Imported Rescues

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.......Dare I open this potential can of worms? But I was just curious as to everyone's thoughts on imported rescue dogs from Spain/Romania/Greece etc., Facebook in particular seems full of them nowadays.

(Apologies if there's been thread/s on this that I've just missed, I only come in this part of the forum about twice a year at the very most! ?)
 
Cloball

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Annette4 said:
I can see why people who struggle with UK rescues then go for one abroad if they want to rescue as opposed to buy if I'm honest. Whether I think they're right or that foreign street dogs are the right dogs for those people are a different matter.
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Our neighbors have a lovely dog they have got from abroad because rescue centre here wouldn't consider them as they both work. Again I am not sure how I feel about it but I don't think it's a straight forward as saying there are needy dogs here. I would love to rescue but I work so would not be suitable for a UK rescue as far as I am aware.
 
CorvusCorax

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I'd prefer resources were employed into education and welfare in the countries of origin and that people stopped making an industry and a virtue out of foreign rescue.

In many cases, transporting a feral street dog over road and sea/by air over thousands of miles and expecting it to fit into a busy modern household, usually with novice owners, is just cruel/unfair/projecting human emotion onto a dog. There's a reason so many of them run.
JMO
 
Nicnac

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Completely against but understand those who want to rescue and are turned down by UK rescues due to work. Hopefully with so many now working from home this will remedy itself.

Lots of virtue signalling by foreign rescuers and agree with CC -the number of FB posts saying dog has run and don't approach are heartbreaking.
 
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Nicnac said:
Completely against but understand those who want to rescue and are turned down by UK rescues due to work. Hopefully with so many now working from home this will remedy itself.

Lots of virtue signalling by foreign rescuers and agree with CC -the number of FB posts saying dog has run and don't approach are heartbreaking.
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what does virtue signalling mean?

I do agree with all these responses though! Glad it's not just me; I'm on a 'Pet Rehome UK' facebook group and yet 70% of the dogs, if not more, are abroad. :/
 
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ester

ester

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you've missed it :p

my bugbear is rescues telling rehomers that the dogs are vaccinated/tested while not making them aware of how leish works. - and that there is no telling people who are pro some of these rescues how leish works, they seem a bit brainwashed that it's all fine.

that and how many bugger off in service station car parks, or go missing within days of being in their new home.
 
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I have a Spanish rescue. Not what we were looking for. I was looking for an older female medium sized dog. I could not find one that would be ok in our family with our little old jrt. A friend of a friend kept offering me the Spanish dog she was fostering (she had 4 of her own) who had been chosen online by a family which changed their minds whilst he was midair between Malaga and Gatwick. He went to emergency foster. We took him as he was here and needed a home and got on with my other dog and was kind of cute. 3 Years on he's a great little odd dog. He might be yorkie x JRT?? or similar. We love him and he has worked out well but not what we would have chosen and not the best way to get a dog. We love him anyway.
 
millikins

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I have a Cyprus rescue dog and I am most certainly not a virtue signaller, but thanks for the gratuitous insult. My riding instructor has 2 and another RC member also has one, all the same charity, all lovely well adjusted dogs. Charity offer support and have a "returns" policy if circumstances change. I would not be considered by any UK charity as I work, when I was looking I found the UK charities mainly have greyhounds and staffies, neither breed appeals and I wanted a bitch, few of them available. I think the neutering message has worked very well in this country, there seem very few "happy accidents" around any more. I doubt very much if mine is a street dog possibly a dumped dog or a lost dog, she's friendly, adores men, was house trained and had not had puppies. If I could afford doggy day care for 2 I'd have another in an instant.
 
