This is why responsible rescues give life long back-up to their animals.

[QuietTiger]

This a bit of a rant, but might give you an insight as to why you should always check that a rescue will give you back-up and support when you adopt an animal.

I work with a very well known, very respected Border Collie rescue. At 3pm yesterday afternoon, I was rung by the rescue and asked to do an emergency pick-up of an 11 year old dog who had been in her home 3 1/2 years, having been homed there by the rescue initally. Apparently, she had "suddenly attacked the grandchildren".

On the phone, the man wanting to hand the dog in explained to me that she was "dangerous". She hated cats, dogs, children, was agressive, couldn't be let off the lead and needed "to go". Apparently, dog had snapped at his dgd and "scared her for life". We had every excuse under the sun trying to justify why she had to go NOW. I collected her at 9.30pm.

When I collected the collie girl in question, I sat there and completed the paperwork, while I was given a great long list of what the dog does "wrong". At no point was there anything positive said about her. This morning, after a night at my house, my husband asked me if I had collected the wrong dog. All we have, is a completely normal collie girl. She LIKES cats, LIKES dogs and is polite and respectful around well behaved children and other people. If we hadn't collected her last night, she would have been PTS this morning as a "vicious dog". They had booked the appointment , but thank God didn't have the guts to follow it through without ringing the rescue where she came from first.

People lie to get rid of their animals and in this case, that lie could have cost a dog her LIFE, because the bigger rescues, who didn't know the dog, had she gone into their care would have immediately PTS a "child agressive" collie. Had she gone to a pound, she would have been dead within hours as an agressive owner surrender. Had she gone to the vet, she'd be dead.

PLEASE, PLEASE, make sure, if you get a rescue animal, it's from a responsible rescue.

Thank you

I was playing with one like that this weekend, QuietTiger. A collie cross, funnily enough.

He arrived last week. The rescue tried to see what the alleged problems were... couldn't find any.

I stayed at the rescue over the weekend. Could I identify the alleged problems? Could I feck! He's a stunning little dog, a real cracker full of affection and willing to please.

To think what would have happened to that dog had the owners sent him to one of the big rescues instead of returning him to the no-kill one he came from originally brings a lump to my throat.

After another weekend with around 60 fantastic dogs and now being back to deal with several cases where the owners don't want their dogs for stupid reasons and expect me to pull a fecking miracle out of a hat with an instant rescue place I can say without reservation that it isn't the dogs which are the problem.... it's the fecking owners a lot of the time!

I've done loads of similar rescues where I've been given stupid excuses.

I particularly like "We've had it number of years, now suddenly we're allergic to it". What after 12 years you're allergic to your older dog who's got arthritis and you're not allergic to your 10 week old designer puppy with loads of hair that you've just paid £650 for?

or; (as in the case of my cat who I ended up keeping) "she no longer matches the furniture". I kid you not. Then there's "He made a funny face at the baby and I'm scared he'll savage him"... or how about "he keeps scratching my sofa and I can't deal with the damage and he's scared of my Rottweiler" (in the case of an 8 week old kitten who had left his mum and siblings 2 hours previously...)

Many people are arseholes. But, on the flip side and the reason I put up with the shit is because, many people are not arseholes and just want to help/provide a fantastic rescue home.

Having lost three very loved dogs within a fifteen-month period, two from old age, and one tragically at 14 months old, I just can not understand what is wrong with these people. How can you treat a creature who's been part of your family like this?

Quiet, so pleased to hear that you were able to get the dog out of the situation. Like you and Val, I've seen many dogs that were allegedly "impossible" and likely to face the needle. In fact, on our sofa downstairs is a snoozing greyhound. His previous owner reported so many behavioural problems that when we were asked to foster him, I did so with a heavy heart to be honest. After a few days, we phoned up the foster co-ordinator to ask if she was sure she had given us the right dog. I shudder to think what his life must have been like before and how close he came to a premature end. Now he's done his Silver KC award, is waiting to be assessed for Pets as Therapy, and our nephew is his best mate.

