Dog foul fines top £50k in Northern Ireland as DNA database explored

Canine homeowners in Northern Eire have paid greater than £50,000 in fines over the past 5 years for not cleansing up their pet’s mess.

Figures obtained by BBC Information NI present Northern Eire’s eleven councils recorded virtually 1,000 canine fouling associated incidents between 2020 and 2024.

Twenty folks had been taken to courtroom – and fined a complete of £2,715 – for not paying fines handed out by councils in these years.

Throughout the identical five-year interval, councils in Northern Eire acquired greater than 14,000 complaints about canine fouling from members of the general public.

The figures come as one native authority – Mid Ulster District Council – is exploring how a DNA database may very well be used to hint incidences of canine fouling again to a person canine and its homeowners.

In the meantime a councillor from the Mid Ulster space has spoken out after he repeatedly discovered canine poo on his father’s grave in Cookstown.

“It was, to be sincere, disgusting, it was disappointing,” Ulster Unionist councillor Trevor Wilson advised BBC Information NI.

“Fortunately there was the fellows who do the graves and tidy up within the cemetery they had been about they usually got here alongside and lifted it for me.”

Canine fouling, he added, was “an ongoing drawback right here and never solely on this cemetery however anyplace the place there are folks”.

“It is a very small variety of people who give the remainder of canine walkers a nasty title,” he stated, including that wardens do a troublesome job and cannot function “24/7”.

He added: “I might simply attraction to canine homeowners simply to consider different folks and to be accountable for their very own canines.”

In April, Mid Ulster Council’s improvement committee handed a movement to discover introducing a DNA database for all registered canines within the district, which might use a DNA pattern taken from canines when they’re microchipped.

Such a transfer, Mr Wilson stated, may very well be each troublesome and overly bureaucratic to implement.

However Sinn Féin councillor Dominic Molloy, who introduced the concept earlier than council, needs to see Mid Ulster work with different native authorities to discover how such a transfer may very well be value efficient and rolled out throughout Northern Eire.

“It’s price a attempt,” Molloy advised BBC Information NI.

“Take the price of what may very well be a toddler’s well being… we all know all of the dangers which can be concerned with canine foul,” he stated.

People can catch toxocariasis from canine faeces.

It’s a probably deadly illness which may additionally trigger blindness.

A Mid Ulster Council spokeswoman stated canine homeowners wanted to pay attention to the dangers of not cleansing up after their pet.

“It is crucial that we develop and promote a tradition of accountable canine possession and we’re asking all canine homeowners to assist us hold the cemeteries, parks, and open areas within the Mid Ulster space clear and welcoming for all customers,” she stated.

Eric Randall, chief govt of environmental charity Preserve Northern Eire Stunning, stated canine fouling was a “significant issue”.

The figures, he stated, had been “a sign that councils are clearly taken with making an attempt to deal with the issue”.

He stated enforcement was considered one of two key areas in addressing the difficulty. The opposite space, he stated, was training.

“I feel if folks related that each time they let their canine foul and go away it there that might end in a toddler turning into blind,” he stated.

The most recent figures present councils pursued a complete of 971 canine fouling circumstances between 2020 and 2024.

Ards and North Down Borough Council recorded the very best quantity and stated it was “working arduous to advertise accountable canine possession and encourage folks to wash up after their pets”.

A Derry and Strabane council spokeswoman stated enforcement was just one a part of the council’s wider method to fouling.

She stated mounted penalty notices (FPN) had been solely issued when council officers have ample proof.

In Northern Eire, the fines that may be imposed on canine homeowners varies.

The usual wonderful is £80, however that has elevated in recent times in various council areas, together with in Causeway Coast and Glens and Ards and North Down the place fines of £200 might be handed out.

Canine proprietor Mandy Cavlin, from County Tyrone, stated folks wanted to simply accept the duty that comes with pet possession.

“A accountable canine proprietor will choose up their very own canine’s poo,” she stated, including it takes simply “seconds to select up after your canine”.

Typically, she stated, she wouldn’t solely choose up after her canine but additionally different canines’ mess when out strolling.

If it proves to be value efficient, she added, the introduction of a canine DNA database within the space gave the impression of a “nice concept”.