Dog walker battled to control six snarling animals, MARK EDMONDS asks how long ... trends now
Hampstead Heath in North London is generally a civilised, languid place: an 800-acre stretch of heathland, ponds, meadows and woods.
It is a beautiful spot, much loved by local celebrities — among them Helena Bonham Carter, Kate Moss and Harry Styles — as well as by their pampered pooches.
Not last week though.
On Thursday morning the Mail came across two dog walkers there, a young woman and an elderly man, emerging from a large van in one of the car parks.
Pulling six dogs behind her of mixed breeds, the woman was clearly in charge, though she might have been advised to keep a better eye on them. Suddenly, a playful Labradoodle jumped on a husky only to be greeted with a horrible snarl.
Under strain: A dog walker, with multiple animals, on Hampstead Heath, North London
Tragic: Police patrol the area where a woman suffered a fatal dog attack in Caterham, Surrey
The young woman, with an equally unpleasant snarl, yelled at the husky and pulled its lead, staring the dog down within a foot of its nose. She just about managed to separate the pair and no blood was drawn. But the pack was already agitated: she was perhaps fortunate to bring them under control before she or one of the dogs was bitten.
This quarrel between a pack of dogs might appear to be a one-off, but the RSPCA and other welfare groups are concerned that incidents such as this, involving dogs of very different sizes, breeds and temperaments, are potential flashpoints that can have horrific consequences.
She was mauled to death by a frenzied pack of up to eight dogs, of multiple breeds, including an 11st Leonberger and two dachshunds. It appeared the dogs were all known to her — she worked as a professional dog walker. And yet as she lay on the ground, the pack continued to savage her.
Another woman was also attacked and taken to hospital with serious injuries.
The precise circumstances of the incident are still being investigated. It may be, of course, that the poor victim, who has not yet been named, was entirely blameless, caught up in a freak accident caused by the dogs becoming agitated for unknown reasons and acting on their pack instincts. But experts say it is difficult for even the most experienced of walkers to keep control of a large number of dogs — as the Mail witnessed on Hampstead Heath and other parks and beauty spots up and down the country.
But the industry is proving difficult for local authorities to control, such is the exponential growth of dog-walking.
The problem is that council-run schemes to register dog walkers are merely an exercise in box-ticking rather than rigorous scrutiny. And many dog walkers, like some of the dogs supposedly under their command, are proving reluctant to come to heel.
As a result, the Heath, along with other dog-walking spots across the UK, is pretty much a free-for-all for anyone who wants to make a quick buck out of walking a dog — or many dogs. As we shall see, profits can run into thousands of pounds a week.
The Heath’s dog-walking registration scheme is organised by the City of London Corporation, which charges professional walkers £300 a year for a licence.
The terms of this licensing scheme, and others like it elsewhere, are supposed to preclude dog walkers from taking out more than four dogs.
Unusually, Tandridge District Council, the authority responsible for the area around Caterham where the fatality occurred earlier this month, currently allows dog walkers with licences to walk up to six dogs at a time. Since the attack, this has been placed under review.
A spokeswoman told the Mail that she would not go into details about the incident, pending the police investigation.
When we visited Hampstead Heath earlier this week, walkers were gambolling freely with their charges, often in packs of up to ten at a time. There was no sign of any police, nor any other form of enforcement by the authorities.
The Mail understands that since the Hampstead scheme was introduced in April last year, not one dog walker has been prosecuted or sanctioned. ‘We don’t need a licence,’ the older male companion of the female dog walker on the Heath told the Mail. ‘I am walking the dogs as a favour for disabled people and people with cancer who can’t manage.’
They both claimed they are not professional dog walkers, even though their van was equipped with all the accoutrements of the trade, including harnesses.
The Hampstead Heath scheme has been condemned by many registered dog walkers in the area who have paid for licences. One well-established member of the Hampstead Professional Dog Walkers Association, who has paid £1,200 for four licences, is furious with the lack of enforcement from the authorities, describing the scheme as a cash cow.
‘It’s just a way of raising money. We haven’t even been given a