Like you, we were able to help because the charity concerned offered not only behavioural advice and support but a lifelong guarantee of rehoming, and a network of foster carers who are willing to drop everything and get a dog out of a potentially difficult environment. These features really do make a difference, and they save lives.

Two so called aggressive dogs here too - that had to be got rid of urgently. The so called aggressive staffy cross could I suppose lick you to death or suffocate you with waggyness.

The aggressive collie was yesterday playing happily with 6 other dogs and swimming in a lake literally smiling with happiness.

I am afraid that I do have no sympathy with people that when it gets difficult just lie to make things fine for them. Thank god for your dedicated resucers you are not thanked enough.

The collie girl is now safely on her way to the rescue, thanks to a kind lady who was prepared to give her a lift.

She's a lucky one. :)

I rather like this, actually. It sums it up.

An Open Letter to Mr. and Mrs. Average Pet Owner

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Average Pet Owner:
Thank you for contacting us animal rescuers, shelter volunteers, and foster-homes about your inability to keep your pet. We receive an extremely high volume of inquiries and requests to accept surrendered animals (and none of us is getting paid, OK?). To help us expedite your problem as quickly as possible, please observe the following guidelines:

1. Do not say that you are "CONSIDERING finding a good home" for your pet, or that you, "feel you MIGHT be forced to," or that you "really THINK it would be better if" you unloaded the poor beast. Ninety-five percent of you have already got your minds stone-cold made up that the animal WILL be out of your life by the weekend at the latest. Say so. If you don't, I'm going to waste a lot of time giving you common-sense, easy solutions for very fixable problems, and you're going to waste a lot of time coming up with fanciful reasons why the solution couldn't possibly work for you. For instance, you say the cat claws the furniture, and I tell you about nail-clipping and scratching posts and aversion training, and then you go into a long harangue about how your husband won't let you put a scratching post in the family room, and your ADHD daughter cries if you use a squirt bottle on the cat, and your congenital thumb abnormalities prevent you from using nail scissors and etc., etc. Just say you're getting rid of the cat.

1. Do not waste time trying to convince me how nice and humane you are. Your co-worker recommended that you contact me because I am nice to animals, not because I am nice to people, and I don't like people who "get rid of" their animals. "Get rid of" is my least favorite phrase in any language. I hope someone "gets rid of" YOU someday. I am an animal advocate, not a people therapist. After all, for your ADHD daughter, you can get counselors, special teachers, doctors, social workers, etc. Your pet has only me, and people like me, to turn to in his or her need, and we are unpaid, overworked, stressed-out, and demoralized. So don't tell me this big long story about how, "We love this dog so much, and we even bought him a special bed that cost £50, and it is just KILLING us to part with him, but honestly, our maid is just awash in dog hair every time she cleans, and his breath sometimes just reeks of liver, so you can see how hard we've tried, and how dear he is to us, but we really just can't . . ."

You are not nice, and it is not killing you. It is, in all probability, literally killing your dog, but you're going to be just fine once the beast is out of your sight. Don't waste my time trying to make me like you or feel sorry for you in your plight.

1. Do not try to convince me that your pet is exceptional and deserves special treatment. I don't care if you taught him to sit. I don't care if she's a beautiful Persian. I have a waiting list of battered and/or whacked-out animals who need help, and I have no room to foster-house your pet. Do not send me long messages detailing how Fido just l-o-v-e-s blankies and carries his favorite blankie everywhere, and oh, when he gets all excited and happy, he spins around in circles, isn't that cute? He really is darling, so it wouldn't be any trouble at all for us to find him a good home. Listen, we can go down to the pound and count the darling, spinning, blankie-loving beasts on death row by the dozens, any day of the week. And, honey, Fido is a six-year-old Shepherd-Lab mix. I am not lying when I tell you that big, older, mixed-breed, garden-variety dogs are almost completely unadoptable, and I don't care if they can whistle Dixie or send semaphore signals with their blankies. What you don't realize is that, though you're trying to lie to me, you're actually telling the truth: Your pet IS a special, wonderful, amazing creature. But this mean old world does not care. More importantly, YOU do not care, and I can't fix that problem.

