Awful Adoption Experience - Advice?

WhiteDog

poppygreen,
is this dog any particular breed? I'm thinking maybe you could speak to a breed rescue, explaining the situation... Obviously all breed rescues are as overloaded as generic homes and no rescue is happy to take a dog originally coming from another rescue as everyone feels he/she should go back to the 'original' one but if you lay everything out as you've done here, maybe someone will be willing to help... As it looks like even if the original rescue takes the dog back, the history may repeat for this dog - with another unsuspecting person who won't be in a position to keep him.

Just, as someone pointed out earlier, don't go to RSPCA or Battersea (depending where you live)...

poppygreen

WhiteDog thanks. As worried as I am that they will do this to someone else and another dog, I've made it clear that I will provide full info on my experiences of the dog and expect them to advertise him honestly this time around. It didn't go down too well initially (lots of defensiveness etc) but I have been asked for my report so they can amend the ad before re-listing, so I'm hopeful they know they can't do it with him... I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it and will make noise if he is misrepresented again.

I don't know where I would stand contractually if I didn't take him back there?

krlyr

Adoption contracts are difficult to enforce legally. A contract cannot automatically override existing laws in relation to consumer rights, Currys couldn't make you sign a contract to say the TV you bought forever remained their property and could never be sold on.
Rescues try to work around it by asking for a donation rather than listing a purchase price, but I have heard that the legal definition of a donation is that it must be a voluntary donation of no set amount - so by making the donation a fixed value the rescue effectively makes it a purchase price, regardless of what they call it. Even moreso if the rescue was not a registered charity like many of the rescues out there.
The effort and costs of taking you to court over a contract that may or may not stand up in court are probably enough of a deterrent for them to not bother.

poppygreen

Thanks for all your input Krlyr - sorry I'm not so hot on these forums enough to respond properly yet! That and all your other posts are so useful, for me as well as anyone else who lands up in a similar situation and goes searching for information. There is suprisingly little out there when you Google this problem...

WhiteDog

You would probably breach the contract, as I guess you signed that you would bring him back there if a need arises, but to be honest, they breached it themselves in the first place...

However, I thought about it again, and realised that the original rescue would have right to reclaim the dog from the new one and then you wouldn't have really any entitlement to demand anything from them, including telling the truth in their advertising. And if you made noise then, they would accuse you of trying to solve the problem behind their back (and no one would listen to the real story). So I think you are doing the right thing! Hope it will work out... Keep us posted!

Padstow

poppygreen wrote: »

He's not a large dog, but as I say I am not comfortable managing this problem - I have to return him

His reaction when outside is so extreme that it is a frightening and worrying experience - for me as much as any other people or animals around. He has seemed close to passing out from the sheer length of his aggressive episodes and has no regard for his own safety even. Each episode is around 20 minutes and will happen each time he spots a person or dog - I live on a school route, popular doggy route, and public footpath in a national park - we have constant walking groups. It really is not an option for me.

I feel for you. I know when there has been another dog walked on the lanes recently as mine will then pull and behave so erratically looking for the long gone dog, there have been times when I've brought him home, it's just too tiring.

You didn't say (and I know it's difficult to at present,) whether this is a registered charity or not.
If not a charity this is what a solicitor told me. You have exactly the same rights as if you had bought a faulty washing machine.

Reject the dog in writing giving 7 days notice , (as you are scared of him) and return him. State in the letter exactly how much money you want returned including all expenses, even your petrol, dog food, stairgate etc and give them 14 days. Say if you don't receive it within 14 days, you will issue County Court Proceedings against them to recover your loss and without further notice.

You can do all that online with template letters. Google "small claims."

I know that the longer you leave it the harder it is to do. Luckily for mine he's wonderful in the home, as I would not live with an aggressive dog.

Padstow

poppygreen wrote: »

WhiteDog thanks. As worried as I am that they will do this to someone else and another dog, I've made it clear that I will provide full info on my experiences of the dog and expect them to advertise him honestly this time around. It didn't go down too well initially (lots of defensiveness etc) but I have been asked for my report so they can amend the ad before re-listing, so I'm hopeful they know they can't do it with him... I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it and will make noise if he is misrepresented again.

I don't know where I would stand contractually if I didn't take him back there?

I hope you've taken a copy of the ad.

poppygreen

Thanks so much Padstow. Unfortunately it is a registered charity. I have kept a copy of the ad, but it is looking likely that I will have to write this off. Given the attitude she has had throughout, I don't think for a second her morals will kick in and she will refund. Granted I haven't even mentioned it to her yet - I'm more concerned about getting the problem solved. But the 'donation' itself is a lot of money, forgetting all the other costs involved. I really dislike this concept of a 'donation' for a dog. It is not my idea of a donation - it is a transaction. I wouldn't have donated £150 otherwise. Really amazed to find there is so little regulation or means of recourse - I wonder how many hundreds if not thousands of people have experienced this kind of thing.

DitaVonTee

Just very quickly as I am supposed to be doing other things:o

I think you should have a word about the rescue with an advisory group called PAAG. If the rescue 'advertise' themselves in anyway, such as, newspapers and by ways of other means, such as internet sites, free-ads and the like, I think they will be very interested to hear about the rescue involved and what you are currently going through.
http://paag.org.uk/

It may also be of help to have a word over the phone with Trevor Cooper, who is a doglaw specialist, he may also be able to help advise you.
http://www.doglaw.co.uk/

Hope this helps.

poppygreen

DitaVonTee - Thank you so much! Really useful info. I'll post about how I get on with those. Thanks again