Thanks to Mel Rushmore and Kathryn Jamieson Sinclair for an excellent outcome!

“We can today (Wednesday, August 3) confirm a dog seized at an address in Lancaster is not a banned breed.

Lancashire Police executed a warrant in Norfolk Street last month.

Officers attended following reports a dog inside the property was a banned breed.

As is Force policy when dealing with a suspected banned breed, the dog was removed in order for it to be assessed. Following an independent assessment it has been established the dog is not banned.

The dog, who has been cared for by expert officers and kennel staff while under assessment, will be returned to its owners later this week.

Sgt Sue Bushell, of Lancashire Police’s Dogs Unit, said: “On July 16, police executed a warrant at an address in Lancaster following concerns a dog inside the property was a banned breed.

“In any incident where officers deal with a potential prohibited dog, safeguarding individuals and protection of the public is our priority.

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We would like to congratulate Skye and her owner after Skye was put onto the exempted register, But much more than that we would like to thank fantastic solicitor Kathryn Jamieson Sinclair

The family of Bruce were in court yesterday due to him having been found to be of a prohibited type. His owners attended the civil application at 10am and the court agreed that Bruce could be exempted.

We are delighted to say that due to everything being in place, and his owners being ready to proceed immediately after leaving court they this morning completed exemption. Huge credit to the police who completed the veterinary form in double quick time and Defra who processed his exemption so speedily. 24 hours after being at court permission to release has been granted and Bruce is on his way home to spend the bank holiday with his family

Today is officially Bella day with the lovely Bella (pictured grinning) being returned after being exempted and another Bella being returned after a kindly DLO went in on his weekend off and found her to NOT be type. Congratulations to both dogs and their Mums

Congratulations to the owners of the newly exempted Shai, who have for some time suspected that she might fall under ‘type’ and made a big effort over a number of months to get her looked at and if necessary apply for her to be exempted only to hit a brick wall from their local police force.

After moving to a different area they contacted Cooper and co solicitors run by dear friend and the UK’s leading dog lawyer, Trevor Cooper, and after speaking to the very lovely Nik on Wednesday, they contacted us.

After making a call to their new area’s Dog Legislation Officer on Wednesday afternoon on their behalf it was later arranged between them and the owner for Shai to be looked at by them yesterday and if ‘type’, for her to be seized before appearing in court today.

That’s exactly what happened and Shai was exempted today by the courts. As all of the terms are already being met by the owners, with only the exemption certificate to be approved, she will be returned in a couple of days.

Credit where it’s due, many thanks to Staffordshire police for the handling of this case and for your sensitive approach to her owners as well as your assistance at court today.

Bella was initially seized some months ago under section 4b of the act and her owner, on seeking advice regarding the process, got in touch with people who had been suggested might help. The only advice given was to contact a specialist solicitor whose number was provided. She did this only to be given an estimate of approximately four thousand pounds for legal representation and expert report in order to go through court to apply to get Bella back as legal aid is not available, otherwise they would be unable to assist.

This is a huge amount of money and it is lucky that at this point Bella’s mum desperately wanting her dog back but incredibly worried about how she would find such a huge sum of money rang the DLO in charge of her case who thankfully advised her to call us.

We contacted the DLO to discuss how we could assist and it transpired that the authorities were more than happy to send Bella home pending court once a risk assessment was completed despite her owner having been legally advised that they were lying, and arrangements were made for Mel Rushmore and the DLO to jointly examine Bella that weekend. This resulted in Bella being returned to her owner immediately after the assessment the same day pending court.

Bella was re-seized this morning and her owner attended court this afternoon along with Kathryn Jamieson Sinclair and Bella has been exempted and will be home very soon.

Massive thanks to Kathryn and to the lovely DLO (he knows who he is) and Huge congratulations to Bella and her mum from all at Deed not Breed XXXX

Section 4b cases do not have to cost the earth and with the right advice on many occasions can be dealt with by the owner. Luckily Bella’s owner didn’t give up and sign Bella over when faced with so little actual help and such a large proposed bill. We sincerely hope no other owner has felt they had no other option.