ScuttleButter! Anyone else in rescue too please!

[Vallhala]

I'm having a forum exchange with a vet nurse in a local-ish surgery who I suspect knows what she's saying on this issue as her mum is vet and owner of the surgery.

On 12 April a SBT wearing a collar was found near the vets and taken into their surgery. Nice dog, appears good with cats and dogs.

On 15 April the weekend vets (locums) said they'd PTS if he was still there so the VN took him home... but she is chokka and works F/T, is struggling and can't keep him.

Now, of course, LEGALLY neither the locum nor any other vets can kill him at the present... he MUST be kept for 28 days if kept by the finder (and for no less than 7 clear days from the time he is taken in by the council had the vet surgery handed him over to the dog warden). But they're locums and don't give a fuck.

VN reported the finding of the dog to the Police, who said that if she can't find anywhere to place the dog this is a fair option. So, the police are advising that the law is broken.

VN called the posh big megabucks "rescue" which holds the council pound contract. They said she could take the SBT there but they had no room so they would put him to sleep. They recorded the found dog part of the call and switched it off to give her that information, the VN tells me.

VN tells me that the council which all this comes under has no dog warden, has not had one for 5 years and has no intention of providing one.

My advice was to go public, call the local newspaper and show up the police, megabucks "rescue"-come-pound and council for what they are?

Any advice please? I'm SURE there should be a dog warden, regardless of name used, available in every council, though I'm still waiting on confirmatoin of that fact.

Poor bloody dog is at serious risk atm... :(

Problem with going public is that the council & the "megabucks rescue" have the funds to strenuously deny the fact that they don't have a dog warden, blah, blah, and they will then come up with some cock and bull story about how the dog is vicious/has to be PTS, etc. Plus, because of the bull breed angle and public hysteria surrounding "evil SBT's" (they are all vicious man-eaters, who eat small children for fun, right?), they are going to take the moral high ground "save the public from the evil scourge" route.

Reason I am so cynical? I see it with FIV+ cats all the time.The big rescue organisations call it "Feline AIDS" (which is WRONG) and then paint a doom and gloom picture about how it's going to spread to all the cats that don't have it but come within a 20 mile radius of the cat that does. Gives them justification for PTS to the public. Quite apart from the fact that Dr Diane Addie (leading expert on FIV) has pointed out that an FIV+ cat can have a long and healthy life and can harmoniously live in an FIV- household without spreading it... but I digress.

What I don't understand, is if the VN's mum is a vet and owner of the surgery and the vet/VN has control of the SBT - why are the LOCUMS stating that they will PTS? Surely they have to do what they are told by the vet they are locuming for and it is no concern of theirs whether the dog is there overnight or for 3 weeks?

You're not alone in being a member of the cynics club, QuietTiger.

Interesting info about FIV+ cats, thank you, and yes, oddly I have been told exactly what you've written up there by a certain bog cat rescue.

As for the VN, her mum and the locums, your question has already been raised. The response was,

"our weekend vet and nurse this weekend are both locum's so not technically employed by us and yes we could refuse them shifts but i think there are plenty of vets in need of locum's at the min so both would not be fussed. also they may of taken him to big megabucks rescue instead who i phoned to help but was told they are full and would not refuse to take him but they would put him to sleep as they have no where to put him. and im sure we are all aware that big megabucks rescue do not have a no kill policy."

I've just had word from the VN that the dog warden for her home council area has been contacted and collected the dog, against my advice and better judgement. This is a different district council to that in which the vet is situated although they both are within the same county. I told her that if she was insistant about taking this route she must at least get info on where he's going and a sign, dated "receipt" for the dog.

Turns out that this council don't use locally well-known big megabucks rescue.... this poor SBT has just been taken by the DW to the RSPCA. :(

I really don't rate his chances once 7 days are up and there is now fuck all I can do about it. :(

Unfortunately, I don't even rate his chances "before" 7 days with the RSPCA.

That's the one thing that gets me in rescue. People outside believe and think that if an animal gets into a rescue, it's the magic pill with a fluffy happy-ever-after in a forever home for the remainder of the animals sunshine filled life.

Bollocks is it.

And I have to say that I really don't understand why the locum vets refused to care for the dog and that they would PTS, when it wasn't/isn't their surgery. It seems really odd. I suppose if it was a clients dog that had to stay in care and they could charge money for it, then they'd be more than willing to keep it over the weekend? Christ, all they'd have to do is shove it in a bloody kennel, throw food at it and let it out for a wee, until the VN was back in work on the Monday!

