Neighbours have left their dogs alone in a house that's been on fire.

[Geobat]

Part One:

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting here and I'm honestly in desperate need of some advice please?

This is going to be a long post because I want to explain everything so far (it helps me personally, as well as potential advice-givers, I guess), so I apologise for the long read!

Okay, here goes. My OH and I live in a 70's terraced house, the walls are thin, the house is small and it feels cramped with the two of us living here.
Next door, we have a family of 2 adults, 2 young children and 2 medium/big dogs.

As of 8th of December 2018, there was a fire in this neighbour's house (we were told by a firefighter that they suspected the fire was started by an unsupervised child, who had tried to use the toaster, but had accidentally set some paper on fire). The fire was a small kitchen one, but we saw the smoke escaping through the roof, and it had entered our bedroom, too - this is how we'd ended up speaking to a firefighter because we were concerned about how much smoke was upstairs.

Once the fire had been extinguished and the fire brigade had left, the family packed up some of their belongings and left. Leaving the dogs behind. My partner and I had assumed they would collect the dogs later that day. They didn't. They return to the house once a day to feed/water the dogs. They rarely let them out and the don't take them for walks (not that they ever did when they were living in the house, either).
4 days later, the constant barking, whining and fighting from the dogs had really gotten to me. I'm currently fighting anxiety and depression, I'm on medication but I'm out of work due to another medical issue (one in which I'm waiting for surgery). Because of these issues, I'm at home a lot. I rarely go out. The continuous noises were getting to me and I was losing sleep.

(Continued...)

What about the local press to highlight the lack of interest the agencies that should be involved have shown?

Might kick owners into action, too.

Could you not offer to help in light of there being no support from the relevant authorities? I know you say you have anxiety and depression, so I guess that would be really difficult, but if you have exchanged phone numbers with the neighbour, could you see about getting a key and offering to let the dogs out for a bit?
They do sound very irresponsible from your post, but equally they have young children in a crowded house and have had to move out due to fire over christmas to some sort of temporary accommodation. They sound like they need help.

It sounds like OP has a lot on her plate as it is- taking in 2 dogs is unlikely to be any good for her.
Make yourself a nuisance OP, call the council out of hours services when they're howling, call the RSPCA as often as you can and log it yourself who often you're calling- it's definitely a welfare issue. Call 101 when they're howling and barking all day. I'd go so far as to call 999 if you can hear them actually fighting and I'd record any fighting if I could (obvs not 999 tonight). It might not be the right thing to do to call the police on the emergency number to some but they're not going to send a van with blues and twos- someone will come eventually. This is such a sad welfare issue and it must be very upsetting for you too, particularly when you're going through such a difficult time. Keep a brief log of everything you do as much as you can and if you can make a few recordings of what's going on in the house when they're alone do that. Do you know what breed/s the dogs are?

I'd be very surprised if the rspca do anything. I reported a dog living in a shed in winter, they investigated and said the shed had a window and the dog had water so they couldn't do anything. Other rescues can't help at all as they have no statutory powers. It's a horrible situation, not good enough for the dogs but nobody can/will do anything. Some pps have been really rude to op, and really ignorant, it's totally unnecessary, op is only trying to help.

I think your best hope is the landlord, but I've no idea how you'd get their contact details. Perhaps the police or council will pass on your noise complaint to the landlord at your request? They probably aren't allowed to give you the contact details though.

If you google a property, often cached copies of previous rental ads come up. You might get lucky and be able to pull the landlord's or letting agent's details from that. Bit of a long shot but would not take long to do.

Even if the landlord doesn't care much about the state of the property, I would have thought that 2 fairly large dogs using it as an indoor toilet for 3 weeks would be of concern to them, if there are carpets they would need to be replaced and the dogs could be scratching or biting the woodwork. Once a day is not enough for dogs!

Surely if you think the RSPCA are crap then you would’ve phoned one of the other many dog rescue charities

It's a bit of a stretch to assume everyone is well informed about all animal charities. We've all heard of RSPCA, I've also heard of PDSA (not their remit) and Battersea Dogs' Home. Beyond that, a local animal in distress charity where my mum lives. And that's it. I've also heard of Cats Protection League which I suppose might have suggestions if you rang them.

But the assumption that everyone knows about these things is a bit odd.

Well done for caring and trying OP especially as you're not well. Perhaps if you're struggling some of the other more vocal posters on this thread could help out with getting the dogs sorted.

I know for a fact you can contact the Blue Cross, Dogs Trust and Battersea who will investigate and if warranted involve the RSPCA on your/the dogs behalf.
If you yourself think the RSPCA are rubbish then phoning the Dogs trust etc will still get action but they will interact with the RSPCA or Police etc on your behalf.

OP what a horrible situation for you. I don’t understand why you are getting a hard time from a few people. You are unwell and yet you still care about the dogs, (though I know its also the impact their noise is having on you). I know know how hard depression is, I know that getting out of bed can be an acheivment and making phone calls a very difficult thing that can cause a lot of anxiety. Things that may be part of your everyday life when you are well become mountains you have to climb but don’t want to. Please ignore those that don’t get it, there is negativity on the majority of posts.
I hope the RSPCA help, every area has a dog warden and if you call the main council offices they can tell you how to contact them. Good luck and I hope you feel better soon.

Theres a bit of confusion about what charities can and cant do.

Dogs trust, pdsa etc cant remove dogs without consent of owners. Not sure why a poster was commenting about breaking in and taking the dogs to a charity. Mostly they will just return to owners?

Rspca's powers are granted by police which means animals can only be removed without the ownwrs consent if its a breach of animal welfare act legislation.

