Dogs Trust Stray Dog Survey (SDS)

The annual Stray Dog Survey and its analysis provide stakeholders across the UK valuable information they can use to help focus resources and respond to trends. Contributed by Dr. Lauren Harris.

The UK is not somewhere that is typically associated with stray dogs. In most towns and cities, it is very unusual to see a dog outside without their owner. Most councils have a dog warden service, whose main duty (alongside dealing with dog related complaints), is to collect dogs who have been found straying, with the goal of reuniting them with their owners. Therefore, the term “stray” usually refers to dogs who have become lost or abandoned by their owner, rather than the free-roaming or community owned dogs that are seen more commonly in other parts of the world.

The Dogs Trust Stray Dog Survey (SDS) has been conducted annually since 1997. This survey gathers comprehensive data on dog-related services provided by UK local authorities (LAs) and their interactions with dogs. The survey is sent to every LA in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and is typically completed by local authority dog wardens and environmental health officers. From 1997-2019 the SDS was managed by an external market research company, on Dogs Trust’s behalf. The company distributed the survey to LAs, analysed the data, and produced a report. In 2020 the management of the Stray Dogs Survey was brought in-house for the first time and all aspects were managed by Dogs Trust, led by the research team, which I am a part of. The team collects and analyses the data before compiling an annual report, which gets published on the Dogs Trust website.

Dogs Trust regularly reviews how the SDS is used in order to ensure it can be adapted to better suit the needs of relevant stakeholders.

The SDS results are used to determine the following (not an exhaustive list):

• The estimated number of stray/unwanted dogs that are handled by UK LAs each year

• How these dogs enter Local Authority care (e.g., handed in by a member of the public, seized as a stray, handed over by the police)

• The outcomes of these dogs (e.g., returned to owner, rehomed, passed on to welfare organisations, put to sleep)

• Numbers of dogs microchipped

• Factors relating to reuniting dogs with their owners (e.g., up to date microchips, collar, and tag with owner contact details etc.)

This information has been used by Dogs Trust to examine trends over time, and to help determine where to allocate resources for campaigns and interventions.

The graph below shows the estimated number of dogs handled by local authorities in the UK each year from 1997-2024. Not all LAs are represented each year, since participation is voluntary and some choose not to respond. The national totals are therefore extrapolated each year from data provided by those who did participate. Previously, this was done by calculating the average number of dogs handled by responding LAs and multiplying it by the total number of LAs in the UK (referred to as the simple average estimate). However, in 2022, Dogs Trust introduced an additional method using multilevel analysis. This approach is advantageous because it utilizes all available data from each LA to predict the number of stray dogs for each year, rather than assigning the same figure to all LAs. This allows for “weighting” LAs based on whether they typically reported higher or lower numbers of dogs (referred to as the weighted estimate). For consistency with previous reports, both the simple average and weighted estimates are presented in more recent reports (and represented by different coloured lines in the graph).

As can be seen in the graph, the number of dogs handled by LAs in the UK has declined overall since 1997. This downward trend continued steadily until a brief increase between 2008-2010, possibly linked to the 2008 financial crisis, which may have led to more pet relinquishments due to financial hardship. A sharper decline from 2015 to 2018 coincides with the 2016 legislation mandating microchipping, likely facilitating the return of dogs to their owners without LA intervention. While compulsory microchipping has likely played a role in reducing stray dog numbers, other laws may have contributed too. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 made it an offence to abandon dogs, and the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 empowered LAs to issue Dog Control Orders, such as requiring leads or banning dogs from certain areas. Although a direct link to the decline in strays can't be confirmed, these laws reflect a broader societal shift toward tighter control of dogs, driven by concerns for public safety and animal welfare. Urbanisation and increased traffic may also discourage owners from letting dogs roam freely. Additionally, we can’t rule out the possibility that the decline in reported stray numbers may be influenced by the reduced capacity of LAs to handle strays. Financial challenges have forced LAs to cut services, possibly affecting dog-related services, thereby reducing the number of dogs they are able to take in. Additionally, increased use of social media to reunite dogs may mean some lost dogs bypass LAs altogether.

