To not understand why people adopt feral dogs from Eastern Europe?

[Elmore]

I don’t get it, there’s thousands of dogs in the U.K. that need homes, so why go to the effort (and expense) of importing these wild street dogs?

From speaking to friends with primary aged children, it's the child factor. Friend with a y4 child and older child (y6?) struggled for years to adopt a dog here.

Managed to find two immediately when they went on holiday abroad who are lovely, though one is a bit bonkers.

Ceaucescu died in 1989
you cannot use that excuse
you are adopting a dog under the age of 10

Some good points made here.
I am especially worried about the diseases.

It seems every other family around here has a foreign rescue quite recently ( we live in a friendly rural area.)

I know if one poor family whose dog has developed a chronic hip condition and the rescue won't help with vets fees and neither will their insurance as the rescue, when questioned said they suspected there was something wrong with him 🙄

Every other day on the local fb page one has escaped from the garden - often accompanied by 'if seen, don't approach - very nervous/ can be aggressive.'
To the point where I won't let my teens walk our dog alone now.

There were incidents of sheep worrying in the spring too involving two separate rescue dogs.

It might be a case of all these people revoking from a dodgy rehoming site but then surely that's a case for tighter regulations around this?

The criteria is ridiculously high. I know experienced dog owners, who’ve completed dog training courses refused. My dog Walker took an age to be approved. Even people seeking a small dog find a 6 ft fence a prerequisite when their perfectly adequate 5 ft fence is secure.

Oh and dd and I were once in pets at home buying bits for our dog a couple of years ago. A family (adult children) came in with a large male staffy they’d apparently just ‘adopted’ and driven straight to the shop. Instead of letting the poor thing wee outside before going in the shop, they let it piss not once but 3 times all over the merchandise. I don’t think the adoption criteria is correct when experienced dog owners are rejected and a bunch of numpties are approved.

Mine cost £250 donation to the charity, £290 for his transport.

We did because we found it completely impossible to adopt a dog in the UK. Even the (very few) rescues that were happy to home a dog to us with children and a cat drew the line at the fact neither of us is at home or WFH full time. We're both shift workers so dog gets left for a maximum of 4 hours, any longer than that and a family member pops in. But UK rescues weren't happy, we didn't want to buy a puppy with so many dogs needing homes, so 🤷🏻‍♀️. We did it through a well-regarded rescue and haven't had any issues. She's needed a bit of training and patience to become 'the perfect family dog' but I'm not sure any dog doesn't?

Mines from spain. I adopted her because she was older, clean in the house, good with kids and cats, calm.
Couldnt find any dog without issues on uk rescues in about the 6 months i was looking, so my friend recommended a particular rescue she used ans I found my girl there.
Cost me about £300 adoption fee.
Id do it again

The problem with "fully tested" is that in the absence of legislation it means different things to different people. It might mean the required rabies jabs and a vet check or it might include blood tests for many, many other diseases. Your average UK adopter cannot and should not be expected to have a full knowledge of all of this. Where the additional tets are done (and certainly many reputable rescues do do a lot of non-mandated testing) there is considerable expense in lab fees. Again, I wonder if this expense could improve the lives of more dogs in these countries if spent differently, at a population rather than individual level.

None of this is a criticism of people who re-home these dogs, again, I completely understand the reasons and have met many lovely imported dogs who have become great pets. I do think there is a much wider conversation to be had though.

The thing about male dogs is they don't just wee once and it's done. It might very well have wee'd outside and still have had plenty more to share. My little terrier can go for a ealk across the fields and still have a spray on the garden post on his way up my driveway.
So, enforcing a dog to empty its bladder on command us not a criteria, no.
Having said that, it's poor behaviour on their part to let it wee in the shop. But when peoole get their dog, they can be a bit giddy with excitement and not as strict as they should be.

OP how do you feel about adopting children from other countries?

I know that the UK has such strict rules and reading PPs this is a big reason why people get dogs from abroad which is a bit worrying and hopefully they get the correct checks too.
But it seems from a PP that the cost is around £500 and I know it takes a while to sort out so I would assume that checks have been done.

I got my dog from a very lax charity in the UK.
She truly is the most incredible dog in the world but she came from the streets as a stray to the dogs wardens kennels and then straight to mine - there was no stop off at a rescue, no temperament check, no vaccinations or neutering etc and her size and breed are many MNers worst nightmare lol.

Fortunately, she’s an absolute angel but she could easily have not have been.
So although I think our UK rescues are way too strict I do think that there needs to be a certain level of strictness.

The good thing about adopting a dog from abroad (apart from giving them a lovely home) is it reduces the risk of buying from a puppy farm which we have a real issue with in this country.

