I was wondering what the legal aspect is on  volunteer dog walking now we have our small sanctuary we have a few retired people offering to walk our dogs which is lovely.
My question is,  is there a disclaimer or similar I can use so if say one had a fall or something we will not be held responsible.
In our sue for anything society I did tend to worry a bit just in case,any ideas,legal eagles out there ?

sorry can not help, sure someone on here will be able to. What a good idea to have dog walkers for your rescue, hope someone can help.
carol

many thanks im sure someone will know

Not sure if public liablity insurance would be needed, as even though these volunteers arent paid as such there is still a "master- servant" situation there .
Do you have public liabilty for visitors/potential new owners who come to visit your sanctuary??

I'm not sure if they would actually be willing to disclose the info, but you could try contacting the RSPCA i know that they sometimes use volunteers for dog walking

Mattie
have a look here
[link www.volunteering.org.uk/centre/info/insurance.doc]public liability[/link]

link dont work- sorry :rolleyes:

Hi Mattie,

We have walked dogs on a voluntary basis,for a dog rescue in Binfield and also somewhere off the A303.

Binfield take in dogs that other rescues and 'the pound' cannot,because of the problems these dogs have :(  The other rescue,(sorry cannot remember the name,we came across whilst on a daytrip out,we stopped off to look at some pigs actually) charge people a very small fee to take one of their dogs for a walk,good idea I thought,as it helped the rescue and also gave maybe a non dog owner,the opportunity to get some exercise too :D

Binfield have a website so why not contact them and ask how they go about it?

Also the kennels where we went with our previous dog had many voluntary,long standing dog walkers who only got paid via a goodwill tips box which the owners could contribute to.
Hope this is of some help,
Jacqueline

The following booklet is available:
Insurance guide for voluntary organisations, published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations
Tel: 01536-399016