Sometimes going on a dog walk means getting in a car, having your dog jump in and driving to the nearest park for a nature walk.
But this year, due to the coronavirus, dog parents in Wales have had to face tougher restrictions that meant no driving to walk a dog.
A man in Wales was ordered in court last week to pay over £800 for traveling from Carmarthen (in the south of Wales) to Pembrokeshire (further southwest) to walk his dog during lockdown, reports WalesOnline.
The man was stopped by police during the first national lockdown when Wales was subject to travel restrictions.
At the time, traveling was limited to ‘essential reasons’, while there was also a general five-mile restriction in place.
On May 4, the man, Keiran Lee Davies-Evans, put his dog in his car and headed west. He was then pulled over by police carrying out lockdown stop-checks on the A477 outside Amroth, near the Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire border.
Davies-Evans was found to have “without reasonable excuse, during the emergency period, left or remained away from the place where he was living, (and) namely travelled from his home address in Carmarthen to Pembrokeshire in order to walk a dog”. At the Llanelli Magistrates’ Court on November 12, it was decided that Davies-Evans be fined £660 for the offense. He was also ordered to pay a surcharge of £66 and costs of £85, making a total of £811.
The UK entered its second national lockdown on 5 November. However, the Welsh government had instituted a number of area lockdowns prior to the second national lockdown and had entered into a short ‘firebreak’ lockdown from October to November to help stop the spread of the pandemic.
The firebreak lockdown meant businesses closed and people were told to stay home.
On 9 November, the firebreak lockdown ended and travel in Wales was permitted again, which meant dogs could join their humans in car rides to go on nature walks within Wales.