To say we can’t trust big animal rescue charities?

[HotDoggidyDig]

So I have had a very bad personal experience with Dogs Trust, and I’ve also seen similar comments on MN about them and the RSPCA.

In my case, as first-time owners, we were matched with a high needs dog but weren’t told about those needs and likely future issues with the dog. We’ve also found the follow-up help from the DT behaviourist to be very limited.

Interested in hear if others have had negative experiences from rescues, why you think that is, and if smaller rescues have been better in your experience?

YABU-they do a good job and we can trust them

YANBU-we can’t always trust that they are matching dogs/animals responsibly

The larger the animal charity the more problems they seem to have.I've rehomed 5 dogs from animal shelters, all small shelters and they've all been successful but I've always taken the dog out for a weekend first with the option of returning.
Their needs are going to be complex and they may have had terrible experiences so you also need to exercise your own judgement.

It probably varies from charity to charity and location to location . I had my dog from DT and she is perfect . parents got one from DT another location who is also perfect . We had plenty of help if we needed it and over a year after adopting we can phone for help anytime .

@blobby10 did you feel you/your parents were given good information about the needs of the dogs? And do the dogs have any particular difficulties e.g. severe anxiety or reactivity? We feel that as new owners we weren’t given the relevant info before adopting and our dog has now been assessed as having extreme anxiety and frustration. DT haven’t been good at giving useful advice or practical support. I accept this could partly be down to lack of experience of volunteers who handled our adoption. Not blaming them, but perhaps DT policy on matching and support for volunteers needs a refresh.

We got a young cat from Battersea 6 years ago and they were great. The cat was vetted for her likes/dislikes, quirks, medical etc and they had detected a heart murmur when she was first given to them. They kept her for several weeks while they conducted tests and part of the process was to have an appointment with a vet to explain the condition and what the future what might hold.

They have a phone service for enquiries after re-homing which we used once which was helpful. I like that they are choosy who they allow to re-home to I.e not to re-home with other cats/dogs/specific age children, prefer quiet home etc. We can’t recommend them enough.

I do also get that you hear some rescues go to other extremes with being OTT with restrictions or simply don’t vett animals before re-homing.

@Dreamerinme glad to hear you had a good experience. I’ve not heard anything negative about Battersea. I agree that vetting processes should be thorough and it’s important to get the right home for the dog/animal. We were rejected as unsuitable for other dogs with far lower needs than our DDog and so, naively, trusted the DT matching. Something went wrong for us, and I’m aware this hasn’t just happened to us

We got our dog from DT 11 years ago. Found them amazing and our dog had issues which were spelt out to us and helped by DT.

I had an ok experience with Dogs Trust despite my gorgeous dog (now sadly passed away at at grand old age) having issues that weren't identified. I think my dog behaved completely differently when she was there, she was in a kennel with other dog, mixing nicely etc.

When I got her home I soon saw that she was very dog reactive, but they couldn't have known that as she was fine there but I think she was scared and intimidated being in a new place so they weren't to know. She also had terrible separation anxiety, but again they wouldn't know that, she was a stray so they knew very little about her really.

I only went back to get her stitches out after theyd spayed her and didn't mention it so not sure what the aftercare is like for behavior issues.

I think most rescue dogs do come with a some issues sometimes, I'd be more prepared next time I get one, it was an learning curve! I think Dog's Trust is a good charity and the dogs are very well looked after there from my experience.

These charities are widely accepted in the dog world - at least the circles I’m in - to be down-right dangerous. Perhaps 10+ years ago they were alright, but now I think they’re synonymous dangerous dogs most of the time.

They often lie or ‘twist’ the truth about very serious behavioural issues. If I’m being kind. I could say that previous owners lie about the dogs issues and these big charities are just negligent and do not do proper checks. But stories about dangerous dogs, or severely challenged dogs, being rehomed to completely incompatible families are so common place I struggle to believe it’s constant negligence tbh. It feels seedier and deliberate.

My neighbour adopted from one of the ‘big four’ recently - told the dog was good with kids and friendly. It attacked her. Attacked any dog it saw. She had to PTS as the charity did nothing to help - no advice, no support etc.

At one point, several of the DT dogs near me were described as ‘mongrels.’ They were. They were also, bloody clearly, XL bully crosses - no one will convince me that was not deliberate to try and convince misguided people to rehome a dog that was a ticking time bomb.

They also seem to think how a dog acts in kennels is how they act in a house - and any fool knows that’s not the case. But these are people who claim to be ‘animal lovers’ and ‘experts’ - they KNOW the dog will react differently, and don’t say anything.

My rule of thumb; if they keep the dog in kennels, you don’t want to get a dog from them. Get one from a breed specific rescue, who have dogs in foster and therefore know the dog inside out and who provide long/term support and advice if needed.

I adopted 2 cats from Cats Protection and it was great from beginning to end

We were turned down by dogs trust years ago. They said as we were newly married we would be having children soon so couldn’t place a dog with us. Even though we weren’t having children any time soon/even sure if we wanted kids. When we told them that, they said they needed one of us to be at home, not working for the dog to be around. I was self employed working at home but they didn’t want that. It just felt like they threw every excuse they could think of at us.

so instead, we went to a local small independent charity who placed us with a 2 year old dog. We had her for 10 lovely years before she died peacefully.

