Dangerous dogs are costing the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds in kennel fees while they await their fate on “death row”, The Courier can reveal.
It is believed seven dangerous dogs have been locked up in private kennels on the outskirts of Dundee, some for up to a year.
A Courier source said with fees of £50 per day, per dog, being charged, that adds up to a total of £2,450 per week.
At that rate, three of the dogs would have cost the public around £43,750 so far after they were removed from their ownersfollowing brutal attacks, which left their victims with severe injuries.
One of the dogs is due to be destroyed after Sheriff Kenneth McGowan ruled its attack on a 78-year-old woman was serious enough to merit its destruction.
In another case, the same sheriff has ordered an alsation dog should not be destroyed. However, its owner is banned from keeping dogs for five years after he allowed it to be out of control, so the dog is being kept in the kennels until a new owner can be found for it.
With the dog having already attacked someone and the sheriff ruling that it must be castrated and muzzled while out inpublic, it is thought highly unlikely that a new owner will be found quickly.
It is also not clear who will pay for the dog to be castrated, as normally it would be returned to its owner, who would beresponsible for any vets’ bills.
A legal source told The Courier: “I know the Crown has seven dogs locked up inkennels and some of the kennel owners are being paid £50 a day to keep them there. That’s £350 a day in total while the Crown decides what to do with them.
“Obviously it’s the sheriff or the lords who decide whether a dog should be put down but, in the end, with all the delays it’s the taxpayer who pays and it’s costingthousands every week.”
In some cases, a dog and cat behaviourist is called in to assess whether or not a dog is too dangerous to be kept alive, at a cost of £1,000 for his report.
One of the dogs, a rottweiler called Bruno which attacked a 78-year-old woman, biting her on the stomach and pulling her along the ground before she was saved by her friend, is to be destroyed.
Sheriff McGowan decided the dog should be put down after a hearing into its fate last week.
The two-year-old dog had been kept in kennels since the horrendous incident in August last year.
The dog’s owner, Steven Meiklam, 48, of Munro Place in Dundee, admitted being the owner of dog which was out of control on August 16 at his home.
In another case, Derek Duncan, 24, of Cardean Street, Dundee, was jailed for three and a half years for ordering hisStaffordshire bull terrier Kaii to attack his girlfriend because she threw out a two-day-old takeaway meal in June.
He was banned from keeping a dog for 10 years and was also prosecuted for failing to reveal the whereabouts of the dog.
His sentence has since been quashed at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, but he is still in jail awaiting appeal on othermatters and his dog is being kept in thekennels, costing taxpayers £50 per day.
The Crown Office and Procurator FiscalService were asked to comment but a spokesman said The Courier’s questions could only be answered by a Freedom of Information request.