All I can do is grieve for all the exceptional animals who live short, brutal, loveless lives and die without anyone ever recognizing that they were indeed very, very special.

1. Finally, just, for pity' s sake, for the animal's sake, tell the truth, and the whole truth. Do you think that if you just mumble that your cat is "high-strung," I will say, "Okey-doke! No problemo!" and take it into foster care? No, I will start a asking questions and uncover the truth, which is that your cat has not used a litter box in the last six months. Do not tell me that you "can't" crate your dog. I will ask what happens when you try to crate him, and you will either be forced to tell me the symptoms of full-blown, severe separation anxiety, or else you will resort to lying some more, wasting more of our time.

And, if you succeed in placing your pet in a shelter or foster care, do not tell yourself the biggest lie of all: "Those nice people will take him and find him a good home, and everything will be fine." Those nice people will indeed give the animal every possible chance, but if we discover serious health or behavior problems, if we find that your misguided attempts to train or discipline him have driven him over the edge, we will do what you are too immoral and cowardly to do: We will hold the animal in our arms, telling him truthfully that he is a good dog or cat, telling him truthfully that we are sorry and we love him, while the vet ends his life.

How can we be so heartless as to kill your pet, you ask? Do not ever dare to judge us. At least we tried. At least we stuck with him to the end. At least we never abandoned him to strangers, as you certainly did, didn't you? In short, this little old rescuer/foster momma has reached the point where she would prefer you pet owners to tell her stories like this:

"We saw the paper & free-ads and picked up a free pet a couple of years ago. Now we don't want it anymore. We're lazier than we thought. We've got no patience either. We're starting to suspect the animal is really smarter than we are, which is giving us self-esteem issues. Clearly, we can't possibly keep it. Plus, it might be getting sick; it's acting kind of funny.

"We would like you to take it in eagerly, enthusiastically, and immediately.

"We hope you'll realize what a deal you're getting and not ask us for a donation to help defray your costs. After all, this is an (almost) pure-bred animal, and we'll send the leftover food along with it. We get the food at AZDA too, and boy, it's a really good deal, price-wise".

"We are very irritated that you haven't shown pity on us in our great need and picked the animal up already. We thought you people were supposed to be humane! Come and get it today. No, we couldn't possibly bring it to you; the final episode of "X-Factor" is on tonight."

Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Pet Owner, for your cooperation.

Author Unknown, but could be any shelter worker or rescuer.

That's made me cry. It's so true of so many of these feckless owners.... the one who didn't want the 4 year old GSD they'd had since he was a pup because he IGNORED their toddler and they considered him a danger therefore, the owner who kept her dog in a crate for 23.5 hours out of 24 because of her cream carpet and suite, the one who took on a dog then handed her back to rescue together with their other dog because they'd decided to emigrate to the States (didn't leave their child in a UK orphanage though), the owner who was persuaded to hand over her Lab cross after a year of keeping him locked in the kitchen day and night because he was too much hard work... a Lab cross who is as gentle and loving as the day is long despite what man did to him...

StillSobbingVallhala

The worst case I ever had was when a beautiful black and white newfoundland came into the rescue. I think the owners were in their late 50's. They lived in a third floor flat. They had had it from a puppy it had never met any other people or any other dogs, it had got too big for the flat and they needed to rehome it. IIRC I think it was about 3. It wouldn't let us near it. It bit the girl who was head of the dog section when she came to take it.
This was nearly 20 years ago now and I still think about that poor dog and those stupid people and who the let them have it in the first place. The outcome wasn't a happy one

My big bugbear is people dumping their pets because they are moving house. I have VERY little sympathy for people who are "getting rid of" their pets because they are "moving". I managed to take my 2 cats to the USA and Belize, and back to the UK again, because I was "moving". I'm the LAST person to whom you should say "we're moving and so can't take our pet..."

