Fined for the length of your dog lead

A cash-strapped council has come up with an ingenious way of raking in revenue from law-abiding people (from the Manchester Evening News):

Dog owners are facing £1,000 fines if they take their pets to the park on long leads.

The ban on leads longer than two metres (6ft5in) applies to dozens of parks and open spaces.

Bosses at Tameside council say they have brought in the measure to reduce dog fouling. The council says owners are more likely to clean up after their pets if they are on a short lead.

Tameside is the first local authority in Greater Manchester to bring in the rule and introduced it despite many retractable leads being between five and eight metres in length.

I would love to see the council's research that suggests the distance between dog-on-lead and dog-owner is representative of the likelihood of said dog-owner cleaning up dog mess. I would predict that no such research exists (not even a council would be stupid enough to commission something like that) - but even if it did, I would think that the personality of the dog owner is a far stronger (if not the strongest) indicator of whether dog mess is cleared-up.

Then there's the question of how this policy would be policed. Are we going to see litter wardens and PCSOs in Tameside whipping out their tape measures every time a person walks past with a dog on a lead? 

Overall, it takes a sane person all of 10 seconds to realise this idea is completely barking mad (if you'll excuse the pun). Rather than targeting the people that leave dog mess, it hits law-abiding dog walkers in the pocket. Fining someone for the length of their dog lead is absurd; fining someone £1000 is outrageous.

Final word goes to Tameside Council who claim the idea is intended to make parks 'more enjoyable' - Ministry of Love anyone?

By Dylan Sharpe

Comments

[Paul Dean]

Dogs have to be on leads now?

[startledcod]

Good point Paul Dean, are dogs required to be on leads? One of my dogs (only one) is so good that when asked it walks exactly to heel and has hardly ever been on a lead. we call it the invisible lead, it is probably less than two metres.

Isn't it just typical that the lead has to be less than 2 metres - why not yards?

[Bucko]

Its the council jobsworths that should be kept on a short leash

[Rick]

Where is the Corpus Delicti?

How is £1,000 proportionate?

What about extendable leads?

[Jess The Dog]

So why not fine someone for leaving dog mess?

It will only be the elderly and law-abiding duped into paying such fines.

Refuse and walk away.

[Purlieu]

Exactly, they have to physically measure it for a fine to stand up in court. How are they going to achieve that, I mean, who is going to hand over the lead for measurement. In fact since the dog is still attached to one end it could make an interesting case when the "council worker" get bitten due to creating a state of undue anxiety in the dog, who will think that he is being taken away from his person.

[Maigret Beckett]

"metres - why not yards?"

Excellent point. The measures being pretty much incomprehensible to approximately 50% of society each.

I humbly propose a solution; that the number of times be counted that the offending tether wraps around the neck of the little hitler making the accusation. Any fewer than six times and the dog-owner is free to wait as long as they wish before unwinding the lead. All accused to be allowed multiple attempts at coming in under the threshold, to include as much tightening as any onlooker might adjudge reasonable, or until the interfering joyless little jobsworth turns blue, whichever occurs last.

Oh heck, now there's me losing my tuck-shop rights by "advocating violence", drat.

[Chris Hampsheir]

Hmmm.... will have to shorten my flatmate's lead next time we're in the park.

[richard]

A dog has to be "under control" at all times. A lead is not necessary for a dog to be under control. I often have mine off the lead walking to heel, she's on the invisible lead of obedience training. It measures 1.99 metres, which any day-glo drone with a notebook is welcome to check.

[Purlieu]

Lead = 1.99 metres
Handle = 2 metres
Sorted

[Neil Robinson]

What powers do councils use to enact these new laws and impose ludicrous fines? I am genuinely interested.

[bob parker]

Have a look around this site and find out lots.

http://www.lawfulrebellion.org/

Especially this one. Watch the video.

http://www.lawfulrebellion.org/2010/04/14/non-payment-of-council-tax/

[supra shoes]

I do appreciate that you like the content I write. I'm not exactly sure what I blog about fits in with your customer profile. And, looking at your retail site, it's not clear to me where you'd actually be using some of my information. What exactly do you have in mind?