To think that dog charities are so fussy about rehoming that they drive people to buy from breeders?

[FreshFreesias]

I volunteer and help fund a small very well-run dog charity. We are all volunteers, no one takes any remuneration and we are all united in our desire to help dogs in the direst of situations find a lovely home.

However I struggle with the strict rehoming policy. We are rescuing (healthy, attractive, assessed, socialised and rehomeable) dogs and puppies from the horrors of life in a concrete pen in a `shelter’ in 100 Fahrenheit from which they will never be released, even for a walk; or from a precarious life starving on the streets of in Greece or from life on a chain.

Given that these dogs have absolutely no hope where they are, a loving, sensible, experienced owner in the UK who may well live in a flat or in a big city can most probably give one of these dogs the fantastic opportunity of a new life.

But I’m constantly working with dare I say, dogmatic ladies who, while redoubtable and salt of the earth, have very restrictive ideas of where these hopeless hounds can be happy.

A recent conversation with the rehomer made my heart sink. She explained that while she didn’t rule out homes in London and cities, she didn’t think London was a good place for a dog and that a flat in London would automatically be ruled out. Ironic as I live in a London flat with 3 dogs who have the most wonderful life as I live in the middle of a Common! The most important thing is the right owner, who is determined to make it work.

While I agree that rehoming to someone who is working all day isn’t a good idea, if someone can take their dog to work with them, why not? Oh no’, she replied, what is the dog meant to do in the work place?’ Um, I should have replied, do whatever it will do when it’s at home… sleep, get petted by visitors, potter around or whatever.

This all came to a head when my sister in law recently applied for one of the rescues on the website. She is a really lovely woman who lives with my brother in a modest but comfortable terrace house in Bristol, with a nice garden and near parks. They are middle-aged, no kids, both work from home and have one old dog already for whom they seek a companion. I’m despondent to find out that she applied for a dog on the website but was told he already had a home. Fair enough. But soon after I find out that this home has fallen through and despite SIL having sent in her form and stated her keenness on this dog, has not been informed.

Consequently, this dog is being advertised again. I don’t think she has slipped through the net as the rehomer is supremely efficient but very fussy. (I haven’t let her know that this applicant is my SIL as I am interested in her being a `mystery shopper’ and giving me an insight from the other side, so to speak).

Because SIL lives in a city in a terraced house I have the feeling that she has been tacitly turned down as country homes are favoured. Of course it would be wonderful if all adopters lived in the greenbelt with acres of land but that is not the reality. Many of the best dog owners I know live in London and make good use of all the parks. Many people who live in the countryside have no access to `countryside’ and must drive for miles to access dog-walking fields, so country living is no panacea.

While I am in favour of home checks and dogs going to the right homes for them, do you feel that dog charities are over fussy? It breaks my heart when great homes are rejected and owners then go to breeders. The last thing the world needs are any more dogs when there are millions, even billions, living wretched lives, and yet kind-hearted, dogmatic rescuers are inadvertently making things even worse than they need be.

The other maddening thing is that dogs are often kennelled while homes are being found but due to all the turning good homes down, this can take months and this is a huge expense for the charity.
I’m so fed up I am pulling out of rescue and will stick to raising money for neutering programmes, which is even more vital anyway.

Someone in my family managed to adopt a border collie, 1 year old, into a semi rural area, two bed ground floor flat with communal garden area (technically this is their area of garden for visitors and kids to play, as every other flat has a separate garden they can access for these things, it's just the washing lines and sheds are in their bit). The garden nearly got them turned down, but after a home visit and showing the rehomer how close they lived to fields etc won them over, and someone known to the rescue was a close friend and dog-walker so they vouched for them.

I've always wondered what's to stop someone lying about whether or not they are at home or day or not?

A rescue can do a home check but have no way of finding out if someone actually works from home, works out of the home, doesn't work at all.