You'd have thought, wouldn't you?

Bloody disgusting behaviour from the lot of them.

And like you, I don't trust the RSPCA to keep this poor boy for even 7 days. :(

Hi Val, I think going to the press is a very valid option, but if you do, you'll need to be very clear about your objectives. So, are you wanting the contractor/pound to accept the dog, and not PTS, or are you wanting the vets to hang on to it, or for the dog to be homed to a no kill rescue?

I know this sounds blindingly obvious, but has it been scanned for a chip?

I'd start by finding out who the portfolio holder is for the environment - this should be easily done via the Council website. Ring them up and have a chat, and establish the facts regarding what the Council do and don't do themselves. They must by law provide a stray dog management service though they don't need necessarily to emploly dog wardens and they are perfectly at liberty to use a third party for the pound contract. Also is the council concerned having elections in May? This may be helpful.

In the longer term, I'd be doing some FOI requests on the pound contract, number of dogs PTS, total number of strays etc and using this to put together a local campaign, if possible with the local media on side. It might also be worth getting any smaller, local rescues on side too?

Oh, and like you, don't let this poor dog anywhere near the RSPCA - poor thing won't stand a chance..

Too late ScuttleButter. By the time I got hold of the VN and said I'd ... ahem.... help out without involving certain parties for the sake of the dog she'd already contacted the DW for her home area and was loathe to tell him not to bother and that she, er, could keep the dog herself after all. So, she handed the dog to the DW who then told her that the dog will be going to the RSPCA. He didn't tell her which either and she didn't ask. (VN is young and naive imho).

As I said, best I could persuade her to do was to get a signed, dated receipt of collection from the DW. I was hoping that thus the dog wouldn't be PTS because there was a paper trail and that he would be taken to a normal pound or taken holding kennels for 7 days and then be taken to the pound. Had that been the case I could have secured rescue for him and swooped in to get him as soon as his 7 days were up. However, as you know, once in the RSPCA system a dog will under no circumstances be permitted out to an independent rescue, even if the only alternative is that the RSPCA kill him. The only way we ever get RSPCA-held dogs at risk of PTS out of their clutches is by devious means with the cooperation of sympathetic staff inside their premises.

So, Val, if I understand you correctly, the DW is taking in a stray dog, and then bypassing the pound system completely to send it straight to RSPCA? Or is Rspca acting as pound? Sorry, late at night, struggling to get my head round this.

So am I Matey, so am I!

I have no idea TBH. I can only imagine that it's acting as a pound. I think I MIGHT have an idea which RSPCA centre it is and if so it's POSSIBLE that they are the pound for that area but I'm not sure.

Am going to make some enquiries.

Holy shit!

Weirder and weirder... the RSPCA says that "We are no longer able to take in stray cats, dogs, equines or farm animals."

www.rspca.org.uk/in-action/whatwedo/decisions/prioritisinganimals

I knew that they didn't take in surrenders from the public any more but wasn't aware of whether any of them took strays.

So if the owner is looking for their dog they will be approaching the council and the council's pound, wherever that may be... and of course they will be telling that owner that they haven't got his Staffie... :(

One possibility is the DW is on the fiddle? Though to be honest I'd be surprised at them doing that over a Staffy, which to be blunt are not exactly a rare breed.

Like you, am now even more bamboozled.

The RSPCA are a bunch of ARSEHOLES. They have turned into a political lobby organisation that has completely lost sight of the original mandate of why they were set up... I better stop my rant.

The whole thing from the start sounds and smells "odd". I'm actually wondering if the SBT in question has already been PTS by mistake and the VN or DW was trying to cover their arse?

Whole thing stinks, especially the VN who could have EASILY told the dogwarden than the owners had pitched up and so they were no longer needed.

All very true, QuietTiger. Especially the bit about the RSPCA.

I think the VN - who I only know online and not personally, she's a member of the same small rescue forum as me - is young and less gobby confident than me and didn't like to tell the DW thanks but no thanks when he turned up. Her cowardice will probably cost that SBT his life, if it hasn't already.

Have left a message with the RSPCA branch which MIGHT have been the recipient of the dog and asked them to call me re a SBT brought in by the DW yesterday. Will let you know if and when I get a call back.