This is interesting and concerning
www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/many-owners-of-rescue-dogs-think-they-are-imported-wrongly-into-uk-via-pet-travel-scheme/

I lost my beloved dog (originally a rescue) after 15 years, it took me a year to get over his death. When I felt ready I wanted to adopt another rescue dog and approached a few UK rescues and none of them bothered to get back to me. I like to think I’m a good owner, adult house, no small pets or children, prepared to take on a dog with behavioural problems/medical issues, I always train my dogs well, I can take my dog to work, I take holidays where I can bring the dog, I love walking and I’m proactive with medical issues and let’s face it, I love to love and spoil them. I started the search in February approaching quite a few rescues over this time. In July I happened across my now dog on a Bulgarian Rescues FB page and the rest is history. He’s certainly been more work than the average dog but he’s now a happy, outgoing and friendly chap. There is something going wrong with UK rescues.

I've actually found it really interesting. I have often heard people ask why to adopt dogs from abroad and never understood the issue. Turns out there are way more things to consider. Some people just prefer to cover their ears to anything though!!

All im reading from people defending this is I have a lovely dog, I'm a good owner so that's all that matters!

Too hard to adopt in uk. Our 15 year old rescue dog passed away when our boys were 9 and 11. They had grown up with a medium sized dog. Tried all the local rescue centres took our details and said they’d let us know if anything suitable came along, every dog we saw at RSPCA said unsuitable for living with children, all posts that came up on sites we were interested in gave details and simply told our home was unsuitable. Finally rescued a beautiful 6 month old from Romania, no aggression, most gentle dog you’ll ever meet. We could have bought private over here but wanted to adopt a dog that needed a home and love.

I agree in that I think it's very problematic bringing foreign rescue dogs into the country. I used to work in an animal rejoining centre and am surprised by the strict criteria that people are saying they needed to meet in order to rehome as that wasn't my experience at all.

I did however see many dogs pts or else spending months sometimes years miserable in kennels as no one wanted to take them.

In my (admittedly limited experience) of foreign rescue dogs they are very often under socialised, fearful and often aggressive. The new owners are often landed with behavioural and health issues and are often unprepared for these. There is often poor or no after care or support like there is with rescues from this country and I certainly wouldn't have rehomed any animal
Without a meet and greet first to see if everyone got on which is obviously harder with a foreign rescue unless the animal os in foster care in this country first.

Again I think it's hugely problematic and never something I would consider especially as I have children.

Mine was similar yet the poster I quoted seemed to think you could set up and run a shelter on the amount it cost to import one dog.

I just think a lot of people commenting have no actual experience of getting one of these dogs or their experience is limited to “one I saw in the park was naughty”.

You could have just said you don’t know anything about foreign rescues. My rescue has full rescue backup, they’ll take the dogs back if I can’t care for them anymore, they did a full home check and they’ll periodically ask how we’re getting on. It’s pretty annoying to have people who haven’t got a clue writing off all overseas rescues the way you have while pretending that UK rescues are without issues and result in perfect dogs. Doesn’t work like that.

I do agree that people with young children should consider very carefully what the right way to getting a dog is but that doesn’t automatically discount an overseas rescue

You seem quite bitter about it op. There are bigger issues in life!

I'd feel better about it if people admitted that many of these charities are more like businesses. I don't see anything wrong with buying a dog from abroad, but the "adopt a poor neglected street dog for £500 narrative feels disingenuous.

FWIW I think the reason that so many UK rescues are so fussy about rehoming is that they're terrified of being sued, or just general Bad Optics, if it goes tits up. It feels to me like a massive risk both ways for anyone acquiring a dog from abroad. Will/should UK rescues accept these dogs if they turn out to be unsuitable for the family?

Also (unpopular opinion incoming) I have horses as well as dogs, and I don't understand the point blank refusal to have dogs and cats humanly euthanised. Horse owners tend to be much more pragmatic about the future of a tricky/dangerous horse. If UK rescues are overrun by dogs that are not suitable for most normal family set ups, then there needs to be an honest discussion about whether a lifetime in a cage/run is really a life worth living.

It affects anyone who may encounter that dog. I have a neighbour who’s adopted 2. They’re aggressive, bark constantly, have to be muzzled when out walking and even then still try to attack other dogs.

@ChuckItBucket it wouldn't be true to say I didn't have any experience with foreign rescues and I said they often don't have back up support. I appreciate this isn't the case everywhere.

@ChuckItBucket and I certainly wouldn't say that UK rescues were without problems.

None of the ones I know have been aggressive. Literally none. And none of them have clueless owners.

And of course they wouldn’t ‘be happier on the streets’ without regular food, warmth, comfort or veterinary care, in countries with minimal welfare laws.

Maybe just mind your own business. A dog isn’t less worthy of care because it happened to be born somewhere else.