Fred's Fact File
- An estimated 700,000 dogs live in the capital: 1 for every 10 people
- 157 pedigree dogs entered for Crufts last year
- Of these the most popular breeds were chihuahuas and Staffordshire terriers
- Last year 9,000 dogs arrived at Battersea Dogs' Home
- London's 31 local authorities employ 54 dog wardens
- Wandsworth has a free dog owners' pack with a map of the borough's parks showing poop scoop areas
- Brent runs two fundays for dogs every year to encourage responsible ownership. Tel: 0181 206 0492
- Camden has painted yellow squatting dogs and arrows on the pavements to remind owners to train their dogs to use the gutter
- Islington has produced an anti-dog mess commercial featuring a pyjama-clad bloke 'doing his business' on the street
- The Kennel Club runs a Good Citizen Dog Scheme which provides basic training for dogs of all sorts all over London. Tel: 0171 493 6551 ext 211
- Battersea Dogs' Home does not destroy stray dogs after 7 days. They only dogs they kill are either incurably ill or dangerous
- The safest way to protect your dog is to microchip. Since Battersea introduced microchips for all the dogs they sell, the number of lost dogs reunited with their owners has risen from 8% to 24%
- Dogs travel free on the tube, the train and the bus; but they are allowed on buses at the discretion of the driver and must sit upstairs
- London families spend an average of £1.81 a week on pets and pet food
- In Victoria Park, east London are two stone, sentinel dogs, called the Dogs of Aleibiades. They were presented to the park in 1912 by Lady Regnant
- In North Wood, behind Kenwood House in north London are two headstones. They mark the graves of Bill and Mac. Their owner was the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, second cousin to the last Czar, who rented Kenwood from the 6th Earl of Mansfield from 1910 to 1917
- The Isle of Dogs may be so-called because Henry VIII used to keep his hounds on marshlands there. Or it may be on account of the number of dead dogs washed up on the westerns shore. Or it may just have been the Isle of dykes
(c) 1997 Mary Scott