East Yorkshire Council win prestigious RSPCA award for their 'incredible' animal welfare work

East Yorkshire Council has won the RSPCA's Pawprints gold award for licensing.

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

Over the past 15 years, over 1,500 awards have been given through the RSPCA PawPrint Awards. 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 home with their pets.

East Yorkshire Council won the gold award for licensing- this award recognises achievement in relation to protecting and promoting the welfare of all animals involved in licensable activities, as well as enforcing legislation and prosecuting offences.

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.

“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.

“The fact that we are marking 15 years of the scheme shows just how successful the awards have been. It has been a pleasure to watch PawPrints grow over the years and to celebrate countless initiatives from the most dedicated public service organisations and their staff; and the work we do together for animal welfare.”

The awardees will be recognised at a special ceremony in Leeds in November this year.