Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 19:36:20 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"] “In my opinion you don’t get quality puppies from rescue places here really”.[/quote]

The whole thing is but this is really the ingest of all.

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Wren — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 18:24:08 GMT

We are expected to respect the decisions of a chap who chose to call his daughter Ottoline. ...?

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 17:08:50 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"] I am there with my ten-year-old daughter Ottoline.[/quote]

Kind of sums up the kind of people that are getting these 'rescues'. It's ridiculous. My patter about risks of European dogs in the UK is getting tetchier each time I see one!

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Neil Wheadon — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 16:39:53 GMT

Here it is

On a cold but dry early morning I find myself at Pease Pottage Services in West Sussex, waiting apprehensively to collect a rescue puppy. I am there with my ten-year-old daughter Ottoline. We’ve been shopping the day before and have everything that we think a 15-week-old puppy might need: a lead, a collar, treats, a squeaky toy and a small dog bed.

At 9.10am a Transit van with Thompson Pet Transport written on the side pulls into the car park. About 20 or so people emerge from various cars in the parking area. It turns out that we have all come to collect dogs, all of which have come from Greece.

When I first set eyes on my dog I simply fell in love with her. She looked as if she was smiling

And it isn’t just our Transit that is in the car park. There is at least one more, surrounded by people waiting for dogs, because as it turns out getting dogs from abroad is becoming increasingly popular. Statistics show that 30,000 dogs arrived from the EU last year, brought by pet-adoption services, and according to the Kennel Club this number is rising annually.

It’s certainly true that since we decided to get our prenamed Agape (Greek for sacred love) I have bumped into several people who have also adopted dogs from Europe. Nearly all of them have told me with great pride — and, dare I say it, a slight smugness — about their travails when it comes to getting their dogs. One woman had driven to Kos and transported a puppy that she says was in danger of being “caught up” in the refugee crisis.

The latest trend, it seems, is for puppies from countries such as Hungary, Lithuania and Romania. According to an RSPCA report the number coming into the UK from Hungary rose between 2011 and 2015 from under 1,000 to nearly 4,000, while the figure for Romania increased from 8,000 to 12,000. A friend who is adopting a red setter tells me that Romania is renowned for having good-quality pedigree puppies available. “I was thinking of a husky,” she said. “But we fell in love with this beautiful setter.” She had researched getting a rescue puppy in the UK, but “In my opinion you don’t get quality puppies from rescue places here really”.

On the day in question we all queue up and Lynda Thompson, the owner of the van that transports animals on behalf of the charities that rehome them, asks me which dog I am here to get. “Agape,” I tell her. Lynda raises an eyebrow. My new dog is clearly already making her presence felt.

I start feeling nervous. She goes into the van and two seconds later a floppy-eared puppy explodes out of it. “I’ll put two leads on her I think,” Lynda says as the pup squirms around on the grass.

Agape launches herself at my daughter. “I love her,” Ottoline declares, and the next thing I know she and the puppy look like a mass of hair, all entangled with each other.

It’s not that we need another dog — we already have Peaches the puppy, who is now eight, and Mollie the collie, who is one and a half. But when I first set eyes on Agape two months ago I simply fell in love with her. She was on my friend’s Facebook page and had a face like a dog emoji — ears flapped down and a big brown splodge over one eye. She looked as if she was smiling. “Agape is looking for a Forever Home,” said the caption. Somehow I found myself answering that maybe I could offer her one.

Many puppies are brought to Britain from Hungary, Lithuania and RomaniaSTEPHEN SHEPHERD/PLAIN PICTURE

My friend had posted the picture to help another friend of hers, Mandy Abadani, who lives in Greece and is part of a network called Help Greek Strays that tries to find homes for dogs and cats. Agape had been found running in the road in the town of Porto Heli. She was about four weeks old, badly malnourished and in danger from, as my friend put it, “being run over or poisoned”. Apparently many strays in Greece are poisoned because it is a cheap way of getting rid of them.

So I found myself agreeing to take her and was told that she’d be transported to me in a few weeks. Everything for the stray dogs is paid for by private donations so Agape’s vet bills, wormers, food, vaccinations and everything else was covered. The only cost for me was £290 in transportation fees.

Of course I am not the only one to fall for a heart-tugging picture on social media. Nadine Kayser, a management consultant from London, founded the Wild at Heart Foundation after adopting a German shepherd cross from Romania. She first saw it by chance as she was scrolling through Instagram. The picture had been posted by a Romanian vet who found six puppies in a wood next to the body of their decapitated mother and was trying to rehome them.

For Kayser it was love at first sight. “I also have a rescue dog from the UK . But the issue of stray dogs and the cruelty towards dogs is a much bigger issue overseas,” she says. “I felt I needed to do something about it.”

