Genuinely curious - foreign rescues

[SuddenlyOld]

In the UK we are told that the rescue centres are over full. So I'm genuinely curious about why we import rescues from Greece, Romania etc. Is it just easier to adopt from abroad (less stringent for example)

Unless UK rescues change their policies all that will lead to is an increase in unscrupulous puppy breeders and unhealthy fashionable cross breeds.

It’s just because it’s easier - less rules than the established/official UK rescues.

Why?

The disease aspect I can sort of understand. But the argument about dogs in the UK i simply don't.

We have a spanish rescue as we were looking for a spaniel during lockdown and the insane prices meant the breed specific rescues were only getting dogs with severe issues. A big group came over from Spain and we have a lovely boy.

Why? All that will do is drive up the prices of puppies in the UK and increase puppies bred in puppy farms.

It's not going to magically change the criteria of UK rescues so people will be left with no choice but to buy a puppy.

My friend adopted a dog from a rescue centre in Spain that a family member owns. They get inundated with puppies found in big bags etc. They wanted a young dog, but wanted to rescue and all of the centres they tried over here wouldn't approve them as they have young children. The dog was found dumped in a bin along with his siblings at a few days old, he was about 4-5 months by the time he got here. He's absolutely gorgeous, so loving and loyal, and including his passport, vacs and travel fees only cost about 500 euros. He would have been dead or lived out his life in a rescue centre there, as the locals don't tend to want larger breed dogs unless they're bred for hunting. Most of the puppies from their rescue either get sent to UK, France or Germany. Trouble is, it is very hard to meet the criteria to adopt from UK centres. The only way they will ever reduce the amount of dogs in rescues is to clamp down on "breeders" and make it illegal to breed without a license. So many people breed puppies as a quick money spinner, with no worries as to where those puppies ultimately end up. And the increase in demand for designer "breeds" i.e crossbreeds with no need for registering puppies and providing KC papers, mean anyone can create random crossbreed puppies with whatever dogs they can find, and fob them off as the latest trend of cavapoo, cockapoo etc, knowing they will get snapped up by people willing to pay over the odds, and a high percentage will ultimately end up being surrendered to a shelter when the cute puppy stage wears off.

Whinge I'm running out of options. I'm on my own and not happy to drive for miles [maybe hold ups] to other rescues and back [meaning hours for a worried dog in strange car]. The RSPPCA here has usually only staffies/large dogs which I'm not happy with.
A case of ageism too, when you're past 70 they think you're going to drop any day! Well I'd be happy with a dog who is 7-11, 12 years old so we'd have a similar life span! One of my sons would take any dog I had if I was to pass away anyway.

Yes, same. There were specific reasons they couldn't get a dog from a local shelter, such as working away from home all day.

The only dogs that were available near me in a 50 mile radius were staffies, bully breeds, and collie crosses. Usually with a bite history.

My foreign dog is a wonderful small gentle, healthy mongrel. I don't want a staffy or a bullbreed, i don't like them. If that's my only choice next time I'll buy a puppy.

Incredibly unpopular opinion: it would be more ethical to raise funds to humanely euthanize a large proportion of rescue dogs, UK and abroad, especially rather than shipping them all the way over here to potentially live in kennels indefinitely.

A huge number of rescue dogs are anaesthetised to be neutered/spayed anyway - as far as the dog is concerned, they would actually know anything about it if they just didn't wake up from that 🤷‍♀️

I bought a puppy in the end but I was turned down by the big U.K. rescues for daring to have a child under 10, (youngest was 9) and by the breed specific rescue for living 150m inside the city boundary (they had a no cities rule) despite having 1/3 acre fenced gardens and under a 10 minute walk to parkland (off lead friendly) leading onto open county side (arable with public access) go figure. Ddog is now 13 and not sure i will have another puppy, too many hoops for an older dog

And in those cases they should be turned down. But that's not the case for most people who try and rescue a dog. So many UK rescues have ridiculous tick boxes that i'm surprised any dog is ever rehomed from them.

@MrsTerryPratchett Absolutely, of course.

My point is more in response to people who could rescue from the UK but choose not to. I simply don't understand it.

I don't imagine there are many people who choose a foreign rescue without trying UK rescues first. I'm sure there are some, but I suspect the vast majority only look into it once they have been turned down by local rescues.

Yes, I agree with that. My parents had trouble getting a rescue as they had a grandchild who sometimes visited. They got one eventually from a UK breed specific rescue (and there were never any problems with the dog and the grandchild). But I disagree with bringing stray dogs from overseas for multiple reasons, particularly in relation to disease.