splashgirl45

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it really annoys me that these so called rescues( are advertising dogs that you cant even go and see. you have to decide from a picture and once you say you will have it they then get it sent over... i feel sorry for many of them as they arrive here petrified and quite a few end up bolting because they are not used to being in a household..i agree with an earlier poster, the money would be better used by neutering in their own country and education regarding dogs welfare.....i love dogs and have mostly managed to have dogs all of my life but only because the dog could be with my mum all day while i was at work. if i didnt have that arrangement i would not have had a dog while i was full time working. it seems these days everyone has to have everything they want even if it is to the detriment of the animals...some people near to me got a dog, they both work full time and surprise surprise the dog is destructive in the house while they are out so it gets put in a crate ,let out for a wee at lunchtime and then back in the crate..poor little girl, one day no one came home and the next door neighbours could hear her crying, she was left for 10 hours!!!!!!! luckily the neighbours are quite friendly with them and told them in no uncertain terms that if they left her again they would report them. he is now supposed to be building a kennel and a run in the garden, not ideal but better than being shut in a crate...
 
Sussexbythesea

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millikins said:
I have a Cyprus rescue dog and I am most certainly not a virtue signaller, but thanks for the gratuitous insult. My riding instructor has 2 and another RC member also has one, all the same charity, all lovely well adjusted dogs. Charity offer support and have a "returns" policy if circumstances change. I would not be considered by any UK charity as I work, when I was looking I found the UK charities mainly have greyhounds and staffies, neither breed appeals and I wanted a bitch, few of them available. I think the neutering message has worked very well in this country, there seem very few "happy accidents" around any more. I doubt very much if mine is a street dog possibly a dumped dog or a lost dog, she's friendly, adores men, was house trained and had not had puppies. If I could afford doggy day care for 2 I'd have another in an instant.
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That’s been my experience. I’ve got a Greek rescue was dumped in a litter of puppies and was 8 months old when I got him and he’s bloody amazing. An absolutely gorgeous dog who’s much more obedient than most dogs I know. I’m complimented all the time about his obedience from strangers and his happy friendly disposition. I’ve got half a dozen friends who got their dogs from the same rescue and they’re all lovely dogs. Of course amongst all the dogs some have issues as with any rescue and even ones from reputable breeders frankly and some are older but there is back-up if things don’t work out and a lovely FB group where people share their experiences and ask for advice if needed. If I wanted a second dog I wouldn’t hesitate to get one from the same rescue.
 
FinnishLapphund

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If someone meets a dog in need during their holiday abroad, and decides to take the dog with them home, I don't have a problem with it.

But otherwise I'm a bit sceptical about importing rescues. Both because there seems to be too many irresponsible rescuers, who doesn't look further than counting how many they've rescued, and because I have a feeling there is a type of unholy dependability between some rescuers, and the irresponsible breeders who keeps providing them with new dogs in need of rescuing.

Although, especially the later could also fit on some of the rescue organisations who isn't importing their rescues.

Note, I'm not against all rescuers/rescue organisations.
 
FinnishLapphund

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millikins said:
I have a Cyprus rescue dog and I am most certainly not a virtue signaller, but thanks for the gratuitous insult. My riding instructor has 2 and another RC member also has one, all the same charity, all lovely well adjusted dogs. Charity offer support and have a "returns" policy if circumstances change. I would not be considered by any UK charity as I work, when I was looking I found the UK charities mainly have greyhounds and staffies, neither breed appeals and I wanted a bitch, few of them available. I think the neutering message has worked very well in this country, there seem very few "happy accidents" around any more. I doubt very much if mine is a street dog possibly a dumped dog or a lost dog, she's friendly, adores men, was house trained and had not had puppies. If I could afford doggy day care for 2 I'd have another in an instant.
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If you're not going around unsolicitedly insisting on telling everyone that you rescued your dog from torture, and certain death in Cyprus, then you don't fit the description of virtue signalling, and I don't understand why you're feeling insulted?
 
scats

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I think people need to be really careful and do their homework first. Friend got a Romanian rescue dog a few months ago. She has an unneutered bitch at home and the rescue told her the dog had been neutered. Arrives and Male dog showing an awful lot of interest in her bitch. She contacted the rescue to confirm that the dog had been neutered and after a lot of very vague responses, she gets told that actually, no, he hasn’t. Some more digging around has uncovered a few other shocking things about this charity.
 