Two years later her charity has helped to rehome 670 dogs, 80 per cent of them from abroad. Kayser believes that this growing trend is fuelled partly by social media — the charity has 13,000 followers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter — and by celebrities such as Ricky Gervais, who asked his 12.8 million Twitter followers to donate to a shelter in Romania when it was inundated with hundreds of dogs. It’s also partly due to the fact that adopting dogs from such charities comes with fewer restrictions.

The Wild at Heart Foundation has helped to rehome 670 dogs, 80 per cent of them from abroadGETTY IMAGES

“Many of the large UK-based charities can be more restrictive on who can adopt, making it hard for people with young children, full-time jobs or who live in flats and don’t have a garden,” Kayser says. “We have a rigorous matching-and-checking process, but we are more focused on how a potential adopter is going to adapt their situation rather than ruling them out from the start.”

Kate Sullivan, a company director from east London, adopted Luna, a German shepherd cross from Bosnia-Herzegovina, through the foundation. She had tried to adopt in the UK, but because she had a nine-year-old and a cat it proved difficult. “Then we went online and began looking at charities adopting from abroad, and we realised that we could take a dog from a hellhole and give it a loving home,” she says.

However, a spokesperson for Battersea Dogs & Cats Home sounds a note of caution. The charity is seeing increasing numbers of dogs being brought in for rehoming by people who have adopted them from abroad. “We’re fully aware that these animals often have a very tough existence abandoned on the streets. However, bringing some of them to the UK is not the solution and can cause considerable health risks,” she says.

So what of Agape? I know that some might question the sanity of getting a rescue dog whose history you don’t know. But she is such a gentle soul that I have no worries. Tearing around the garden she is a very sweet, playful dog who looks as if she somehow knows the fate that she has escaped. It just makes me happy to see her happy.

Dogs from abroad: the cost

Cyprus £450
Bosnia-Herzegovina £380
Romania £250
Greece £500
Puerto Rico £500

The prices include:
Travel
Puppy vaccines
Rabies vaccine
Worming
Microchip
Neutering/spaying if the dog is old enough
A pet passport

(Source: The Wild at Heart Foundation, a dog rescue charity)

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 16:20:08 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

[quote user="Anthony Dennison"]Worst cat flu I've ever seen. Normally they respond a bit to treatment. Nothing could make this cat better![/quote]Not that I would condone people doing this and would probably recommend euthanasia on welfare grounds, but in this case did your treatment include Virbagen Omega?

[/quote]

Yes, we did. Threw the kitchen sink at the case!

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Clare Tapsfield-Wright — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 16:11:54 GMT

Written to the Times even though I don’t live in Tunbridge Wells

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 16:09:49 GMT

Instead of preaching to the converted, as it were, have any of you who read this article written to The Times, offered The Times an article, or drawn the article to the attention of BVA and BSAVA?

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 15:52:17 GMT

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 15:33:26 GMT

[quote user="Tim Browning"]Has anyone else come across the ex pats in the Middle East who import kittens blinded, often bilaterally by cat flu out there? It seemed a largish network[/quote]

Not regularly, but seeing this reminded me of a case. We had one last year, came over from Egypt about no more than 6 months before we saw it. Think it was an adult cat (at least 12 months old) but horrific cat flu. Owner wanted every treatment possible, after a week of no improvement we eventually convinced the owner it was a welfare issue.

Worst cat flu I've ever seen. Normally they respond a bit to treatment. Nothing could make this cat better!

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Richard Carter — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 13:11:24 GMT

we have this on our web page - I have also pts aggressive dogs who lunge for the face, seen my share of Leishmania, tried to import medication via VMD import certificates, botched post neutering wounds etc to want to continue. Haven't even started on the 'documentation'

Importing of foreign dogs:

We do not support the current trend or fashion to 'rescue' dogs from foreign countries. We have already seen too many disaster stories of aggressive or diseased dogs to think anyone is acting in the dog's welfare by trying to give a home in the UK.

If you are thinking of rescuing a foreign dog, here are a few things to consider:

1. These are not pet dogs being sent over - many are semi-feral and are not socialised to what we are used to in the UK. They are often street dogs used to fighting to survive and this aggression is not going to go away when you bring them into your home.

2. There are diseases present in these countries that may be brought into this country and have the potential to affect you or other dogs in the UK. The worst being rabies which is NOT always visible when the dog is checked and if already incubating, the vaccine will fail to prevent a disease which may kill you or your family.

There are a number of dog diseases not present in the UK but which are common on the continent - tick borne diseases such as Babesia, Ehrlichia and Lymes may have a successful outcome if the vet recognises and can get the medication to treat in time. Leishmania is a fly transmitted disease present in the Mediterranian countries which causes a long term debilitation, losing weight and the treatment is prolonged, expensive and needs to be imported and worst of all the treatment only suppresses the disease - the dog is not cured. A 28 day course to start treatment costs about E100.00 if you can get it.

