Rescue dog let down

look_after_the_pennies

redfraggle wrote: »

You should have to pay a donation for a rescue dog, how else do you think that they can continue to rescue and place dogs?

Its sounds a very unfortunate incident and of course it must be upsetting for you. However, as others have said, a dog is not a refundable item, its an unpredictable animal. Yes, it sounds like the charity may be rather lax with its procedures and if you want to punish them I'd go down this path with the local press, I'm sure you don't want others to suffer the way you have

However, in law, you have given a donation to the charity, and unless you signed something that links that donation to particular conditions you will have no recourse

if you had adopted a child that didn;t get on with your family, would you pursure the council in the same way?

I certainly wouldn't pay £175 for a rescue animal.

jimmyjimsgin

Thank you, yes I agree with paying for a rescue dog, that is why we chose a rescue dog in the first place in order to help out and give an unwanted dog a chance of a home. I agree totally with the donation. However I expected a little more then what I recieved. i expected the assessment to be a little bit more trustworthy, I dont believe that it was done thoroughly and the dog was rehomed to a home with no dogs in the end so if the assessment had been done correctly initially then the dog would not have suffered our rejection. Re a child , i know that the checks etc are hugely carefully carried out as they wish to get the right home for the child, we too wanted to be the right home for the dog. Having a dog in our home made it not the right home for that particular dog. The way that it has been handled by the rescue home is my issue, and I feel that they have not been very fair. My poor dog has suffered too with all this. I certainly wouldnt complain to the council if it was a child though, I would expect to know the child's history prior though. Thank you for your comments.

spidystrider

We had a very lucky escape with an animal charity concerning a dog we were going to adopt. We were assured that this dog would be ideal for our family. We were told he was very people orientated, loved other dogs and would make an ideal family pet. He showed no interest in us at all. Wanted to run at every dog when we were walking him, nearly took your hand off when we fed him a treat. The final straw was when he saw a dog being walked by a staff member and pulled so hard I lost grip of the lead. He ran right at the other dog and went for it's throat. The other handler was terrified and it took 3 people to get him off the other dog. There was no way that this dog was an ideal family pet. We chose to buy a pup instead.

pinkshoes

redfraggle wrote: »

You should have to pay a donation for a rescue dog, how else do you think that they can continue to rescue and place dogs?

Its sounds a very unfortunate incident and of course it must be upsetting for you. However, as others have said, a dog is not a refundable item, its an unpredictable animal. Yes, it sounds like the charity may be rather lax with its procedures and if you want to punish them I'd go down this path with the local press, I'm sure you don't want others to suffer the way you have

However, in law, you have given a donation to the charity, and unless you signed something that links that donation to particular conditions you will have no recourse

if you had adopted a child that didn;t get on with your family, would you pursure the council in the same way?

I think the point is more that the "charity" gave the family a dog with a violent temprament, when they clearly pointed out they wanted a dog and child friendly dog.

What if it had been the child it attacked?

Dogs don't just attack for no reason, they're usually trained to attack or have been mistreated. The charity should have known this, or done their research better.

Although it is a "donation", the charity should give the money back as a form of apology.

I would perhaps go down the route of reporting the charity to the RSPCA for not having the ability to assess the animals correctly. I know many animal charities have been inundated with dogs at the moment due to the credit crunch, but this is no excuse not to assess them properly and determine suitability.

jimmyjimsgin

wow, that sounds a nightmare too. Pup is definitely the answere with families etc to consider. It is such a shame isnt it?

spidystrider wrote: »

We had a very lucky escape with an animal charity concerning a dog we were going to adopt. We were assured that this dog would be ideal for our family. We were told he was very people orientated, loved other dogs and would make an ideal family pet. He showed no interest in us at all. Wanted to run at every dog when we were walking him, nearly took your hand off when we fed him a treat. The final straw was when he saw a dog being walked by a staff member and pulled so hard I lost grip of the lead. He ran right at the other dog and went for it's throat. The other handler was terrified and it took 3 people to get him off the other dog. There was no way that this dog was an ideal family pet. We chose to buy a pup instead.

jimmyjimsgin

I thank you for your message. It is exactly that, the charity gave us the wrong temperment and thank fully it didnt attack our child. The assessment has let everybody down, I am going to contact the RSPCA. will keep you posted.

pinkshoes wrote: »

I think the point is more that the "charity" gave the family a dog with a violent temprament, when they clearly pointed out they wanted a dog and child friendly dog.

What if it had been the child it attacked?

Dogs don't just attack for no reason, they're usually trained to attack or have been mistreated. The charity should have known this, or done their research better.

Although it is a "donation", the charity should give the money back as a form of apology.

I would perhaps go down the route of reporting the charity to the RSPCA for not having the ability to assess the animals correctly. I know many animal charities have been inundated with dogs at the moment due to the credit crunch, but this is no excuse not to assess them properly and determine suitability.

Paws

You poor thing! The rescue should have definitley given the money, especially as the chairman agreed it!

I had similar happen to me, although I didn't pay that much money for the dog and I didn't expect a refund. I do agree you should get your donation returned to you, especially in aggression cases like this, and the fact they sold the dog on too!

I personally think you should contact the chairman again, and also contact the charity commission. This kind of behaviour as expereinced with the woman that screamed at you is completely unacceptable.

hth

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/publications/cc47.asp

PM me if you want any help with this, in fact could do with more details like which rescue it is, whether they're just what we call dog dealers or not etc.

Mistymaid

I shouldn't really be responding to this, have loads to do, but:

In the last ten years or so things seem to have changed with charities. if you want to pull down funding I think there has to be a Trust (but don't quote me word for word) This means they can apply for funding from places like the lottery. Without it they are completely dependant on charitable donations and most can't survive.
Problem with this scenario is that it all gets a bit 'funding' driven, and at the end of the day you are looking for a good home for the right dog with the right family.

The other issue is that there are so many dogs in Ireland needing re-homing a lot of the rescues are bringing them in. Some will be street pick-ups, others from homes where their background can be established. Either way the rescue centres should be assessing these dogs professionally before they are re-homed and I suspect a lot of them aren't.

Bottom line is that you're unhappy, the poor dog is getting pillar to posted, and the charity gets paid twice. No, you don't have any recourse in law, it was a donation after all, but I would be phoning the sanctuary back and mentioning the Charities Commission to them.
Rescue 'anythings,' have a bad enough time of it as it is and these sanctuaries don't do the animals any good letting them get a reputation by their poor procedures.

Mistymaid

Ha Paws - I was writing while you were posting - great minds think alike!

jimmyjimsgin

Hi there, i have contacted the chairman and he now will not deal with my calls, the awful woman trustee has over ruled him as there are 3 trustees in total. all my correspondence has gone to him though as he is the one who agreed the refund originally.
also i have rang the charity commisson and I will probably ring them to set up an investigation on it as I was hoping that they would reply to my final letter but as they havent I feel that they are quite happy for me to go to court.
thank you for your message, I still feel rotten about the whole experience but the principal is niggling at me to see it through.

Paws wrote: »

You poor thing! The rescue should have definitley given the money, especially as the chairman agreed it!

I had similar happen to me, although I didn't pay that much money for the dog and I didn't expect a refund. I do agree you should get your donation returned to you, especially in aggression cases like this, and the fact they sold the dog on too!

I personally think you should contact the chairman again, and also contact the charity commission. This kind of behaviour as expereinced with the woman that screamed at you is completely unacceptable.

hth

PM me if you want any help with this, in fact could do with more details like which rescue it is, whether they're just what we call dog dealers or not etc.