In the last 3 years, the number of reported stray dogs has again begun to rise. In the most recent survey (which covered the period between April 1^st 2023 – March 31^st 2024), LAs handled an estimated 36,965 dogs. This is an increase of over 1800 dogs compared to the figure estimated the previous year (2022-2023), and an increase of over 13,000 compared to the figure estimated for the 2020-2021 period.

Since the survey’s inception, there was a gradual increase in the proportion of dogs reunited with their owners by LAs, peaking in 2021. However, since this peak, the numbers have steeply declined again year-on-year. This year, for the first time in the history of SDS, the proportion of dogs passed on to welfare organisations from LAs has exceeded the numbers reunited with their original owners by LAs. It is not clear what has caused this sudden decrease; a possible contributing factor could be the financial pressures and resulting cuts faced by LAs leading to reduced capacity to reunite dogs with their owners (which may in turn lead to increased reliance on welfare organisations). The reduction in dogs being reunited with their owners has been mirrored by an increase in dogs being handed over to welfare organisations. Since the LAs are unlikely to know what the outcomes of dogs are after they have been transferred to welfare organisations, it is possible that some of these dogs went on to be reunited with their owners, facilitated by the welfare organisations. However, it is also likely that many went on to be rehomed to new owners.

The survey has always asked how many dogs coming into LA care are microchipped, but this year, for the first time, we asked LAs to tell us the numbers of microchips scanned which had incorrect owner details. The majority of microchips scanned by LAs were either unregistered or had incorrect details, which makes it more difficult for LAs to reunite dogs with their owners.

Since the SDS began, the number of dogs put to sleep by local authorities has gradually declined and remained relatively stable. However, in the 2023-2024 period, we observed a 6% increase compared to 2022-2023. We estimate that this may equate to over 1,800 additional dogs being euthanised across the UK. There was also a notable shift in the reasons given for euthanasia: in 2022-2023, ill health (45%) and behavioural issues (46%) were cited almost equally. In 2023-2024, a lower proportion were reportedly put to sleep due to ill health (25%) compared to behavioural reasons (42%). Additionally, euthanasia due to the Dangerous Dogs Act rose from 7% to 24%, possibly linked to the UK government’s ban on XL bully-type dogs introduced in December 2023. Combined with a rise in the number of dogs handled and fewer being reunited with their owners, these trends highlight growing pressures on local authority dog services and the urgent need for continued support and collaboration.

Running a survey of this scale has been a valuable learning experience. One key challenge has been maintaining a strong response rate—some local authorities (LAs) opt out each year. For instance, participation dipped below 50% in 2018–2019. However, in the past two years, response rates have exceeded 70%, likely due to the use of Freedom Of Information (FOI)¹ requests for non-respondents. A possible reason for low engagement is the outsourcing of stray dog services to external contractors, which means fewer LAs have a dedicated staff member to complete the survey. There are also issues with data accuracy, particularly with numerical responses. To address this, logic checks have been added to the survey platform—for example, ensuring the number of dogs reunited or transferred doesn’t exceed the total reported.

To our knowledge, the Dogs Trust Stray Dog Survey remains the only longitudinal dataset capturing stray dog figures across the entire UK. In Northern Ireland, local authorities are required by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) to report stray dog statistics annually, with summary data published on the DAERA website. While these figures include key metrics—such as total dogs handled, outcomes, and microchipping—they are not as comprehensive as those collected through the SDS. A UK-wide statutory requirement for all local authorities to report stray dog data would significantly enhance our ability to monitor and understand the national stray dog landscape.

Footnotes:

¹ A Freedom of Information (FOI) request in the UK is a formal request for information held by a public authority. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, anyone can ask for information from public bodies, and these bodies are usually required to respond within 20 working days. The purpose of FOI is to promote transparency and accountability by making information held by public bodies more accessible to the public.

Dr Lauren Harris is a research officer at Dogs Trust UK, where she collaborates with teams across the organisation to help map out their projects and intended outcomes using tools such as Theory of Change, supporting them to evaluate and maximise their impact. She has also led the charity’s Stray Dog Survey for the past five years. Based in London, Lauren shares her home with her partner and a rotating cast of pet rats. Outside of her work in canine welfare, she is passionate about challenging misconceptions around rats and highlighting what wonderful companions they make.