people, let’s be honest. Even £20 is a lot of money to lots of people in this borough and I worry that if this measure is introduced it will lead to kennels being overrun and more dogs killed.
“I don’t like it and I’m sure that the dog-loving people of Pendle will not like it either.”
Coun Tony Greaves added: “The last thing that we want to be doing is forcing responsible dog owners who may be elderly, may have a family, may be struggling for money to have to find £100 just because their dog has escaped through no real fault of their own.”
But Tory councillor Joe Cooney, leader of Pendle Council, said the proposal would act as a deterrent to irresponsible owners.
He said: "The idea of this measure is to deter people from persistently leaving their dog to roam the streets and that is something that we do have a major problem with in areas of Pendle.
“We need a strong deterrent and I can see that increasing the fine would do that.
“However, I agree that we do not want to penalise responsible dog owners who may be unable to pay the fee and I acknowledge that kennels are struggling to cope at the moment.”
Speaking after the meeting on Thursday night, Paula said: “If they do this, they are signing a death warrant for these dogs.
“£100 is a crazy amount of money to expect people to pay back. The £40 charge was bad enough. The amount increases by £8 per day for every day that the dog is kept in the kennel so if an owner can’t get to pick their dog up straight away, they’re already looking at a hefty sum of money to find.
“People are already leaving their dogs behind as it is and there is no way people will be able to pay £100 on top of the admin fees and kennel costs."
Paula said that her kennels are already ‘absolutely full to the brim’.
If the increased fine goes ahead the council could expect to see extra in revenue next year.
Coun Whipp argued that this is a ‘very small’ amount of income and not enough to justify the risk of putting dogs down needlessly.
A decision on the fine hike will be made at a meeting of the full council next Thursday.