That has made me cry.

I am sitting here looking at my much loved pooch who we got because the original people who were supposed to buy him (he's a pedigree) didn't want him as he didn't meet the breed standard in one very small and totally irrelevant to his life as a pet way.

He is doted on and loved by my children, and he loves them back in return. He drives me nuts when he walks on my clean floors with his muddy paws, and when he nicks the biscuits I've set on the coffee table but I wouldn't be without him.

and I also studiously ignore every night the fact that my daughter has him in the bloody bed with her and I mean in the bed, she has a double, with his head on the fecking pillow and the duvet over him.

You rescude guys do an amazing job.

rescue - can't spell

how were these idiots approved to "rescue" the dog in the first place though? And shouldn't there be some sort of system where the rescues can check on the welfare of the animals that are placed in new homes like this? (although I do realise that this is a question of resources).

The issue is that animals are seen as disposable purely because they are animals, and sadly you see it on mn all the time "I just can't cope/didn't realise how much work my puppy would be," followed by pages of "well, you made a mistake, you should rehome him." wtf? As for people that get rid of their "old" animals to get younger ones, well words fail me really.

I have a retired guide dog who was unfortunately withdrawn young due to a behavioral issue (probably best not discussed on an open forum, not that I am bitter or anything ), and the number of people who said to me "oh you can't possibly keep him and have another working dog," was just astounding. And the worst from my mother "well he's not a pet, is he? he's a working dog," oh no, it's not as if he became a part of my family and grew up with my ds now, is it? my response is a fairly standard one: "well, I don't think i want my ds growing up thinking that once a dog passes its use you just get rid of it and get a new one."

Because, Wannabe, despite an extensive homecheck and follow-up when they adopted the dog, they LIED. Which is VERY common. The story they gave 3.5 years ago was that they had no children in the house & there was no mention of grand children. Had children been mentioned, they would have got a dog who was KNOWN to be child-friendly, not a dog who had never lived with children. I've lost count of the number of people who lie or have lied to get a dog. You get good at sniffing them out. I've also lost count of the number of people who give some bullshit excuse just to get rid of the animal.

To anyone who knows dogs and I include you as someone who knows dogs, Wannabe, (especially if you have labs ) you'll know that if you start waving cheese around as a treat, you'll end up with furry sharks circling in the kitchen. I don't just have sharks with cheese, I have crocodiles with mega hugs teeth. Apparently, this collie girls crime was to snap at the cheese too quickly and her mouth was too close to the grand-daughters head. According to the fuckwit owner, it was a "vicious unprovoked attack" (even though she admitted throwing cheese at the dog). According to anyone who knows dogs & collies (me & also the rescue), it was probably a collie snapping at a bit of cheese being thrown through the air by the owner.

I've had 3 rescue dogs, all from puppy and all mutts with some collie in there somewhere!

Only the MuttDog I've got now has been around children, but all three were trained to be extremely gentle where food was concerned. We always took pains (in some cases literally) to make sure we could take food back off them without them going bonkers, or have food around them without them begging / stealing. DD can give MuttDog a biscuit with one end in her own mouth and MuttDog is wonderfully gentle. She has treats, but we never used food as a training aid - just lots and lots of fuss.

A friend decided she was 'getting rid' of her dog (a lab) as it "stole DDs chocolate and almost took her hand off" I asked what she meant, and where the chocolate was at the time - turned out the DD was teasing the dog saying "do you love me yes no" moving the choc up and down. When I suggested to her that it wasn't the dogs fault she went a bit hysterical exagerating how "evil" the dog had looked, how she definately went for DD not the choc, how she could have "torn out her throat if I hadn't stopped her" This was a bloody 1 year old bouncy, stupid, slobbering lab.

