Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary wins Innovator for Animal Welfare Award at the RSPCA PawPrints Awards 2025

Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary has won a national award for its Humane Animal Dispatch volunteer scheme.

The RSPCA’s Pawprints Awards were held in Leeds on 13 November, recognising organisations that support animal welfare.

Inspector Stu Ross and Rural Crime Task Force coordinator Hazel Cross were honoured for creating the scheme, which uses trained civilian volunteers to respond around the clock to injured deer involved in road collisions.

They collected the Innovator for Animal Welfare Award at the ceremony.

Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary recognises its responsibilities, accountabilities and the importance of animal welfare under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Deploying a HAD volunteer means we are not allowing an animal to suffer unnecessarily. Dispatch of the animal is completed as effectively and humanely as possible.  

These volunteers are all experts in the field of deer management and enable us to have the right resource in the right situation.

In 2023 and 2024 combined, HADs were deployed on 288 occasions to animal dispatch incidents across the county, compared to 72 deployments for firearms officers in the same two-year period. This enabled the Constabulary to make savings of up to £108,460.

Inspector Stu Ross said: “We are very pleased that the Constabulary has been recognised on a national scale by the RSPCA, who are a key animal welfare partner of ours.

“The support our HAD volunteers provide to policing at the roadside is phenomenal – not only are they experts in their field, ensuring that animals do not suffer unnecessarily in the aftermath of a collision, but their deployment ensures other police resources can direct their focus elsewhere.

“Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary pioneered the police-led scheme more than 15 years ago. At that time, it operated as a local agreement with gamekeepers, farmers, deerstalkers and deer managers from rural communities before it was re-developed in 2022 into its current format.

“Last year we launched our scheme nationally to an audience of police colleagues around the country, and we are pleased that other forces have already recognised the scheme as best practice and are exploring adopting it in their area.

“Our scheme has also had the backing from leading deer industry and animal welfare organisations, and other stakeholders, such as The British Deer Society, the RSPCA, the British Animal Rescue and Trauma Care Association (BARTA), and the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC).

“We currently have 49 people on our HAD team and are actively recruiting so hope to see this increase to 60 by next spring.”

Congratulating the team, Chief Constable Alexis Boon said: “I am incredibly proud that this ground-breaking scheme and has been nationally recognised in this way.

“I have seen the hard work and dedication that Inspector Ross, Hazel Cross and the rest of the Country Watch Rural Crime Taskforce, have put into this project that has become best practice for forces up and down the country.

“They identified a problem and developed an innovative way to change the way these incidents are dealt with, not only to help ease the suffering of the animals, but also to help ensure our officers are doing what they do best, proactively tackling crime and bringing criminals to justice.

“My thanks also goes to the team of committed volunteers who have made this scheme possible.”

Bespoke HAD training will become available across the UK as police forces begin to adopt the Hampshire volunteer HAD scheme in support of a national collaboration. For those wanting to become a HAD volunteer in Hampshire, please contact – humaneanimaldispatch@hampshire.police.uk

Police and Crime Commissioner Donna Jones added: “The pioneering HAD scheme has proved hugely successful in helping ease the suffering of animals injured on our roads and for making sure welfare is a top priority.

“It also ensures officers are freed up to deal with frontline policing, especially in rural areas, while confident the animal is in the best possible hands.

“I’m thrilled the scheme, and all those involved, has got the recognition it rightly deserves.”