Buy a Dog a Day of Life for £4

hethmar

Many people dont realise that every year 8000 dogs are put to sleep because they have not been claimed from council stray pounds after 7 days.

Rochdale Dog Rescue are a group of volunteers (all over the country) who have an arrangement with one council pound to take the dogs who are due to be pts and volunteers transport them in relays to approved rescue kennels anywhere in the country where they can have the chance of finding a new permanent loving home.

Some of the dogs are in very very poor condition and a few sadly die shortly after we take them out of the pound as our vet will find they have incurable terminal illnesses or have been abused and have internal injuries that cant be cured. Its heartbreaking but the majority of the time each of these little souls finds a rescue place and finally a home where they are loved, probably for the first times in their lives.

If a rescue kennel place cant be found for a dog then we try to get a foster home for them or pay for them to stay in emergency boarding kennels until we can find them a rescue place. We are charged a reduced price of £4 each day for the emergency kennelling but sometimes we have as many as 12 dogs in them and as we get no funds except donations and whatever we can raise between us, it can be very worrying when there are more dogs waiting in the pound and no spaces or funds available.

God willing, somehow something usually sorts itself out BUT if you can visit the site, volunteer in any way, offer funds for vet bills or emergency boarding, we and of course these poor dogs will be most grateful.

We have various little fundraisers, such as buying a day for a dog and marking it on the calendar, perhaps in the name of a loved one - or you can name a dog and put a donation in the pot if your name is chosen for a pound dog (we dont like them just having pound numbers). We have just had a guess the number of miles that the volunteer transporters drive in the month of November. It was nearly 3000 - and they all do it for love.

No one on RDR receives a penny of the donations, though sometimes the transporters petrol costs are paid.

Please have a look, join the forum, buy a lotto card, put forward fund raising ideas, buy some christmas cards - anything that can give these animals a second chance of a loving home.

http://www.rochdale-dog-rescue.com/urgentdogs.html

Many thanks.

Froglet

Hethmar,what a wonderful charity,.Have you posted this in the charity section also?

foreign_correspondent

Please do have a look at some of the lovely dogs, ideal pets who are sentenced to be PTS. Sadly there are dogs like this in pounds up and down the country. Good luck Hethmar, it is a tragic situation.

Yorkshire is also very overloaded at the moment, and our local pound has 3x as many dogs going in as normal at the moment.

Donating money does save a life in the short term, and is a great thing to do.

But - if you cant afford to donate but could volunteer some of your time to offer transport, a foster home, or to do homechecks locally you could sign up with 'rescue helpers unite'.

However, the main things people can do to help in the long term are (IMHO):

- Do not buy a pup from a breeder, it just encourages them to breed more, when the country is already over run with dogs. You may well look after your pup but what about the other 6 or 8 or more from the same litter? - don't breed and buy whilst pound dogs die.

- If you take on a pup, expect it to behave like a pup - to need constant attention, to whine, cry, bark, annoy the neighbours, chew your best shoes and the remote contol, pee and poo on your carpet, and possibly have an experimental nibble or two on your three piece suite, as well as pull on the lead, nip people and eat unsuitable things. He or she will do all of this, and its your job to gently and consistently teach them different!

- Don't take on a dog (any dog) unless you have researched it carefully, thought it through and can afford the cost and deal with the commitment, not just this year, but for the next 15 years, or more potentially - what will you be doing in 15 years time?

- Consider carefully whether your lifestyle is really suitable for a dog at the moment -for example, if you are out at work full time and cant afford a dog walker, it probably is not. Every dog needs stimulation, training, companionship, exercise and the opportunity to toilet when needed!

- If you really want a dog, rescue one. Every dog that is homed from a rescue improves not only the situation for that dog, but for the one that takes its place from the pound instead of being PTS.

- If you rescue a dog, still do your research very carefully. If you aren't a keen walker and/or into dog training/agility/flyball dont get a working strain springer or collie!! If you want a chilled out placid dog, look at more sensible older dogs (5 plus), if you want a lazy dog, get a greyhound!!

