LOCAL authorities in Hampshire have been recognised by the RSPCA for pioneering animal welfare work.

Running since 2008, the charity’s flagship PawPrints awards remain the only scheme of its kind, recognising local authorities and public bodies for going above and beyond to deliver world-class animal welfare services.

This year across England and Wales a total of 73 public bodies have received a PawPrint award. The awards are split into five categories: stray dog services, housing, contingency planning, animal activity licensing, and kennelling. Each category also has three levels: bronze, silver and gold - with each carrying progressively more challenging criteria.

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Winchester City Council and Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council both walked away with awards this year – Winchester with two gold paw prints in the stray dog services and animal activity licencing categories. Meanwhile, Basingstoke received a gold medal in strays and a silver pawprint in licencing.

Lee Gingell, public affairs manager for local government at the RSPCA, said: “The PawPrints awards are something the RSPCA is immensely proud of. We have been so impressed with the standard of entries to this year's awards. It’s always so rewarding to celebrate the winners and their inspiring initiatives and hear just what a huge impact their work has had on animal welfare locally.

“We are also thrilled to be back up to our pre-pandemic figures and have been able to hand out a total of 93 awards across 73 public bodies for outstanding animal welfare achievements this year.

“Local authorities, housing providers, contingency planners and others play a huge role in the delivery of animal welfare; many of them doing incredible work in the face of steep challenges.

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“Often this pioneering work is done quietly behind the scenes and remains unsung, but they really deserve to be applauded for changing the lives of not only animals but local people too. PawPrints is all about recognising and celebrating these efforts.”

Over the past 15 years, more than 1,500 awards have been given through the RSPCA PawPrints awards, recognising and celebrating public service organisations that go above and beyond to ensure high animal welfare standards in their communities. These can include anything from initiatives to see more stray dogs safely into kennels, schemes to safeguard pets whose owners have been taken into care and housing policies that allow tenants to share their homes with their pets.

The winners will be recognised at a special ceremony in Leeds in November.