3. By taking on a foreign rescue, the supply is often a van at a motorway station. You may have in fact helped an industry of very dubious origins where there are already reports of vans stuffed with dogs from 'puppy' farms coming over and then the un'rescued' dogs being ditched along the road before the van returns for another load.

The need to help may have started for the best of reasons but the worst of care is already taking place.

4. If you wish to help the plight of dogs in foreign countries, please support charities trying to improve the situation in the indigenous country. Many vets go on 'spay' holidays organised by charities to help get the unwanted breeding under control and there are ways to support similar projects to get diseases under control and basic care in place.

5. Our own UK rescue dog picture is not much better - most rescue centres are overflowing and are desperate for dogs to be re-homed. Many dogs in rescue are the result of family break-ups or losing of accommodation so are closer in temperament to what you would expect and if you are working the reputable rescue organisations such as Battersea or Blue Cross, proper checks for health, aggression and suitability for rehoming will have been done. Even if you cannot take on a local dog needing rescue, most rescue centres welcome volunteers to help with fundraising, walking, fostering and socialising of the dogs.

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Tim Browning — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 13:00:34 GMT

Has anyone else come across the ex pats in the Middle East who import kittens blinded, often bilaterally by cat flu out there? It seemed a largish network

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Wren — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 12:56:16 GMT

[quote user="Julie Innes"]many of these dogs just aren't suitable as the pets they are being passed of as. I've got quite a few Romanian dogs in the practice. They are poorly socialised and wary, and it takes a lot of time and patience to get them to relax! I[/quote]

I vaccinate a couple of Romanian rescue dogs (some sort of shepherd breed) for an equine client when I do her horse vaccinations as she can't get them into the surgery. They are as feral as it is possible for dogs kept in a kennel/run to be, and extremely unpleasant to deal with. She is planning on 'rescuing' some more....

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Lesley Strong — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 12:32:13 GMT

Yes seen puppy from Romania recently with what looked to be distemper. According to owner charity refused any help and told her they had never had a case of it. Also had to euth Romanian "rescues" after they had savaged their new owners. Suppose it makes you sound much better person than one who rescues a boring old UK dog

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Anthony Dennison — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 11:04:14 GMT

We had one 'rescued' from Cyprus recently which presented with skin lesions. When the new owner contacted the 'rescue' centre (a single woman with an odd email address) she got told the dog actually had leishmania and they would send some allopurinol to her.

They didn't even tell her the dog had leishmania when she collected it!!!

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Martin Atkinson — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 10:47:14 GMT

[quote user="grumpyoldman"]

I could not agree more "racket" is or was the operative word:-

The victims were the bored middle class ladies that lunch.

[/quote]People with too much time/money who probably invest in other fad pastimes like celebrity diets/veganism, homeopathy, aromatherapy etc etc and are easy victims for the those who are prepared to rip them off,

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Iain Richards — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 10:34:07 GMT

It was a shockingly twee article. Even by the standards of the Times Weekend Section.

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Julie Innes — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 10:19:21 GMT

I heard this one too, Liz, shared by one of my vet friends on FB. I think I heard there were 200 dogs (of course!) but it wouldn't surprise me.

I'm sure a few of these rescues are somewhat genuine (which still doesn't make it a good idea, imho) but many of these dogs just aren't suitable as the pets they are being passed of as. I've got quite a few Romanian dogs in the practice. They are poorly socialised and wary, and it takes a lot of time and patience to get them to relax! I also saw a dog my client had imported from Cyprus. According to the client she was vaccinated and spayed, but as I examined her (another one that was not easily handled!) it transpired she was very pregnant. Had 7 pups a week later, and the rescue did not want to know. Pups temperament much like mum's, so difficult to home. My client ended up keeping 3!

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Liz w — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 09:31:31 GMT

I saw on a veterinary Facebook page that a lorry full of dogs from Bulgaria/Romania had arrived in the UK. One of the dogs had later been diagnosed with distemper, suggesting that there could be 100 odd dogs with distemper now distributed throughout the uk. Has anyone else heard about this - couldn't find any other sources.

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Virginia Campbell — Sun, 12 Nov 2017 22:09:03 GMT

www.youtube.com/watch

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

grumpyoldman — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 11:59:00 GMT

I could not agree more "racket" is or was the operative word:-

The victims were the bored middle class ladies that lunch. They see dogs with terrible shovel injuries , nails through feet, untreated fractures, in the Balkans and south eastern Europe on the internet. They fund raise thousands and send it to the rescuers in these locations. Some of these dogs actually get shipped over, only to need euthanasia on arrival. They are then replaced by a new horror victim with equally harrowing injuries. I think that in some of these situations the donations are being used as a nice little earner, and some of these injuries are being created for dramatic effect by those involved at source.

RE: Times today Rescue dogs from overseas

Niall Taylor — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 10:26:28 GMT

Couldn't agree more, but it is a major source of revenue for some nowadays and it's almost impossible to criticise those who do it! I likewise detest the whole 'rescuing dogs from abroad' racket.

Niall