Importing rescue dogs

[Tonemeth]

I keep wondering this and have just seen another facebook post about it.

Why do we allow dogs to be imported into this country as rescues? The only reason I can see for it is so people get the dog breed they want which they wouldn't get in the UK through a rescue. Otherwise surely they would just rescue from a local centre?

I'm curious what people think of it, I find the concept a bit bizarre but not sure if I'm missing something. It seems to be a really recent trend.

Romanians coming over here, taking over our sofas, good for them!

The one local to us has had dogs escape and they're too street-smart to be recaptured. Not something they advertise!

The equivalent would be to donate money for shelters, neutering programs and education campaigns in the country of origin.

Many do this, as well as rehoming. It's not 'either or".

I give to Pawprints to Freedom. I was going to Foster but my health declined.

The dogs are usually fostered first, so people do know what they are getting. The conditions that the dogs, live in, even in the shelters are horrific.

They try to foster the smaller dogs, because otherwise they get killed by the bigger dogs. There can be ten dogs in one cage and they have to fight for food. They die of malnutrition and disease. They live in zero to sweltering conditions with no shelter.

There's some gorgeous dogs, ranging from teacup size to giant breeds.

Romania has enough problems that they can't worry about dogs. The government has a kill rather than neuter policy.

As said, many uk rescues won't consider lots of people.

The rescues in the U.K. generally won’t let you adopt unless you meet very strict standards. No young children, someone in all the time etc. Often the dogs in UK shelters have lots of problems. Adopting from abroad often is easier, cheaper and you can have a choice of dogs that suit you situation for example puppies or smaller dogs. They have good temperament because sadly any dogs with behavioural issues are PTS.

Conditions in shelters rescues and kill shelters overseas are horrendous. They need rescue homes.

I have two rescues from Cyprus. A JRT and a Segugio.

Our Segugio came first. My JRT was a foster who we couldn't part with.

I had heard of the charity through a relative. The dog I picked had been stuck in a kennel for ages and his story was just awful. I asked about him, spoke to the person running the charity and decided he was the dog for us. We did have a home check and a phone call from the owner of the rescue to go through a lot of questions.

I had follow up phone calls and was put in touch with a dog trainer for free in the first few difficult weeks. The charity was amazing.

I would have happily have adopted a dog from the UK but our little Cyprus boy was the one for us.

I had offered to foster our JRT to help the charity out and we fell in love with him too.

This is really interesting to read, lots of varied opinions.

We rescued from overseas - we had looked locally (London) and all of the shelters would not let you rescue if you worked over 8 hours a week, which is pretty unrealistic. We knew we could provide a loving and comfortable home, and could afford to pay for doggy day care/walker as needed, but were met with very strict boundaries.
We rescued through wild at heart eventually, and I thought they were incredible to deal with - redirected us from the dog we had initially expressed interest into to a dog who they thought would be more suited to our home and lifestyle, did a home check, and offered free dog behaviouralist and support after adoption.
I really did not want a “bred” dog when there are so many dogs in the world being abused and abandoned every day, and I am so happy with the decision to adopt from overseas - 18 months later and counting!

I will add that I love staffies and would have happily rescued one had I been able to get past some of the strict rules (that I understand the good intentions of, but feel every case can be different)

What I don't get is how the fuck these dogs are even slightly trained or suitable pets, if they are really ex-street dogs? Dogs that have been genuinely stray for most of their life are notoriously hard to settle back into house living and have really bad ingrained habits around food finding/guarding for a start. The traits necessary for survival as a street dog are very much incompatible with being a good pet

Are these rescues really taking in street dogs and training them? Really?

I strongly suspect in at least some cases it's a front for puppy farming.

My two are Romanian rescues. I was looking in UK shelters for a dog, and didn't find one I clicked with. I believe your dog choose you as much as you choose your dog, and when my friend called me to say she'd fostered 2 dogs and did I want to meet them, I did and clicked with one right away and ended up having both as they were clearly devoted to each other and I didn't want to split them up. So in my case it was happenstance.

However: I have been asked a few times why I got dogs from Romania and not the UK, and to be honest, it frustrates me no end.