Yep.
We have that fabled ideal setup: large house in country, big garden, high wall, SAHP... but because of no prior dog ownership and having children could not get a rescue dog. We got one from a breeder.
Said dog is currently visiting my DD who lives in a terraced house in Bristol (like OPs SIL who wasn't approved for a dog!) He has long walks every day (across Clifton bridge and into the forest there, amongst other places), has lots of attention, goes out with DD to waterside cafés and bars, and has made lots of friends. A happy Bristol dog!

We had no problem rescuing our Staffie from a shelter, despite having 2 children under 10, they did a homecheck and told us we needed to put up a fence along our back wall, so we put up windbreaks and told them we'd get right on it. Ahem.

5 years later, Ddog has never attempted to jump the back wall, much as the dog before him never did either.

I did however have problems trying to rescue guinea pigs. Apparently, having other guinea pigs, in other hutches, that the rescue guinea pig could see was a problem. I don't know why.

But what are the alternatives for these dogs?

Honestly? I think it's kinder to PTS than to keep a dog in kennels for years. An animal PTS isn't suffering. It would free up space for easier to home animals so that ultimately more could be found good homes. I know it's not a hugely popular opinion but I think if you look at it in terms of welfare there would be more animals having better lives and fewer animals just existing in kennels.

Some years ago we were looking for a dog.My son was a normal bouncy boy of 6 with lots of energy .We went to a local dog charity with my Mum, to be told we could have a look around.When we arrived we were told we had "failed" due to my sons age!.When I asked why no one had informed us I was told they could not afford to phone us !.This put us right off them Im afraid

God glad it's not just me thinking this currently! We are wanting to rehome a kitten or young cat, large house, 2 adults who work from home, quiet area with little traffic but there are roads, where are there no roads?
Despite living in an area awash with cats we are deemed unsuitable due to roads, totally ridiculous and I have told them so.
Visiting the shelter we have had the guilt trip several times now, we want a youngster but keep being asked what is wrong with the 10 year old feral cat cowering and hissing in the corner, not for us, sorry, this animal has to fit with my family.
Also facing this kittens only in pairs thing, surely the fact there is a human home all day is enough?

Whilst there I witnessed an older lady who had asked for a cat to be held for a week be harangued about maybe she was too busy for a cat in her life, she had been on holiday!

These people need to get down off their high horses and fight tooth and nail to get these animals out of shelters!

Anyone know where i can buy a kitten because I think that is what we will do!

@nobodyimportant

I agree. It is cruel to keep hard to home dogs in kennels for months on end. The trouble is the national charities are big businesses and I think it is in their interest to have full kennels. I think these charities should focus on dogs that they can find home for easily and, more importantly, on campaigning to stop puppy farming and irresponsible breeding. With rare exceptions, I also don’t think we should be bringing dogs over from abroad to Re home.

I'm reading a few of these replies and to me it makes perfect sense that some posters were turned down. Having been involved wit a couple of rescues and seen the dogs that were returned for silly reasons, or that escaped because a garden fence wasn't good enough (hedges pushed through). I've also done homechecks for people that couldn't see the wood for the trees. I did one for a couple that had a dog of the type they hoped to adopt, it was absolutely obese. When I asked the questions about their vet they told me where they went but said they might change vets as this one clearly didn't know about this breed, they kept telling them the dog was too fat. I also mentioned that they had a fence panel down in the back garden (which went into a neighbour's garden that had no gate onto a main road) and that we'd need to pop back to see it fixed before a dog could be released to them. They got quite stroppy about how they thought they were the perfect home and had dogs for ages. I could just see them posting on a forum saying how they were perfect but had been turned down (I don't know if they were, I just fill in the form and give it back to the rescue).

Some rescues are great, others are over officious. You just have to keep looking. If you are a good home someone will pick that up, even if it's not the first one you go to. One of the questions you have to fill in as an assessor is "would you happily leave your dog with these people?" So it is subject to their opinion.

Local one near me had loads of dogs at one point. Every single one had these expectations for potential owners.

Someone must be home all day
No other pets at all
6 foot fences
Don't like cars
Not well socialised to other dogs

No idea how any of them got homes to be honest.

