Dogs, playing field and the law. Help!

[crizzy]

Hi all
As you may know I am a teacher. Our school has playing fields. During matches, many parents bring their dogs onto the fields to watch their children. They are usually on leads. someone today said this is against the law. The dogs being actually on the fields is against the law. Is this true? Even if they don’t do a number 2! There is a masive debate going on in the staff room Ha Ha!!
Who knows the law on this one. No guessers please just the answer. Cheers,
Crizzy

[wit]

Local authorities can issue Dog Control Orders to exclude dogs from areas designated by the authority.

Often such orders are made in relation to school playing fields, cemeteries, parks, etc.

Folk ignoring dog exclusion orders is addressed by Schedule 4 of the following Regs (about halfway down the linked page):

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/20061059.htm

You’ll see from the link that dog exclusion orders are quite separate from orders addressing aspects such as dog faeces (Sched 1), dogs on leads (Sched 2), etc.

For a definitive answer, look to your local government website.

As an example, here’s the Brighton & Hove website:

http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.c … t=c1183534

If your playing fields are on private land, the owner can set similar conditions on those allowed onto his land. But breach of such conditions is then "against the law" only in the sense of a civil breach of contract, rather than the criminal / quasi-criminal environment of Dog Control Orders.

best regards

wit

[crizzy]

Thank you Wit. Very helpful.
Crizzy

[Matron]

Funny, you should mention this as Elmbridge are proposing new "Dog Control Orders in the borough.

http://www.elmbridge.gov.uk/leisure/parks/dogs.htm

Regards – Matron

[dave jay]

We always take our dog with us to watch my boy play footie .. some places have a ‘NO DOGS’ sign up but no-one seems to bother. That could be different if she was a big dog or not on a lead.

As far as I am aware there is nothing anyone can actually DO if they object to you having your dog in a field .. it’s not actually illegal.

[Roddy Owen]

I think if you see photos of anyone who has picked up the diseases associated with dogs and playing fields you will understand the concern. Especially on rugby pitches where there are often open wounds,dogs are normally banned ,and quite rightly.

Toxocariasis or contraction of parasitic roundworms. Roundworm eggs are often found in
dog faeces and anyone who fails to take reasonable precautions after coming in contact with
such feces runs some risk for contracting these parasites.

There are 4 important zoonosis or diseases transmittable from dogs to humans.

1. Toxocara Canis

The common round worm of the dog attracts the most publicity as a potential threat to human health from dog faeces.

Each adult female worm can lay 84, 700 eggs per day. Each gram of faeces can contain 15,000 eggs. The eggs develop after being passed by a dog into an infective stage and can survive on pasture (including rugby pitches!) for months if not years. Dogs don’t need to actually defecate on the pitch to pass the eggs on as they can be attached to the skin, feet and perianal area.

If ingested by a human the worm larvae can migrate through the body. This is called visceral larva migrans.

· Migration to the liver can cause hepatomegaly (enlargement of the liver) or eosinophilia (change in white blood cells).

· Migration through the lungs has been associated with wheezing asthma like symptoms.

· Migration through the brain has been associated with epilepsy (though this remains unproven).

· Migration to the eye can cause partial loss of vision or blindness. More commonly a retino blastoma grows at the back of the eye – this can be removed but this requires laser treatment. Rarely the optic nerve is affected causing blindness.

There are 50 – 60 cases a year of visceral larva migrans reported in the UK and it is thought many more go undetacted and/or unreported.

2. Leptospirosis.

Leptospira are a bacterium that can be passed in dogs urine and remain viable in damp conditions. They enter humans through abraded skin (grazed knees, etc…) or through the mouth. They cause Weils Disease which involves hepatitis and jaundice. A severe condition in human beings.

3. Cryptosporidia

An important enteric pathogen commonly carried by dogs and transmissible to humans. This can cause severe diarrohea which can occasinally last for several months.

4. Salmonella

Rare in dogs but can cause enteritis (inflammation of the bowel) if transmitted to humans.

Big case for banning dogs in public or private playing fields IMO.They are banned from our privately owned rugby club and I myself nearly lost my leg from such infection so I have my axe to grind.

[Matron]

Dave,

It can be if your local council introduce new byelaws and rigorously enforce them.

Some of them do hand-out hefty fines already in some areas of the country already.

Regards – Matron

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