- Always Spey, Neuter and Microchip. This prevents unwanted pups and your dog becoming an unidentifiable stray, liable to end up in a pound. It also makes your dog less attractive to thieves. Insure your dog, or keep money aside in a bank account for vet bills.

I guess there are others, but I feel these are the key, prectical things people who care about dogs can do, and encoruage others to do.

hethmar

Froglet wrote: »

Hethmar,what a wonderful charity,.Have you posted this in the charity section also?

To be honest froglet, I wasnt sure if it was allowed at all to post things like this. Re the charity board, sadly we arent a registered charity as we have looked into it and we dont have a turnover high enough to qualify (ridiculous isnt it!) which means we cant even apply for lottery money . We just donate our own money via gifts or the little competitions and auctions we have on there all the time and some of the dog sites also give us donations now and then. Its very hard going to be honest, but how can you stop trying to help save them? I cant understand how people can abandon them - so often you get in real oldies and wonder just what their lives have been like. And the ones that have been beaten and hurt - how can people be so damn cruel and heartless.

Im fortunate in being hundreds of miles away from the pound. I feel sorry for the volunteers on the spot who have to go into the pound and take the photos etc. It must be so much worse for them, particularly when we think we have saved a dog and the vet finds it is terminally ill.

I used to fund raise for the big charities but got disillusioned. I then just used to donate on a regular basis to several of the small rescues on the net including RDR. One day I saw a little dog in the pound pictures who was looking at me and saying take me home - lol - so I paid for a couple of weeks emergency boarding for him and then he went to a rescue in Bedfordshire. After hed been neutered and chipped and got rid of most of his kennel cough - though he was still terribly thin - we went down to meet him with our disabled dog (disabled at birth). Thank goodness, they loved each other immediately and we brought Diggs home with us that day. They are wonderful companions and he is such a good boy, I cant imagine why anyone would have thrown him out. He had obviously lived outside all his life as it took 4 months to housetrain him and he looked so upset every time he made a mistake. Even now bless him, we have a quarter acre garden but he will walk back to the patio and poo on the stones! Bless him, he makes us larf every day he is so funny and he has given my disabled dog such confidence too.

Froglet

Both my dogs were rescues.They lived to over 15,andthe second one,Jess we had to PTS in March this year.She was struggling with arthritis,had been on medication for over 2 years and losing weight so the time was right.I cried buckets for each of them.How on earth can people discard a dog,not just when old ,but at any age? It is beyond comprehension.

I am waiting till i feel the time is right for another but it will come and of course it wll be another rescued dog.I wish they could stop breeding dogs altogether.

stevetodd

I've sponsored 2 dogs for 3 days, hopefully others will too. For the sake of a few beers and a takeaway you can save a dogs life.

If you know someone who loves dogs why not sponsor a dog for a few days on their behalf as their xmas present? Or maybe buy them a tee shirt from their shop?

hethmar

Many thanks Steve, most grateful - when I packed up smoking, this was one of the things that benefited from the extra money I had in my pocket A packet of fags is more than a days kenneling - makes you think.

mandy2901

Another way people can help is by joining rescue helpers unite, a group of volunteers and rescues who help to get these animals and more to safety, RHU has been goin less that a year and their wonderful volunteers have helped 1137 animals!!! we can only do more with your help!!

http://rescuehelpersunite.forumotion.com/forum.htm

Mandy x (ayrshiregal)

stevetodd

mandy2901 wrote: »

Another way people can help is by joining rescue helpers unite, a group of volunteers and rescues who help to get these animals and more to safety, RHU has been goin less that a year and their wonderful volunteers have helped 1137 animals!!! we can only do more with your help!!

http://rescuehelpersunite.forumotion.com/forum.htm

Mandy x (ayrshiregal)

What a coincidence I joined this very website just a few days ago and I am doing my first homecheck for them this Saturday

foreign_correspondent

Cool, i joined RHU recently too and helped transport a staffie x bokxer girl who was past her PTS date from the pound to foster last week. She was not much more than a pup, about 12 months old and a cracking looking, friendly, fun dog!

hethmar

Thats the thing though, most of the dogs are gorgeous, how on earth anyone could just leave them in the pound is just a puzzle.