Pet owner, 80, left in tears after being fined £50 ‘because her dog lead was too long’

A pet owner was left in tears after being fined £50 because her dog lead was too long.

Grandmother-of-four Maureen Sanders, 80, from Bootle, Merseyside, was fined while walking her dog around a cemetery on Friday morning, the Liverpool Echo reported.

She was walking her rescue dog Soren around Bootle Cemetery when two female officers from enforcement firm NSL approached her, told her the lead was “too long” and issued her a £50 fine.

They told her the dog lead needed to be less than 2m long.

Mrs Sanders was shocked to be issued with the fine without a warning or an explanation of the rules.

Signs outside the cemetery state that dogs should be kept on a “short lead” but no maximum length is specified.

Although her daughters have offered to give her the £50 so it doesn’t come out of her pension, Mrs Sanders is refusing to pay the fine as a matter of principle.

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She told the Liverpool Echo: “I had no idea it was a rule.

“What upset me was if you don’t have it paid up in a fortnight they said you would be fined £2,500 and I would have a criminal record.

“I cried all night because I was so, so upset.”

Her dog was rescued three years ago from Romania, where he was being used for dog fights. Mrs Sanders said he is friendly but can get frightened of other dogs, so she keeps him on a lead at all times.

“I don’t have a computer or anything – I wouldn’t know the by-laws or anything,” she said.

“I’ve always been very respectful in the cemetery. I always have the dog on a lead and a lot of people don’t do that.”

Her daughter, Maggie Eaton, said her mother was unable to read the signs outside the cemetery because of her poor eyesight, and that she uses a longer lead because she has difficulty walking and is waiting for a hip replacement.

She said she found her mother in “floods of tears” after she was issued the fine.

“Mum does not have that sort of money to pay for walking her dog under control on a lead as she has done every day for years,” she said.

“My sister and I offered to pay but mum is adamant that as she was not doing anything wrong by walking her dog on a lead in the rear part of the cemetery away from the graves, early in the morning in the only green space close to her flat.

“She is not going to pay.”

It is understood that NSL is responsible for issuing fixed penalty notices for by-laws on behalf of Sefton Council.