She was actually going to take the dog to the vets and have her PTS (or at least she thought she was - we had the same vet and there is no way that would have happened, vet isn't stupid). In the end I took the dog for a couple of weeks and then she went to a very good friend who had sadly lost their 15 yr old lab a couple of months previously. Said lab is now living the life of reilly and strangely has never shown any sign of nastiness...

(oh and friend is ExFriend - I couldnt be around her any more)

My dog loves cheese, there is nothing he wouldn't do for a bit of cheese. He's learned to be generally good and gentle around food, and knows he has to sit nicely for his treats, wait to be told he can eat his dinner etc, but if I threw a bit of cheese near a child, I'm pretty sure he'd lunge for it, without much regard for whether he barged into the child or frightened them with his snapping jaws. So of course I wouldn't do that - or if I inadvertently did, it would be my own fault, not the dog's. Wouldn't let children tease him with food either.

Unbelievable that people would 'get rid' of their dog or ask to have him killed for such a thing, rather than just, you know, being a bit more careful in future. I just can't understand it.

WannaBe, with the exception of the family who decided to relocate to the US without their dogs, none of the examples I've given are former rescue dogs. The GSD who ignores the toddler was bought from a breeder as a pup, the silly cow who didn't want her cream carpet spoiled bought the pup from a backyard breeder and god only knows where the Lab x kept in a kitchen originated from - I'd suspect another backyard breeder.

Oh, I am SO tempted to print that letter and anonymously post it to a neighbour who has just taken their collie cross back to the pound. A year after they got her, with 2 puppies in tow.

They got her as a puppy, gorgeous dog - think collie/golden retriever - hyper and lovely and damn damn smart.

When she was 10 mths old she had puppies (despite everyone warning her to have the dog spayed). They failed to sell all of the five pups so when they decided that she was "aggressive" they gave the pups back to the pound with her. The pound had paid for her to be spayed, which is incredibly expensive here.

Poor dog was hardly walked, except when another neighbour took pity on her and took her out, she kept jumping the fence and running about the area.

Admittedly, the neighbour was very ill over Xmas with pneumonia, but they could have sorted out a dog walker. Still makes me really angry. And sad.

When owners have an issue with their pet, it's common for them to ring their vet for advice (this implies an attempt at responsible ownership, I think?).

In cases of aggression, some vets will (not all, of course) advise the poor creature is PTS.

This happened to me and mine. I'm more anarchic than not so I rang around and queried their advice. My dog got a second chance (and a new home) but had I not been somewhat aware or had felt the 'right' thing to do was to follow my vets advice without question, it would be a different matter entirely.

To choose to re-home isn't always an irresponsible choice and FWIW, I for one didn't lie. Through a series of unfortunate events (an accident at 12 weeks meant she was caged for several months while her savaged leg healed, unfortunately separated from the children throughout that so necessary socialisation period of puppyhood), my large crossbreed dog, at a year old, eventually did launch an aggressive 'unprovoked' attack to the face of one of my children. The risk of working on her behaviour was too high with several small children at home. She was re-homed almost immediately because she was lovely. Well trained, well cared for, much loved.

She went to a childless environment and a new 'pack' and this was something I could not provide for her. I failed her and will always feel guilt and grief that she couldn't remain within our family but relieved that my children are no longer at risk (they were) and that the incident which occurred wasn't worse than it was, meaning the option of re-homing was still available to us.

Bast, sorry to hear your story, but you gotta admit that type is the exception rather than the rule.

Meow, life long cat rescuer and would have more than three if the funds and space were available. I have NO desire to be on TV in 20 years as a crazy cat lady (I'm only 35!!), however, so 3 is the limit!!!

...I posted in part because I have no doubt that anyone who has handled her since will most probably think "WTF? She's amazing." because she so nearly always was.

Thank you Meow. In time we adopted a little guy that we seem to fit perfectly ...but I miss my girl greatly.
I just think it's beneficial for people to be aware that an owner might be following their vets advice and that if a dog has attacked, it can be a terrifying experience, one which can provoke an irrational but surely understandable fear reaction in some.

True.