FinnishLapphund

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Amymay said:
Pretty obvious if a dog has been neutered ??‍♀️
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Retained testicles? Long-haired dog, an owner who is used to having bitches, and not thinking about groping around in the nether regions of a male?

We had a male rescue cat many years ago, castrated by the rescue, no visible testicles. Spring came, and suddenly he started to mark out his territory indoors, and wanted to be out looking for girls all the time.
Turned out the rescue's veterinarian had only found one testicle, and not bothered opening him up to find the other one.
 
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I know someone who got a small dog from a Romanian rescue, no idea what she paid for it but she was a novice owner and ended up scared from him. He (understandably) had food aggression issues but owner's mother could make him wait and feed him no bother. She also said that he had separation anxiety and as she worked full time he wasn't doing too well being in the house alone, if I remember right her mum went and checked on him during the day so he wasn't totally alone but still not great.

Maybe there is something in (dons tin suit) not rehoming all dogs to a household that works full time? I understand why some UK rescues operate on this basis and I know it's easier these days with the influx of dog walkers and everyone's situation is different with shifts/flexi time/taking dog to work etc but on the whole "some" rescue dogs, and I'd argue a lot from abroad, probably need additional support.

Romanian person rehomed the dog and then proceeded to slag off the person she had rehomed/given/sold him too (no idea if original "charity" were involved or informed in the rehoming of him). I only know what the person told me herself but I did feel very sorry for the wee dog, he had a lot to deal with in a very short space of time.

I knew someone else who "rescued" a dog from Thailand by paying a lot of money to bring it over... She argued that it was her money to do as she pleased and if that's what she wanted to spend it on then that's up to her. The dog lived outside in a fenced yard around a 4 stable block and had access to one of the stables and she had another dog already so it had company. I don't think she ever did any training and it ran away/had no recall so was always on the lead or a lunge line when out of the pen. It lived in the house overnight when owners were back from work. The dogs didn't get walked very often, definitely not weekly but seemed to keep active enough in their yard and would run about the big garden (on lunge line) to get throw toys. It was a nice wee dog and seemed happy enough, I think the outdoor option definitely worked for it and that it stayed sort of remotely on a horse property there weren't neighbours/kids/other dogs etc to stress it out, it pretty much had peace and quiet apart from a handful of liveries going about.
 
CorvusCorax

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How was the dog given a vet check or microchip scanned at the port if it was too nervous to be checked for testicles? The mind boggles, and this sort of thing is why I have massive ethical concerns about the whole foreign rescue business.

ETA at one port I use, you have to bring the dog into the terminal, queue up amongst the rest of the passengers, buses full of school trips etc, and scan at the counter. I wonder how that would work with a van full of traumatised dogs?! The airport is more stressful again.
 
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Serbian, Macedonian and Bosnian dogs coming into Romania with their chips cut out and being re-registered as Romanian Dogs all non compliant obviously. Have a read of Natalies post and how she is hounded and threatened by the rescues she is exposing, lots of money to be made and its all very corrupt.

Trading standards,DEFRA & APPA all aware and some dogs are seized and quarantined but not nearly enough, they dont have the resources or the will sometimes. Im all in favour of trap neuter release in these countries and some rescues to their credit are doing that but some rescues are taking dogs that were never on the streets in the first place and some are even being bred for them.

So many dogs go missing over here in the first week of arriving, its a big bugbear of mine, dogs being adopted out with no assessment and no RBU from the rescue. If you want a foreign dog do your research, talk to other adopters from that rescue and get feedback.
 
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Pearlsasinger said:
A definite can of worms!

I can't understand why people support the organisations, many of which are just money-making scams, when there are plenty of dogs already here in need of rehoming.
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But you will only be eligible if you are stinking rich, retired and at home all day.....that's why people go to abroad rescues, I'm not saying that's a good thing. but rescues in this country need to get with the times and stop refusing decent people a dog. A farmer friend wanted a spaniel type to accompany him on the farm all day out and about, he was refused as he didn't have a fence around his 1500 acres......he went and bought a puppy and that dog now has a fab life while a rescue dog probably get's 20 mins in the park with a more "suitable" owner.
 
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