AN environmental health officer with a passion for animal welfare has received a RSPCA honour for his dedication to the cause.

Mark Berry has been presented with an Arthur Brown bronze award for his work across the borough of Stockton to end cruelty and protect animals from abuse.

The council's principal environmental officer's team deals with issues such as stray dogs, animal behaviour and welfare complaints and encouraging microchipping and neutering as part of promoting responsible pet ownership.

Under his leadership the team has successfully rehomed hundreds of stray and unwanted cats and dogs in partnership with The Dogs Trust and Cats Protection.

The team have also been pioneering a system of digitally updating details of stray dogs from the streets in order to give members of the public the most up to date information if they ring up enquiring about a lost dog.

While the council has achieved an RSPCA Community Animal Welfare Footprint gold award several times for their animal welfare work.

In addition to his job Mr Berry is also the chairman of the National Companion Animal Welfare Forum which meets twice a year to discuss the best ways local authorities can tackle issues such as stray dogs, animal licensing issues and fly-grazing horses.

He said: “I’m very honoured, and slightly embarrassed, to be given this award. Promoting animal welfare is at the heart of the job we do and is made possible by the dedicated team of officers that I work with at Stockton Borough Council.

“The work chairing the national forum, that Stockton support me in undertaking, is focussed on promoting and sharing expertise within local authorities to achieve a consistent approach to regulation and liaising at national level with various stakeholders, non-government agencies and charities to facilitate joined up partnership working across the companion animal sector.”

RSPCA chief executive Jeremy Cooper praised his work at a ceremony at The Law Society in London last weekend.

He said: “Mark Berry is a very worthy winner. Not only does he spend his working day helping animals which have been lost, dumped or illegally grazed but he also spends much of his spare time sharing ideas between local authorities on the difficult job of how to cope with growing demands for help with decreasing resources.

“Mark is regarded as national expert on animal welfare from a local authority and his knowledge has been invaluable to the RSPCA’s work.”