I think maybe people in posh areas don't experience the shelters full of rotties, staffis, bullies and other big, powerful dogs and crosses. No nice, medium mongrels at all.

I looked at a number of rescue centres before buying what will probably be my last dog. All of them stipulated the home had to be within 25 I think it was, miles of the rescue centre. 98/100 they needed to be the only dog. Most of them apparently weren't good with cats. Usual garden stipulation which is fair enough. It's enough to put the most enthusiastic owner off. I went off and bought myself a puppy of my choice which I would have preferred not to. I didn't want to go the foreign rescue route for personal reasons.

To be fair the amount of people who start looking for a dog and immediately think I know I'll adopt a foreign rescue is miniscule. If people could adopt from the UK most would but they can't because of vast amounts of rules and tick boxes that are impossible for 99.9% of the population to achieve.

Obviously some people do choose to adopt from abroad for other reasons but the vast majority do so because they genuinely don't want to do the puppy route and that's the only route available to them in this country.

I have a friend who works in public health and she is appalled at the health issues connected to dogs from Europe. Apparently the disease risk is reaching the point that some vets won't treat overseas rescues (brucellosis is a biggie).

IME of the dogs from Europe who have ended up rehomed near here, I would say you need to do your homework at least as thoroughly as you would if finding a puppy. The breed/type (gundog) rescues in France, Spain and Greece seem to be better, on average, in that they look as if they assess the dogs properly. Some of the others... oh God. Completely unsuitable 'matches'. People with no or limited experience of dogs taking on really challenging animals, or dogs that are just too much for their personal circumstances.

Check out the rescue really, really carefully. Is the dog socialised? Is there proper certification for any claimed health tests? Is the dog negative for things like brucellosis and certain parasites? Can you see videos of the dog you'll get6 interacting with people and other dogs? What follow up support and advice do they offer? Is there a FB community of owners that you can join to ask questions?

Personally, if I were to go down that route, I'd speak to friend who has had 2x successful experiences with the same French gundog rescue, and to a friend who volunteers for a UK breed rescue, and grill them both.

I have one, I wasn’t looking for one, he was in a rescue in the U.K.

He was just the first cat friendly dog I was actually offered after about 2 years of looking. Cat friendly dogs in rescue are rare because (quite rightly) they won’t risk a probably is ok but we don’t know dog in case it goes wrong - because best case the dog bounces back and worst there’s also a dead cat.

I'm not sure I'm entirely in agreement that people who work outside the home shouldn't have dogs at all. A warm and safe home with a loving owner who is out sometimes must surely be better than a kennel or a crammed shelter abroad.

Common sense would say so but lots of people on MN and who run shelters seem to think if a dog is left longer than 4 hours in a nice safe warm home with food and water and toys and a bed it will spontaneously combust or something and it is therefore preferable for them to remain in a shelter where in the UK they will be fed and walked a few times a day or overseas left to fight for their lives.

Dragon - I agree.

I have a rescue from abroad. I wasn't looking for one specifically, but a friend shared a post from a uk rescue that also work with shelters from abroad and he caught my eye. He was young and was felt to be good with children and cats. These were things that were important to me and which you rarely get with rescues in the uk. He is also a large proportion of a breed that I would have chosen if buying a puppy. He has a very extensive doggie passport and had all of his early vaccinations and the necessary tests before leaving his country of origin.

I wouldn't have been accepted by the vast majority of rescues in the uk even though we have someone at home at all times. And rightly so. I have children, one of whom is under 5. I have a cat. It is our first dog as a family so I lack experience.
I also would not have chosen to rescue the majority of dogs in this country, due to not knowing their history, or due to breed preference and our lack of experience - I don't care about looks as such, but there are specific breeds that I would not choose and unfortunately rescues over here are full of them.

I don't get the animosity about this. We didn't contribute to puppy farms or unethical breeding. My dog was rescued when very close to death alongside his litter mates. He then lived in a concrete yard for several months with very little shelter and having to grab what food he could (we have videos). His birth country routinely kill strays. Now he's got a loving home and is part of our family.

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't want an AIBU style argument, I really am trying to understand so thank you those who gave honest opinions.

I got a rescue from a Durham shelter in 2001 and she was an amazing girl. I had primary kids and I worked full time. It wasn't a problem. They were more interested in whether I had a secure garden.

Fast forward to now and I still work and have a secure garden but no kids but gk stay over. I haven't been turned down by a rescue but every single dog I looked at for 2 years was either a bite risk or was adult only or couldn't be left.

So I just wondered about foreign rescues and if it was because the process was less stringent or whether people specifically chose foreign dogs as they were in more danger than UK dogs.