Is this animal cruelty and how can I help to stop it?

[Lulooo]

I know very little about dogs or how to look after a dog so bear with me please. There’s a piece of land next to my house that is rented out by some young lads. They come there most nights and hang about there most of the night in a caravan. Or they come during the evenings and leave at night. I can smell weed most nights and not sure what other drugs they take. They have a dog that is tied up there and left there at all times. It’s almost always chained up. It’s a pit bull, I think but not sure.

The dog barks continuously throughout the night almost non-stop. It also barks for much of the day. Sometimes it barks so much that it seems to lose its voice and then just whimpers all the time.

We don’t ever see the dog exercised or walked. Sometimes they come to play with it and do some stupid game like throw water on it with a hose or yank at its chain and pull it close, let go, yank again and repeat. It’s obviously fed otherwise it wouldn’t survive but I don’t see much other care.

Theres no love shown to the dog and it’s just used as a status symbol as far as I can see. I never see anyone playing with it and the dogs barking has been going on for weeks now.

We tried talking to the boys themselves but they were dismissive and laughed it off. We tried calling the RSPCA and each time we rang, they listened and said they don’t do anything about domestic dogs. We’ve rang them three times now to no avail.

it’s almost midnight and the dog has been barking again for the past 6 hours and I honestly can’t sleep. But tbh, it’s not just the noise that bothered me but the inhumane way the dog is treated and left to it’s own devices. Why keep a pet if you can’t look after it!

What can I do? Is there anyone else I can call who will be able to intervene?

Contact your local authority dog warden. If you have a local independent dog rescue they often can push for help with these types of cases.

Of course it’s cruelty, Call the RSPCA 0300 1234 999
Call the police if the dog is alone and tied up. That is unacceptable, especially in this weather.
Local dog warden if you have one.
I think RSPCA is your best bet. I phoned about an emaciated horse tied up, they were on it very quickly.
Local council re caravan as it probably contravenes planning.

I'm sure RSPCA can help with domestic dogs.
I'd try again. You might just have got an arsehole that time. I would at least expect RSPCA to come and look. Whether anything else would happen is another matter but at least then some authority has actually looked

Sorry, now seen what you said about RSPCA. Call the police. Say the dog has been abandoned i
if it’s been left tied up.

Agree with the police as well actually. Why not

Did you read the OP? They've already contacted the RSPCA three times and thd charity told the OP that they don't deal with domestic dogs. I have no idea what the hell that would mean, but anyway...

I agree with contacting the dog warden. First port of call is your local council and report to the warden but also 101 if you suspect abuse. 999 only in a dire emergency.

Animal welfare officer in your area as well. The council should ahve the number.

If you genuinely think it's a pit bull they are a banned breed - call 101 - police . They'll assess it and seize it . If it's a pitty they are illegal. Poor dog . Call rspca or police .

The RSPCA is worse than fucking useless, IMO.

Happy to bother pensioners about ponies but utterly toothless when dealing with hard men over potentially dangerous and mistreated dogs.

The RSPCA website gives specific advice about what to do if you’re concerned about a dog being kept outside.

www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/dogs/environment/livingoutside

If you're worried about a dog being kept outdoors, we urge you to report your concern to our national cruelty line on 0300 1234 999.

Is it worth calling again and quoting their website information back to them?

As the dog is barking so much, the RSPCA also recommends reporting it to the Local Council as a noise nuisance - if you tell them that you have concerns over the dog’s welfare then they should contact their own dog warden or the RSPCA directly.

I would call the RSPCA, however if its a pitball, it will unfortunately, by law, immediately have to be PTS regardless of temperament or other behaviours.
However, I would still ring them and I’d also probably ring the police as I suspect other illegal activity is going on as well. How awful for the poor dog, some people really are bastards!

I'd stick with police , rspca are sketchy at best .

Also - the way they're treating it it could be not a pet but a fighting dog . There's a lot of money in dog fighting , horrendous cruelty. They'll start bringing cats and small dogs to teach it to kill - ring the police . Please.

(RSPCA) listened and said they don’t do anything about domestic dogs.

Sorry, but I don't believe that was the conversation at all. Most of RSPCA Inspector visits are concerning dogs and all dogs are domestic. The RSPCA don't deal with stray dogs but if it's tied up, it's captive and not a stray.

Op if you don't want to contact police I'll do it for you - but answer on here because I'll need to log in in laptop to see pms unless anyone can tell me how to view pms on the app?

If it's left there all the time they're hiding it because it's a pit bull. It will be for fighting and nothing else .

Also needs doing because it will vanish . This is the m o for training a fighting dog . I'm a police officer- if yku don't want to report it (and you can ask to remain anonymous) I'll do it for you .

I’m not sure if it’s a pit bull. I just took a guess. It’s probably not if it’s a banned species.

I rang RSPCA again because the previous three times it was my daughter who rang. They’d previously told her that if the owner is feeding it and it’s not emancipated or a stray then they don’t get involved.
This time I rang myself and they asked a few questions eg, can you see its bones and is it fed. I told them it’s fed and last week they bought it a kennel too but it’s the way the dog is treated that bothers me. I mentioned that my daughter saw them kick it twice, that she saw them throw water on it. That I’ve seen the way they continuously yank it’s chain and how it cowers and whimpers and whines. And the barking- non stop throughout the night. It sounds stressed. As I said, I don’t know much about dogs but feel this can’t be right.

Anyway, the made notes and said they’ll pass the details on to a team who will decide if anything needs to happen. I guess that’s the furthered I can go with the RSPCA

@stillvicarinatutu thank you. I’ll wait a few days and see if there’s any response from RSPCA and if not I’ll try to take some pics of the dog and videos and post here again.

No op it probably is a pittie and my worry is if it either disappears or it's a fighting dog .

Just give me a pm and tell me where it is , post here when you have and I'll take it from here .

I hate animal cruelty, but pitties are banned for a reason. Poor dog . There are tests that police carry out to tell if it's. Banned breed or even crossed with a banned breed . Pm me and say when you have - give me the address of the caravan , I'll sort it.

The RSPCA are notoriously bad. The most likely outcome of reporting is either they'll seize the dog and put to sleep or, most likely, take no action at all.

I would report to the police, telling them everything you've mentioned here, including that you think it may be a pit bull. Even if it doesn't turn out to be one, at least it will prompt them to take a look. The RSPCA are more likely to respond to a call from the police than a member of the public.

God how can you bear this entire set up

Why on earth did you try to reason with a bunch of hooligans?
And now they will know it was you who reported it.

There are worse things for a dog than being put to sleep.

Yes, I must say I was a bit disappointed at the response from the RSPCA. They seemed to give the impression that because it was fed and had a kennel and an owner then that was sufficient. I asked what the response would be and whether I could follow up and they said they can’t give any further info.
The same thing happened when my daughter rang them the second time for a follow up and to see if anything had been done. They said we can’t give any further info.

I understand privacy laws but it seems quite inefficient to not give feedback to a caller. If you don’t know what’s happened then you just end up calling over and over again thinking your report is lost in the system.

The first course of action has to be to speak to the owners politely and try to understand what’s happening. I had to try that before I reported them.
I thought maybe they just didn’t realise how distressed the dog sounded and needed a third person to point it out.

I know it's become a bit of a cliché, but might it be worth a shot on Twitter? Sort of a "I've reported this 3 times but apparently it's not abusive enough for the RSPCA to act. Why?" kind of thing.

RSPCA are shit unless it's a photo or money raising opportunity 😡