Thats why rspca cant remove dogs having a shitty life such as in a shed with access to warmth, water etc eg as ultimately they have to prove in court both for a warrent tonaccess then to keep them, that the care breaks the law. Luckily most people once animals are seized then sign them over, without getting to court the second time

Not rtft but you can look up the landlord on ghe landlord registry iirc it gives you their address so you’ll be able to contact them one way or another.

Tell the RSPCA the d I gs are constantly fighting and you're worried one screamed and has been badly injured. That should get them off their arises.

Something will need to happen. Either the landlord will fix the property and they will move back in or the rent they have paid will end and they will have to move the dogs out. No one’s going to pay rent on a ruined house for their dogs to live in.

I suspect the landlord is waiting on insurance to pay up so they can fix the fire damage.

It’s tough, but I think you will probably just have to wait it out. Use earplugs or whatever is necessary to try and sleep.

It’s shit and you have my sympathies though.

Hi everyone, apologies for not getting back on yesterday. I had an incredibly bad day and it wouldn't have been wise to come on here when I was feeling so low.

Anyway, thank you all again, I've just read through everything and I appreciate those of you who have given further advice and sympathies too. I vaguely touched upon my anxiety and depression just for background information, but yes, it does make even the simplest of tasks difficult - dealing with constant noise and irresponsible dog owners has been a battle. Especially since the neighbours have consistently been uncooperative over the years.

As I said above, I phoned the RSPCA again. The woman I spoke to was lovely and sympathetic, she was worried about the dogs too. However, no one has been out to the property yet. I've been told that it can take up to 48 hours (I phoned them around 8pm on Monday, so I've got a bit of a wait left) but I'm genuinely concerned about the dogs still, so I'm going to call them again later today (I can't just yet as I'm currently in a waiting room in the hospital).

It does appear I have missed some information out in the first two posts I made, I've not been sitting around with my thumbs up my butt in all this time. I have been doing everything I can to get this sorted.

I've debated on texting the owners again, telling them that I contacted the RSPCA but I didn't in the end... I know most complaints to the RSPCA are handled anonymously, so I decided to leave it up to them. Although the neighbours will know it was us who contacted them anyway.

My partner eventually found the mobile number of the landlord and sent her a message about the situation. She hasn't replied.
He's also found her Facebook through that number, and will message her tonight - although she's not active on it.
A few years ago, a different couple lived in the house. The male was violent and beat his partner. When I first became aware of it, I did phone the police and someone came out immediately. The house was trashed, but the woman dropped the whole thing and told us not to interfere. The landlord knew about what was going on, but only ever kicked them out when they stopped paying bills. It's why we have little faith in contacting her, but we're still trying.

Even when I've been feeling my worst, the dogs have still been a concern of mine.
The howling and whining kept me up last night, so I've had very little sleep again but here I am trying to get this sorted. I would appreciate it if people would stop implying that I've been equally neglectful.

If I didn't have so much on my plate already, I would offer to look after the dogs, but that's just not an option right now. I wouldn't be able to walk them because I can't walk very well. Going out also causes me a lot of stress (getting to the hospital in itself is a behemoth at the moment). Our house just isn't right for two medium/large dogs either.

I will also email some of the other animal charities later tonight asking for advice. Whenever you see stories of charities actively getting involved with animal abuse cases, it's often RSPCA so that is why I didn't think to contact the other charities.

Fingers crossed this will get sorted soon, the poor dogs have been in there for nearly a full month now.

@disappointedyetagain contacting the local press is a very interesting idea, I hadn't thought of that (possibly from sluggishness at the moment). Thank you, I will look into that and use that option if tonight's call isn't taken seriously.
It's sad that it may take such a huge step to get someone to take action and look after their own dogs!

good luck op. those poor dogs.

@Yulebealrite Thank you! I appreciate that, it is such a sad situation!

Good luck OP. It's a horrible situation for the dogs and for you. How awful. You really are doing tour best, ignore the people who said you weren't.

@PowerPantsRule Thank you so much for your support! You've helped me keep a level head :)

It seems we have some progress, an RSPCA rep phoned me to follow up on our report, he asked me a few questions (one being whether the dogs are still currently in the property, which I confirmed), after our short talk, he said he was going to contact an investigator.
A follow up call is the best thing we've had so far and I'm hoping the poor dogs will find something positive out of this!

Fingers crossed for them OP

OP this sounds like a really challenging situation. I know of someone who’s dogs had to be rehoused because a complaint to the council about their howling all day being a noise nuisance. Hope the RSPCA can offer help v

You need to get hold of the landlord’s details. Could you perhaps find them on the land registry or something? Do you know her name? I bet she wouldn’t be happy about the situation.

This is a good suggestion. You can do a land registry search for a few pounds.

In the meantime I would keep calling the RSPCA and the dogs trust. The dogs' health may well have deteriorated due to prolonged neglect.

what a horrible situation to be in, those poor dogs - I hope the RSPCA do something (although I don't have much faith in them...)
In the mean time, can you use ear plugs at night and/or sleep in another room further away from where the dogs are. Just so you can at least try and get better sleep.

Welp, things have just gotten worse.
The neighbour came back (as he usually does to feed them), it was one of the rare cases where he let the dogs out. I'm sitting on my sofa and I hear a bang. Once again, the dogs have gotten into our garden. Immediately I took photos because it's happened before (this is when we first talked to them in person about it, and his response was "that's what dogs do, isn't it?").
I won't confront him by myself because I'm scared of how he reacts (he's an angry man).

He's left now, once again leaving the dogs in their fire damaged house.

I don't know whether to phone the RSPCA again or just wait since I had a call back earlier today.

This is stressing me out so much and I just want to have a quiet life again.