Smaller rescues are better. we didnt even bother looking at bigs ones when we got our dog in March as we had a 4 yo DD and I work 4 days a week (although some from home).

Instead we went on a wait list with two local small rescues and as soon as a child friendly dog came in it she was reserved for us. We had a 6 month wait mind but we have ended up with the perfect pooch for us.

I've literally grown up with dogs all my life, After losing one of our dogs a few years ago we wanted to rescue another. As both me and oh worked full time (although different shifts) and i was 4 months pregnant we were basically laughed out of each rescue we went to. I do understand the basis of not rehoming to people with children, but not all people are the same. We were experienced dog owners who could have given a suitable dog a lovely family home.

We went to a breed specific rescue instead who actually listened to our circumstances and experience and adopted a lovely dog. We had DC 6 months later, I now only work part time and DC and dog were best friends for over 2 years until we sadly lost him to cancer.

One day in the future we'll like more children and one day another dog. I'm already dreading trying to rescue as we'll have young children so will be an automatic no for most places, although we'll be able to offer dog a lovely forever home.

I used to agree with what you're saying but I am little more supportive of stricter policies now.

Our building is mixed, some flats are private, some flats are council flats. The council likes to use one of the flats as temporary solution for families with dogs, until something bigger is available. Which is great! I am glad they are making the effort to give families with pets a home. However, over the last few years we have had a constant stream of people with large to massive dogs, always 2-3, who barely fit in the flat. Yet the dogs would only be let out into the tiny (shared) garden for 10-15min stretches. Then they'd get a 30min walk in the evening. That was it. Countless poop bags thrown out the window onto the street, so clearly not enough time outside. Garden full of dog shit the owners never picked up.

(I work from home often and the stairwell isn't particularly sound-proof - I didn't hang out behind the curtain all day )

At first I thought it was specific to the first, second, third...family - this cannot be a wide-spread thing, right? The current count is 11 families that behaved like this. The dogs were not exercised sufficiently at all but well-loved. The owners just didn't inform themselves about what their pets would need. In the end, the dogs probably burnt off some energy playing together but that doesn't replace walking them. Having and training a dog in a city is a lot more work and seems many really aren't prepared to do it.

Charities cannot know whether the dogs will be walked or whether people just pretend that that is what they'll do. I would prefer to see them check rehomed dogs more frequently instead of refusing to rehome them in cities but I do get where they are coming from now. Our Border Terrier gets more exercise than an American Pitbull, ffs.

Btw, despite having a garden and the option to work from home, we got declined from most rescues because we couldn't gurantee that we will always have the option to work from home. Shared garden was also just about acceptable. We ended up getting puppies. Now looking into rehoming a dog after we move (own garden, bigger place, different city) and the first thing we heard was "Well, X gets on with other dogs but is very territorial about food, so we'd prefer to rehome X to a place where X is the only dog". Every.single.time. As if we'd be unable to train a dog or work around it.

Anyway, I got to run off to our 1h lunchtime walk.

YANBU op! These rescue centres do a great job but some of the people in charge have let power go to their heads I think! Also, they forget the basic fact that a rescue is NOT a good environment for a dog and a loving and active but less than ideal home would be far better for an animal then being caged for 22 hrs a day!

One of the most loved, physically fit, and emotionally happy and calm dogs I have ever known was a huge labradoodle bitch being kept in a third floor city flat. Her retired owner was absolutely devoted to her. They went walking for hours every day (the dog often chose the route!). The whole neighborhood got to know that dog and they were always in the parks or walking by the canal. At weekends she went on day excursions to the beach or to the local forest. She was much loved and in really good physical shape! As calm as they come.

Alternatively I know a retriever who lives with an affluent family (with five DC) in a massive house in the country who is causing chaos because he is confined to the kitchen/mudroom and is basically ignored. He is overweight, has bad teeth, is developing some worrying neurotic habits and has (literally) started chewing the walls.