This is interesting. It could be that, as you say, they couldn’t/didn’t pick up on behavioural issues because of the environment in the kennels. Having said that, when we called up for telephone support some weeks in, unprompted, the adviser said dogs with our DDog’s start in life were much higher risk to have behavioural problems/serious issues. Being first-time owners we were unaware of that before adopting.

It’s just sad really. We’re doing our best for DDog but feel bad she’s struggling and behaviourist at DT not very sympathetic. We now have so many restrictions on our lives what we’re totally unexpected.

'Being first-time owners we were unaware of that before adopting.'

Surely you should have done your research before getting a dog rather than expecting a charity to do it for you? If you get a rescue, you have to be prepared for the possibility the dog may have issues. The very fact they are in rescue immediately tells you they have been through some kind of trauma. It's just common sense. I'm actually surprised they allowed you to adopt a dog as generally the Dog's Trust are very good at weeding out the unprepared types who expect the perfect pooch.

I think that’s a bit unfair. We did research around the breed and info we were told but didn’t get given the whole picture. I’ll admit we were naive but we were upfront with our lack of experience/limitations and didn’t have the whole story, so not sure we could have predicted the outcome. I’m also saying I’m surprised we were matched with DDog given their needs. As responsible dog owners we’ve done our best to work with the dog we have and make their life as happy as possible but at a big cost financially and time-wise, even impacting my own health. I think we’ve done a lot more than the majority of new owners would (although appreciate some people are super experienced and “naturals” with distressed animals.)

You had a bad experience with Dogs Trust. My parents had an amazing one, as did my best friend. She took on a bonded pair that were not that bonded. They took back one dog fine.

Me and several neighbours/dog walkers have reported a man for starving his 2 dogs (Hungarian ridgebacks). RSPCA (eventually) went round after several reports. He wouldn’t let them see the dogs. They didn’t go again until my DH saw him burying one of the dogs in the local woods. The 2nd time they went he wouldn’t let them in. They didn’t go again. I reported him 3 weeks ago as the last dog was barely able to walk she was so thin. The RSPCA said they’d take up to 17 days to go round to his house. There’s no way the dog would have lasted that long. They refuse to give me an update so we (neighbours and dog walkers) don’t know if they’ve been or if the dog is alive or dead.

He’d walk them in the blazing sun, charge off and leave them struggling to keep up as they were so thin and hot. He would shut them out in the street to “punish them” (his words) and not feed them if they were “naughty”, whatever that means as they are dogs. How can they be naughty?

I called the local dog warden, dogs trust and various dog rescues for help. All said they don’t have any power but the RSPCA do. Called the police a few times and all said they can only go round if the RSPCA ask for a warrant. So it’s all down to the RSPCA who don’t actually care at all.

It sounds like experiences vary enormously. I’m glad you and others have had positive experiences.

We started to wonder if our environment might be stressing DDog even more so we asked if it would be possible for them to be fostered for a short period to see if they did better. Told no, it would be straight to re-homing. We don’t want to do that as we’re all very bonded and they have horrific separation anxiety issues as it is. We also worry that now DT would presumably (?) have to be honest about DDog’s needs to any potential future adopter they would really struggle to be re-homed, because they have so many complex problems.

Very little practical support or advice from DT and even if we wanted to re-home, I wouldn’t trust them.

Awful

I have no personal experience of other charities, but I do know from various experiences (mine and other people I know) that the RSPCA are a complete disgrace. Their fundraising arm are excellent, their care of animals can only been found when the media are there to record it!

I am surprised by that. My friend that took on the bonded pair had a lot of issues with them and DT offered behaviourists etc free of charge.

The rspca spend half a million a month on outsourced boarding for unwanted animals that need a rescue space.

They cant fund everything. They fund what they can the best they can with a finite amount of money.

If they werent boarding those animals and funding their vet care, they could use it to better resource and finance abuse allegations and prosecution. But thenI what happens to the animals already in their care?

I wouldn't want the buck to stop with me making their finance decisions.

The real problem lies with irresponsible breeders and owners.

Section 19 of the Animal Welfare Act sets put powers for Inspectors and constables - they cannot enter a home/private dwelling without a warrant. There is published information on gov.uk that it can take 3 weeks to one. It's stressful for them too.

@HotDoggidyDig on my case my dog is perfect- she really has no flaws at all! My parents dog has proved to have some reactive issues but the lack of progress with her training is honestly not DT fault - they didn’t know the full extent of the dogs issues and my parents live in the middle of nowhere and wouldn’t accept the dog had issues and needed help. Now they have accepted that DT will give them all the help they need but they just won’t do it.
whatever charity a dog is rehomed from they cannot find out everything about every animal. And you have to be prepared to out a lot of work in yourself for any rescue. I’m not saying they are perfect or don’t make mistakes but they do try and help if you ask

I've had dogs from DT over the years, some a better match than others but they have always been helpful in sorting out any problems where possible. We chose them over smaller rescues as they are fairly close to us, had more dogs to choose from so a better chance of a good match for our home. We have had our current non rescue dog from a puppy and she has issues too and is a work in progress.

We have tried to get help from DT. Some of the telephone advice was useful, we were then referred to a behaviourist. That advice has been limited. In fairness, as other PPs have said, the onus is of course on us as owners to do the behavioural work. It’s very challenging though as our dog has extremely challenging behaviours (as acknowledged by DT) and being first time owners we are obviously very out of our depth. We didn’t know this is what we were taking on. More practical support would have helped-e.g. a group class on handling dogs with these issues. Would have been happy to pay but we could have built more of a support network. We’ve ended up doing this ourselves of course over time.