{"id":537477,"date":"2025-10-30T11:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/537477\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T11:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T11:20:20","slug":"ni-council-spends-over-50k-in-max-the-dog-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/537477\/","title":{"rendered":"NI council spends over \u00a350k in Max the dog case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council<\/a> (LCCC) released a report this week following a court verdict earlier this month that ruled Max the dog was a banned breed.<\/p>\n

The case has presented new key learnings, with the local authority now to hold registered keepers liable for dogs that are micro-chipped in their name, whether or not they are sold.<\/p>\n

A new LCCC report said: \u201cNow that the case has concluded and Max has been re-homed with his new owner, the council is in a position to provide a report.<\/p>\n

\u201cCosts incurred by the council in bringing this case forward including legal, kennelling, veterinary care, third party assessments and behaviouralist intervention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campaigners for Max took on a legal challenge after council wardens had assessed him as a pit bull-type, which could have resulted in the dog being destroyed.<\/p>\n

Since the court ruling earlier in October, Max has now been rehomed under restrictions to the Molly Piper, whose family run Mid Antrim Animal Sanctuary.<\/p>\n

The financial breakdown includes a legal cost of \u00a335,423 up to September 24 after an almost year-long dispute.<\/p>\n

The report shows Max had become a stray on the Comber Greenway in Dundonald, after he was \u201csold on Gumtree\u201d by his original owner. He was seized by LCCC on December 6 2024 with no current keeper identified.<\/p>\n

\"Max's<\/p>\n

Max’s supporters. Picture: LDR<\/p>\n

Kennelling of Max for almost a year since he was seized incurred costs of \u00a39,518.<\/p>\n

The report adds: \u201dIt should be reiterated that it was never the intention of council for Max to be retained in kennels for this extended duration.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this period, we could not legally rehome the dog, either temporarily or permanently, as there is currently no provision for this in the legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal challenge did protract the process, council respects the right of individuals to legally challenge its decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case was a precedent for the council, other local government authorities and indeed central government.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegistered keepers should remain liable for dogs that are microchipped in their name, this is despite the registered keeper in this case alleging that they sold Max to another person.\u201d<\/p>\n

LCCC has also released evidential documents showing details of Max\u2019s assessment by dog wardens and independent assessors.<\/p>\n

Cost for third party assessment, which included travel for a member of Merseyside Police, was just over \u00a34k and a similar amount for a behaviouralist. Veterinary care amounted to \u00a3315.<\/p>\n

A high level of information requests on the animal\u2019s welfare were also made with the council stating some misinformation on social media had led to public abuse of its staff.<\/p>\n

The report reads: \u201cThere were approximately 150 Freedom of Information and Customer Care enquiries\/complaints received, which were responded to by council officers within the policy deadlines.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New owner Molly Piper and Max. Picture: LDR<\/p>\n

News Catch Up – Tuesday 28 October <\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil\u2019s internal communications unit should be the primary source of information, internally and externally, regarding such matters protection of staff and their safety should be paramount, all threats should be reported to police and support of the council unequivocal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council (LCCC) released a report this week following a court verdict earlier this month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[5823,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-537477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-lisburn-and-castlereagh-city-council","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115462853986787996","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}