Totally agree with you. My partner and I lived in a London flat with a private garden, no kids, partner worked from home. We went to Battersea and the first women we saw clearly didn’t want us to adopt as we hadn’t owned a dog before, but we’d both grown up with them, and I’d looked after a friends dog for 6 months whilst she was away.

She suggested we’d need a perfect dog, which none of their dogs were, and also thought my partner working from home was a problem, because what if he changed jobs?! Well we could also both be killed in a car crash, so maybe it’s best not to rehome any dogs by that logic!

We went back a week later and spoke to someone else who sat down with us properly and thought we’d make great owners, they didn’t even do a home inspection, and we adopted a dog the very next day.

We moved to the countryside years later, and i actually think that in some ways London’s is BETTER for dogs. They get far more socialisation, exposure to more stimulation, and they shouldn’t be running around a flat all day anyway so living in a small home really shouldn’t make much differences. Our dog isn’t no more active in our 3 bed large house, than she was in our 2 bed London flat. She also misses interacting with other dogs and humans each day, like she got to in London.

This is a long time ago but when we wanted a cat we went to the local RSPCA. We chose a kitten, had the home checks, then they announced that we (the entire family) would have to visit the kitten on-site every day for 7 days so she would get used to us before coming home. And this was a requirement for adoption

We did comply with them and the kitten is now a lovely old lady aged 14. But honestly - we were lucky to be able to do that - plenty wouldn't have been. It's ridiculous the hoops they make you jump through!

With rare exceptions, I also don’t think we should be bringing dogs over from abroad to Re home.
Yeah, these foreign dogs, coming over here, stealing our rehomers! British dogs for british rehomers!

they didn’t even do a home inspection, and we adopted a dog the very next day

This also concerns me. They make a big fuss about certain criteria, but on some occasions don’t do the basics. ExH went home the same day from Battersea with a problem Rottweiler- apart from a basic identity check and apparently a Google Earth viewing of his garden - there were no other checks. He was a good owner, but they weren’t to know that. The Rottie would have been a perfect bait dog for dogfighting which is a not uncommon activity in this part of the world.

I agree.

I live in the sticks, work from home, have a fair amount of land (no livestock), at the time had no children, no animals. I looked into rescue dogs but every single one had 'must be experienced (insert breed/age/medical status) dog owner. Which I wasn't. So I didn't even apply.

I felt like I was not good enough and sad that I was not allowed to help these poor dogs. It made me put off getting a dog as I felt incompetent. In the end we got a lovely puppy from a local family who were more than happy with the setting and he has a fabulous life. I found out I was perfectly capable of raising and looking after a healthy happy dog no matter what the rescue places thought.

We got turned down even though living in a largeish house with massive garden and being experienced dog owners some of our dogs are entire, wasn't even looking at a bitch! She wouldn't have it made me feel like we were trying to puppy breed or something!🤦🤷

I've thought similar with cats (I've never had a dog). When I lived in London, the charity would only consider allowing me to adopt cats if they could be sure I wouldn't be letting them outside. And when I moved outside London the charity wanted to ensure that I could let them outside! In both cases I was adopting elderly cats with health problems, who would otherwise probably languish in the rehoming centre.

I'm about to venture into cat adoption again but anticipating a headache because I have children and I recall this being frowned upon. Even though my children have been brought up to be kind and gentle to animals, and grew up with my last elderly, poorly cat.

I would never buy from a breeder but I can understand why some do.

I would get turned down by local cat rescues. Have had cats all my life.

I currently have two cats, one aged 9 who I’ve had for 7 years, and one aged 8 that I got earlier this year. Both of them were from their breeders who had shown them before retiring them from the show circuit. Both had had litters and were then rehomed. They are happy, lazy cats who want for nothing.

Another option for those who would suit indoor cats is to look for cats with FIV, which means they cannot go outside or mix with cats without the virus.

YANBU

I agree too, its a real shame

YANBU to say the rules are too harsh.

YABVU however to say it drives people towards buying from breeders. Having a dog is not a right. You can just not get one.