I would rather people ask:
Why do many people in the UK casually breed their dogs purely for profit, encouraging others to treat dogs like a lifestyle accessory by going for a specific breed?
Why do some people insist on having a dog that's a designer crossbreed or something like a Frenchie that has breathing issues instead of adopting a dog from a shelter?
When your friend with the cute dog breeds it, are you asking them why they're doing it and why they feel the need to add more dogs to the UK when our shelters have plenty already?
Why does anyone need to buy a puppy from a breeder rather than adopt from a shelter?

I don’t mind dogs. But I don’t understand rescuing them from abroad. I think they should be pts. I’m aware that’s a very unpopular point of view. But any dog who is unwell, unpredictable and without a responsible home should be pts.
I can’t understand why anyone thinks money should go to keeping unwanted dogs alive when so many children in the world don’t have clean water, enough food, access to vaccinations and basic education...
Sorry. Not trying to be goady. I had a dog growing up and loved him. He lived a long and happy life. I’m not heartless but keeping so many dogs alive in shelters seems a misuse of money when there are so many children in need.

It's because those dogs are less likely to get adopted or properly cared for either in kennels or homes than in our country. Less people donate to these organisations there and the conditions aren't as good. Typically they're places where having a dog means leaving it in the yard. Unfortunately there's more dogs in the world than people want to own dogs and that means people chose what dogs they get. It's awful and depressing but all we can do is look after as many animals as we can.

Local dog rescues will rarely allow anyone with kids to adopt. Also most of the dogs have issues. The Romanian rescue has more choice and younger dogs. I don’t think there are loads of local dogs being pts - I don’t think either dogs trust or rspca does that as a general rule.

My rescue Staffie is just the best. I'll rescue bull breeds as long as I'm alive!

I have a rescued Street dog. A retired neighbour goes out to India to spend the winter volunteering in a dog rescue there and the summer recruiting everyone she meets to adopt one. Virtually our entire lane now has one!

She has a very kind heart and we all love our dogs, but if I'm being really honest, it's madness. All the dogs have a lot of problems. They are either terrified of everything or very aggressive. Our dog literally tries to kill every other dog he meets. None are house trained (most have never even been in a house before).

We have spent ££££ on various experts who claim we need positive reinforcement techniques or to be the pack leader etc... Our dog bit the last one we had in.

We love the mad furry warrior but we would NEVER have another one.

But @zsazsajuju why don't the Romanian rescues have "issues" if they are genuinely being rescued from appalling conditions and then kept in appalling conditions until our white knights swoop in and save them? That's what I don't get. If the stories behind these dogs are to be believed then the dogs would probably never be able to be rehomed with anyone, ever

A friend of mine took on a Romanian rescue dog and had no end of problems, spent a small fortune on dog type therapy etc etc but it didn’t work. The charity she did it through really dragged their heels at helping her rehome it but eventually it was.

My dog is from overseas and I was home checked properly. I have a type of dog from a particular country try which has a certain type of dog of which a lot and up in pounds and which are also non shedding. I needed this as someone in my close family has bad asthma and it is hard to find other dogs like this in UK rescues. I wanted an older dog as didn't want to do the puppy stage and also means my dog will reach old age at about the time my kids fly the nest.

One of our local rescues seems to be rehoming more dogs from abroad now, mainly China and Romania. I would chose to rehome a staffie instead (best dogs ever). I think it easier to rehome from some of the charities that bring dogs in from abroad, I’m shocked how many people agree to taking a dog before to come over to the uk, so they have not met that dog, they pay the fee which includes its travel from whatever country is coming from.

I’m involved in animal rescue here in the algarve. I bottle feed abandoned newborn puppies until they’re about 8 weeks, then they go to foster homes, and when old enough to travel, go to the U.K. or Germany. Unfortunately there aren’t enough homes for them all here

Should these pups not have a chance of a happy life?

@SerfNTerf because there are very few dogs in uk shelters and the ones there longer term tend to have issues of they get snapped up. Dogs in the uk are neutered and can be sold (even when older) rather than abandoned. Not the same in Romania.

@SerfNTerf - if you are suggesting that somehow they are a front for puppy farming, I suggest you go to Romania and look at the shelters. Also why would you “farm” a load of mixed breeds and charge well under the odds for them. That’s a bizarre idea.

I think people do it because they are not so strict. I watched an influencer(with a young child so assume U.K. rescues wouldn’t let them have one?) get one of these dogs, lots of excitement in the run up to arrival, the dog arrived and a couple of days later it was gone because something happened(influencer didn’t elaborate). What will happen to that dog now?