Aibu to be massively panicking about a pup I bought yesterday? European passport

[Ohforgodsake000]

Very stupidly bought a dog yesterday who came with a pet passport issued in Latvia.
All vaccines were stamped in the book and micro chipping also in there.
Thought nothing Of it until I mentioned to a police friend who said this is one of the biggest scams going and he probably doesn't have any vaccines including rabies and threadworm which he could now transfer to my kids.
I feel sick with worry.
What a stupid idiot I am.
No vets will see him as he's not yet registered and its now emergencies only.

Are they racist?

These are the countries that were declared rabies-free: Several countries in Europe have been designated rabies-free jurisdictions: Austria, United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece, Malta, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, and Republic of Cyprus Iceland. (source Wikipedia).
In all countries of Europe, any suspected case of rabies is dealt with in a very swift manner. The normal procedure would be: if you get attacked by a dog with a known owner, the owner needs to provide proof of a current rabies vaccination. Any suspected case of rabies (bitten by a wild animal or an animal where no proof of vaccination can be provided) is referred to a hospital, the person is isolated and undergoes a course of anti-rabies treatment (which from what I've heard is extremely unpleasant).
Overall, even in areas with a high population of wildlife it is highly improbable to be exposed to rabies, especially as there was lots of effort to eradicate the disease through vaccination, dropping the rabies vaccine bait for foxes etc.
Most of it will get sorted out with the Brexit anyway and you'd be facing a higher probability of eating a chlorine washed chicken than getting a dog from "dodgy" parts of the world.

Oh and just to add - the dog would normally be put to sleep or shot if caught during the attack.

Once again, Latvia is not known for forging pet passports, the person who sold her the puppy may have used a passport belonging to another dog but the document itself is not likely to be forged. The dog the passport is intended for is likely to have had all of its vaccinations.

You know this how?

The report focuses on Lithuania and Hungary. I didn’t say “racist”, I said “prejudiced”, if you are unsure of the difference between the 2 then look it up.

* You know this how?*

Have you lost your manners or something?

What do you mean?

How do you know bit about the passport not likely to be a forgery?

Maybe it is, maybe It isn't, but you have no way of knowing it.

If a country is not know for forged pet passports, the risk of it being forged is quite low. Surely that’s just common sense?

Cider, you a funny.

Not sure you mean to be, thought.

1. The puppy's passport may not have been checked if it came in on the back of a lorry and smuggled through.

1. At £2000 a pop (or pup) and 10 pups smuggled in, renting a place for two weeks is not going to dent the income to the breeder - so seeing one "at its home" is not necessarily good enough - especially if many fashionable breeds (breeders tend to specialise in one or two). I'd be more convinced if the mother dog was there and in good health.

1. The country may not be known for "forged passports" but who is to know if they've been smuggled in? So one doesn't really know about the risk of a passport being forged.

1. On top of which, do we know the seller actually came from where they said they did? Could have been Latvia, could have been Rumania, could have been Hungary. Checking where they're renting and for how long might be the only way of proving genuine people - humans can have forged passports too.

1. Nothing wrong with advertising an animal on social media if it's free and you can visit/owner checks up on you. However, given dog-baiting rings are still rife, I'd be very wary if I was the seller.

1. Agree with the flat-faced dog inbreeding. But GSDs have also been bred to have hips lower than their shoulders in this country - shame on the Kennel Club and show judges - so they get hip displacement, arthritis and some can hardly run. So buying in the UK needs serious checking, too.

I agree that Latvia isn't a high risk country for rabies and that there hasn't been a case in the last five years. However, low risk and no risk are different, that's why they have vaccination programs.

The Dogs Trust report states that Hungry and Lithuania and the worst offenders in terms of dog smuggling and forged pet passports. It doesn't claim that it doesn't happen from other countries.

The whole problem with a forged pet passport is that the information it contains can't be believed. That dog could have come from anywhere and it doesn't matter much where it did come from, just that it hasn't met the regulations for being in the UK and keeping the UK genuinely free from rabies.

I’m not quite sure what “you a funny” means, English is my 4th language. I take it you mean that I’m funny “haha” or funny “odd”, that’s probably my Eastern European accent

That's a cheap shot Cider, you know it was a typo.

You can complain to Defra for using Eastern Europe in their papers, I suppose.

I don’t know. You lost your manners a long time ago so I’ve got no idea what your intentions are and whether you are being congruent or not.

Defras use of Eastern European is right, as they mean multiple countries in the east of Europe. Not one country that happens to be on the eastern side of Europe. There’s a subtle difference there. What I’ve found is when people talk about “Eastern Europe” they are generally referring to ideas they have about countries such as Romania, Bulgaria and Poland from the 70s. I just find it humorous that people have such strong opinions about behaviour in Latvia (read Eastern Europe) that they have no idea of the demographics there. Most of the country is either woodland or farms, for starters. The chance of a wild animal travelling that far from the Russian/Belarusian/Lithuanian border as to infect a domestic dog is possibly one of the most out there ideas I’ve ever heard. This is where underlying bias and prejudice are coming into play, if you find that funny then 🤷‍♀️

I'm usually a big fan of people educating themselves when it comes to offensive language, so I've spent nearly an hour trying to find a reference to the use of 'Eastern European' being offensive and failed.

I certainly thought it was nothing more that a geographically designation and wasn't trying to be in the least offensive by using it. I totally accept that you get to call yourself what you like, FruitCider and am happy to accept it but expecting others to know that you find a term offensive when it's not generally thought to be so and becoming so aggressive when others don't already know is a bit off.

I work with a Pole, a Latvian and a Lithuanian, I've checked with the three of 'em and they haven't got the memo about it being offensive either but we're not in the UK, so maybe it's different here?

I lost my manners when I asked you how you knew something you were claiming to be true?

Ok.

I do think fucking idiotic is offensive language mind 😀

...oh and I live right in the middle of woodland and farmland, with dogs, and it's exactly where the wild animals hang out. Foxes, hares, badgers, bats, the place is alive with them.

silently have you not heard all of the hysteria about Eastern Europeans coming over here and stealing all of the jobs, getting council houses, nicking all the women and sending their benefits back home?

Talk about derailing a thread

OP, I hope your puppy has seen the vet and is okay. You’ve acknowedged you’ve been stupid (I personally wouldn’t buy any breed of bulldog, for a variety of reasons but all the related health conditions would definitely be up there) some of the responses on this thread have been horrendous.

Let’s hope you got ‘lucky’ this time and he’ll be able to live a relatively healthy life. I’m sure you won’t be making the same mistake again in the future.

It is, Marmite and it wasn't accidental but it isn't prejudice, you earned that. 😀

It’s not the question you asked, rather the way you asked it. If you had phrased it differently I may have told you how I have a good idea about the demographics of Latvia and the conversation may have moved forward but you didn’t even offer an apology when I challenged your rudeness and you have continued to be rude.

Silently I think most farmers don’t tend to keep pets in Latvia, it doesn’t seem the done thing.

That picture looks more like a very unhappy pug.

I can't get over your actions. If you had £1800 to spend what the fuck where you doing. If you have had bulldogs all your life, surely you have researched them.

I hope the dog is ok.