who regulates 'rescue homes'?

L&M

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I recently posted about going to see a Beagle x at a local rescue centre.

The dog was in a pretty sorry state, but what really shocked me was the premises of the rescue home. It was so run down and there were dogs shut in stables everywhere, with no proper facilities such as runs/kennels that I could see.

The lady running it was a obviously a very caring person. However she seemed desperate for me to have the dog there and then. It was booked in for vetinary work this week, and having told me the home was £80k in debt, imagine she wanted me to take on the burden of the bill. She also told me they have a policy of never putting an animal down, which although a hugely admirable one, did make me wonder if they did, they would have more money to spend on the more healthy animals, and improving their facilities.

The poor dog in question had cataracts and an obvious infection in both eyes, an untreated hernia, was overweight (she said she fed all rescuse ad lib?!), with terrible teeth. My heart had to rule my head and turn her down as felt she had too many exisiting physical problems for me to take her on.

I feel terrible slating somone who is trying to do their bit for animal welfare, but have to question who regulates these centres, as can't imagine this one would pass.
 
Well you have council run pounds where animals have a time limit before rehoming/PTS and what you see is what you get when you take an animal home/registered charities, which rarely put physically health animals down but are more choosy with home checks/registered kennel businesses who help out with fosters or rescues, and then people who take in animals and rely on donations and call themselvs 'rescues'. Then at the extreme end of the scale there are 'hoarders' who never turn animals away, fill their homes and get in over their heads and turn into cruelty cases.
 
They are all checked and (i think) licenced by the local county or town council. If you have an issue they would be your first point of call.
 
Sadly I think there are quite a few people like this who call themselves rescues but are imo purely animal collectors. Is it worth having a word with your local dog warden and telling him your concerns?
Would you be prepared to travel up to North Shropshire, there are a couple of pretty good rescues up here.
 
Yes MurphysMinder, we are on the south shrops/welsh borders so are happy to travel to North shrops.

If you have any recommendations I would be very grateful.
 
Rescues are exempt from licensing but may need planning permission.

Many are good, some are misguided or hoarders, some are commercial scammers.
 
I know people (including myself :o) can be very critical of the RSPCA but their centre at Gonsal Farm, Dorrington, Shrewsbury is actually pretty good, I know many of the staff there and they are brilliant.

They are actually starting to challenge the thing of not rehoming dogs to homes where people work 9-5 and will now consider these homes if you can prove a dog walker or relative is coming every day, a huge step forward for the big name rescues. :)
 
Oops forgot about Gonsal Farm. I have to say I met an RSPCA lady (presumably from there) at the show on Sunday, I was quite impressed that she not only recognised Pickle as a heeler but also recognised his heeler smile and didn't think he was threatening to savage her.:p
 
Was it a lady with very short spikey grey hair by any chance? Winnie the agility terrier was also there on Sunday, long legged Parson JRT type, with a lady with short mousy blonde hair. :)

They are pretty good at the centre, I get reports whenever they have a sibe in so I can put the word out, we managed to track down the breeder of one last week and he's thankfully gone back to them instead of languishing in kennels. Not a day too soon either, he was due to have his balls off ready for rehoming! :eek:

I'd already taken photos of him for the rehoming pages so here is the handsome Zeus. :D

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She was slim, and had mousey/blonde hair, not sure if it was short or in a pony tail. I was having a rather stressful afternoon with the terrible two playfighting their way round the show so not very observant. Freya thought she was very nice, flopped on her back for a tummy rub.
 
To the OP with the concerns you have you need to inform the local environmental health department of the council and they will carry out an inspection .
 
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