Councils across Oxfordshire have hit back at animal welfare groups who claimed they might not be able to deal with 24-hour care for stray dogs.

District councils took over responsibility for dealing with lost dogs from the police on Monday.

Oxford City Council, West Oxfordshire District Council and Cherwell District Council have all gone beyond the minimum requirements, by arranging out-of-hours collection services for the animals.

This is despite the councils not yet receiving money from the Government to provide facilities for the collection of stray dogs after normal working hours.

Each council has contracted an outside kennel service to collect strays, because of their concern for animal welfare.

A West Oxfordshire District Council spokesman said: "The funding for this work was only to cover the cost of councils providing an acceptance point for strays.

"We arrange collection on top of that, because the public are unlikely to risk keeping the dog overnight or trying to get it into a car to take to a kennel."

The RSPCA in Oxfordshire and Burford-based Blue Cross have both expressed concern that dogs would not be cared for by councils.

An RSPCA spokesman said: "Not an awful lot of money has been allocated and it isn't enough to deal with it for 24 hours a day.

"We're also worried the money isn't ringfenced, so we can't be sure it will not go on other budgets."

The Government has promised an extra £4m will be given to councils to pay for providing acceptance points for dogs to be handed in.

This amounts to about £10,000 for each council.

They have been told this money will not be paid until they receive their annual local government settlement, which could take up to a year.

However, the councils insisted this was not hampering their ability to deal with strays.

A Cherwell District Council spokesman said: "If there is a stray dog, a dog warden will collect it, but the dog will be collected by a council agent outside of business hours."