They say never to work with children or animals, but Swale’s dog warden, Mel Herbert, wouldn’t have it any other way.

The 30-year-old spent 10 years in the hospitality industry before changing career four years ago to focus on looking after four-legged clientèle instead - and she hasn’t looked back.

As well as sorting animal licensing, she is called out to collect abandoned and missing dogs.

Already this year, she has been alerted to 67 strays.

Of those, 61 were reunited with their owners, either by the warden, a kennel or members of the public. Five were sent to rescues and one was rehomed by a kennel.

Ms Herbert, from Aylesham, said: “Tim, our animal control investigations officer, retired in December so I’m a bit of a one man band at the moment covering Sittingbourne, Sheppey and Faversham, but I do love it.

“I’m passionate about the job in general, but particularly micro-chipping.

“When I pick up stray dogs, it tends to be that the dogs are micro-chipped but the details haven’t been updated and we struggle to get hold of the current owner, so that is something that we take a really strong stance on.”

Mel previously worked in kitchens for 10 years before becoming a dog walker and applying for the warden position.

She said: “I always wanted to work in the animal industry, but to be honest, I felt a little bit lost as I’d been in one profession for so long.

“But before I knew it, I’d got the job. But I do love it. I work with the animals, make sure that they’re safe and move them on to rescues and things like that.

“I’ve got my own pets and I know exactly how people feel when they say that they’re their babies.”

Over the last few years Mel has witnessed many rescues, both sad and happy.

Mel explained: “There have been so many sad rescues and they’re the ones that tend to stick with you.

“We pick up a lot of dogs that are in poor condition, these are ones that you can tend to tell are not pets or may have been dumped.

“We see a lot of ex-breeding bitches. When I first started we picked up a Frenchie called Minnie.

“She was the first dog that I saw that was really awful.

“Mini had obviously been bred to excess because when she stood her teats were on the floor, just everything was stretched.

“Both of her front legs had been broken at some point and they’d just been left to heal on their own. They were all crooked.”

More recently Mel has come to the rescue of Jackson the bull lurcher.

He was found just running down a hill, in a rural area far from any homes.

She said: “He was really, really skinny. He had a lot of open sores, a split on his tail, an ear infection, a lot of his teeth are missing and he was quite flat footed. His toes are quite splayed.

“It showed that he’d had some sort of tendon damage at some point. And those ones are always really hard, even though you see a lot of sick dogs, whenever you see them like that, because I’m such an animal lover, it was quite hard.”

Last year Mel was called to a Jack Russell terrier, who had been found down a country lane.

Mel said: “She was in appalling condition.

“The vets discovered that she’d been shot and just left on the side of the road. I was at the vets until about two o’clock in the morning because we like to stay, we wouldn’t just leave.

“And sadly she had to be put to sleep because although she started to respond to some of the medication, the less pain that she was in technically with the painkillers, it was almost making her worse and there was a lot of maggots in all of her open wounds.

“They’re the ones that really sort of stick with you.

“I wish I could tell you that there have only been one or two that are sad but it really has been quite often.”

Mel has said that the Lower Halstow area tends to be the warden’s hotspot for dogs that are found.

She explained: “Here we predominantly find lurchers, but we also get a lot of smaller sort of dogs like Jack Russells.”

Although Mel hasn’t had any bizarre rescues she has had some that are more positive.

Mel said: “We picked up a female lurcher at Christmas in either 2020 or 2019.

“She’d be found right on the cusp between boroughs between Swale and Maidstone, so, we picked her up and she looked really fat.

“We were like, ‘oh, she’s quite big for a lurcher’ but she won’t be pregnant. The next thing we knew, she’d started giving birth at the kennel.

“The lurcher had seven puppies, and we named her Santa and all of the puppies were named after the reindeer.”

Mel explained that most owners are really grateful for her service.

“It’s just nice for people to be polite, really,” she said.

“Such a small thing, but that’s that’s what I really like when people are very grateful. They’re the kind of ones I really like.”

One job attended to by the warden that drew the attention of dog lovers across the nation was that of an elderly Labrador who was found tied to railings with a note saying he had not ‘learnt to be good’.

The lost pooch was discovered at Jasmil Kennels and Cattery in Upchurch, near Sittingbourne in July of 2020.

The elderly dog, which didn’t have a microchip, was left with a note that said: “Hello, pls can you take me in as my owner has abandoned me after 10 years because I have not learnt to be good, so I have been returned here where he found me.

“Thank you for looking after me, sorry for inconvenience.”

However, the owner’s family later came forward to rehome the dog, saying they weren’t aware of the plan to give him up.

Despite being a huge softie for dogs Mel has refrained from bringing any rescues home.

She said:”I previously had two dogs, Charlie and Crumpet, who now have sadly both passed.

“So, to some degree, that was a bit of a saving grace, I probably would have ended up with about 10 rescues otherwise.”

Mel has expressed a few things she now considers really important due to her line of work.

She said: “Just because your dog is friendly it doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for your dog to approach someone else’s.

“You could have a tiny Chihuahua, a puppy, a Rottweiler or even something bigger, like a Great Dane and they might be friendly, but if there is a dog on a lead it could be for medical reasons, for anxiety reasons, they could be in training or aggressive, your dog running over to other people and other dogs, is just not appropriate.

“That’s a huge message that I think does need to be out there.

Mel is also keen to spread awareness about the importance of micro-chipping, which is now a legal obligation.

In Swale, since January, 19 notices have been served, requiring a dog be microchipped and registered correctly within 21 days.

Failure to do so could result in the dog being microchipped without the owner’s consent and/or a fine of up to £500 upon conviction.

Mel said: “If you’re not sure about micro-chipping your pet, we as a council offer it as a free service and we will come to your home and do it.

“The last thing you want is if your dog runs away and I can’t get hold of you.

“Try not to let it slip your mind.”

To find out more about Swale Borough Council’s dog click here.