I never thought I would say this, but there is quite a good article in the DM!

foreign_correspondent

.. and by Liz Jones too, who I am not at all fond of - but credit where credit's due!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1270220/As-pet-hour-LIZ-JONES-asks-What-s-going-wrong-animal-loving-Britain.html

hethmar

Yep, pity she didnt mention RDR though Though she does mention Wiccaweys.

And sadly, the money raised will no doubt go mostly to a lot of the big rescues who get donations anyway and not the small volunteer run ones getting the dogs out of the pounds in the first place and who deperately need funds as they use their own money to do the work.

Jellicat

Need to stop reading stuff like this, I'm bawling like a baby. I do agree with some of the comments though, I think sometimes rescues are too strict with rehoming. I think a lot more people would adopt but some rescues are so unwilling to compromise.

hethmar

I think she has also confused people a bit in that pound dogs cant normally be placed with a private home, they usually have to be taken to a rescue to be assessed, medically checked, neutered and chipped.

Rev

God this just breaks my heart. I'd have them all if I had the room.

I tried to rescue a dog last year and had zero luck, apparently not a single rescue in my area had a dog that was suitable to be homed with both kids under 5 and cats. And every time I saw a dog I was interested in (I wanted a staffy) I was given a reason my home wouldn't be suitable. I think my favourite was 'You have a kennel, how can we be sure the dog won't be kept outside constantly'. Honestly, I gave up after that and got a puppy. I honestly felt like the rescues I spoke to weren't even remotely interested in finding homes for dogs.

I consider myself a good owner, my dogs are chipped, insured, neutered (Well one is, the other will be soon), trained, I put a lot of thought and effort into their diet, they get all the exercise they need, they've very rarely left alone and they've never so much as seen the inside of the kennel! And still, according to the rescues I wasn't suitable.

One rescue wanted to pick a dog for us based on what we wanted and bring the dog to us, if they had more than one dog that fit the criteria, she'd bring them all. Apparently that would be easier than us going up and seeing the dogs! How would it be easier for someone to bring an unknown number of dogs halfway across the city than it would be for us to pop up and see them? Apparently they did it this way so as to not upset the dogs?

LOL, Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant, but it was a frustrating time. I understand they need to be strict with their guidelines but I honestly got the impression they just weren't interested.

CFC

They don't want any potential liability or bad publicity about dog bites child I guess

magpiedawn

I read and cried, my next dog will be a rescue dog, my daughter always has rescue dogs staffies even before they were popular, i will rescue too but my dog of choice is gsd i have them now and i am sure i can in the future rehome a rescue one. the article really drove it home

gettingready

I have been there myself - trying to get a resue dog and being refused by every single place I have contacted so it is no news to me.

I live in a flat - no way I should have a dog.
I work - no way I should have a dog.

Ended up getting my Zara from the infamous Gumtree.

She must be the most unhappy dog on earth though - she lives in a 2 bed, first floor flat and I am at work all day.

She must be so much worse with me than she would have been in a shleter, in a cage with minimum human contact, or with some low life who breads from her twice per year but hey.. has a garden and is at home.

Instead my poor dog eats Orijen, is insured, spayed and microchipped, after 1 hour mornign walk she sleeps on my bed waiting for the dog walker to take her out with a nunch of dogs at lunchtime for 1-2 hours and then sleeps again till I get home around 5 and we go to the woods again.

Poor thing, isn't she?

Yes, I am being sarcastic here but that is because the policies and what goes on behind the scenes here in UK drives me up the wall. And also the ignorance of some people who believe blindly in all the good work those rescue places do - after all, there is no stray dogs runnign on the streets in Uk so it MUST be good? Yeah, right.......

Maybe this will wake some people up too - all those "no distuction" policies are crap too. Their "assesement" of dogs is crap - dogs are being put down for the slightest thing. All the time.

hethmar

I would point out again, that "pounds" are NOT rescue centres. The dogs are put into pounds by the council where they are given 7 days to be reclaimed.

I am a volunteer with Rochdale Dog Rescue - a group of volunteers (all unpaid) who work from day 1 that the dog enters a local pound to find them a good and safe rescue and then transport the dogs in relays sometimes hundreds of miles to those rescues where they will be able to find forever homes after assessment and medical treatment.

If anyone really wants to help, there are other groups all over the country doing this - but if you can help with transporting, publicising, doing fund raising or anything else please check out Rochdale Dog Rescue site and google for any other groups doing the same type of work. The volunteers are all over the country - you dont have to be local to Rochdale!

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

hethmar

Oh and I thought Id add this, in case anyone was worried about the old staffie covered in paint in that article - from one of the volunteers on Rochdale Dog Rescue:

" I can update re: Olive who gets a mention... the old blind staffiex who had been painted with cream emulsion paint by some nob...on Tuesday I took her from springfield down to Toddington services and she is now hopefully cosied up in a nice foster home. I couldn't believe it when I saw her whoever did that to such a lovely old dog has a serious problem. Hopefully the article will generate some interest in a few of the dogs. "

Rev

gettingready wrote: »

Yes, I am being sarcastic here but that is because the policies and what goes on behind the scenes here in UK drives me up the wall. And also the ignorance of some people who believe blindly in all the good work those rescue places do - after all, there is no stray dogs runnign on the streets in Uk so it MUST be good? Yeah, right.......

Maybe this will wake some people up too - all those "no distuction" policies are crap too. Their "assesement" of dogs is crap - dogs are being put down for the slightest thing. All the time.

This is pretty much the reason it irks me when anyone mentions getting a puppy and about 30 people post how immoral they are getting a pup because there's so many dogs in rescue.

They don't seem to realise that there's perfectly good homes out there, and a huge amount of responsible pet owners being turned away for the most ridiculous reasons.