Stroud District Council animal welfare service has won three awards for how they deal with stray dogs.

Today the RSPCA announced the PawPrint Awards winners for local authorities and public service organisations who have gone above and beyond for animals over the last decade.

The animal welfare officers were awarded a gold PawPrint Award in the stray dogs section for the fifth year running – which also qualifies the team for a platinum award.

Additionally the team has carried off a bronze award for contingency planning.

Rachel Williams, RSPCA senior parliamentary advisor said: “It’s fantastic to see Stroud continuing to have such success in the PawPrints Awards.

"This is a real testament to the hard work of Stroud’s staff and their commitment to animal welfare.”

The national awards celebrate public service organisations that ensure high animal welfare standards in their communities such as pioneering 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.

Cllr Simon Pickering congratulated the animal welfare team, he said: “We know we have an excellent animal welfare team which does superb work in the community and these awards rightly highlight that."

“We have our own in-house team which can link easily with other departments and partner agencies, to secure the best outcomes for animals, their owners and the communities they live in.”