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)

@Dragonwindow "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."
Absolutely. I genuinely don't understand the reluctance to PTS. It's a shit situation that shouldn't have happened. But because it has, why extend the stress and physical and psychological suffering?

I got a foreign rescue because I couldn't find a rescue who would consider us with a cat, living in a flat (but with our own entrance and fenced garden) and a teenager. I went with one I trusted because I know someone who has rescued from them and volunteers for them. I don't really think there is a hierarchy of dogs in need depending on whether they are from the UK or not. We wanted a dog and we wanted to rescue one, now we have the perfect dog for us who previously had a shit life and now has a lovely one.

That’s no different from now. The laws all need to change. Someone I know got a puppy from a rescue in Romania. Her puppy died from some parvo-like disease 3 weeks after getting it. As did all the others that were sent at the same time. Awful. Any vet will tell you it’s not good practice to be bringing other animals in to rehome.

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?

We did all of this, after not finding any suitable dog in a U.K. rescue that we were eligible for or who was suitable for us. The rescue vetted us as thoroughly as we vetted them (we had a home check from the same person who home checked for local RSPCA branch) and saw videos of our dog interacting with cats and children. They advised us against a different dog we were interested in in favour of our girl. She’s a sweetheart.

I really wanted to rehome an adult dog not buy a puppy. That was my main ethical
consideration, not where the dog was born. When I was a child we rocked up to Birmingham Dogs Home, chose between whatever dogs they had, and took our Heinz 57 mongrel home the same day. No home checks, no suitability assessment except for fussing the dog in a room and seeing how they reacted. That’s not the way things are now. Giving a dog a new home is bloody hard! I don’t disagree with the U.K. rescues criteria necessarily but it’s just not easy to get a dog via U.K.-only rescue centres. Even when they’re supposedly ‘overrun’ with dogs needing homes,

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.

There you go. For 2 years every rescue you’ve looked at has had issues. Of course, foreign dogs can have issues too. But a great number of them don’t, and they need a home but less people are willing to consider them so there’s less competition. My dog, for example, came with perfect basic manners (sit, shake a paw, down, etc) and walked beautifully on a lead - she’s scared of gunshots and fireworks and thunder, and she’s a devil for squirrel chasing with selective hearing, but otherwise she’s brilliant, gentle as anything with kids, cats, elderly folk, can be left with no separation anxiety, etc.

^^ This. I wanted a healthy mongrel, not an established breed with all the health problems and neuroses. We have always owned mongrels, and they have been happy, healthy, even-tempered dogs. And adorably odd-looking.

And now the only place to source one is outside the UK.

I can't believe people in the UK pay £££ thousands for designer breeds and crosses. It's just not what we are after in a dog.

“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.”

I think it’s a mix of things tbh.. my neighbour has foreign rescues - she’s definitely got them because she felt sorry for the situations they’d come from, they’re ex hunting pointers that have all been mistreated and dumped. (She had 3 at one point all adopted separately, but from the same place)

I wouldn’t adopt a dog I couldn’t meet - it just happened to be that he’d originally come from a different country, so the process for me was exactly the same as any other rescue, home check, going to meet him in the rescue etc. Though... I was looking for one with no big behavioural issues this time as I wanted a bit of a break from that and he’s turned out to have the most issues of all the project dogs I’ve ever had, just didn’t display them in the rescue... he is good with the cat though 😐😂

And I definitely see lots of people online who got them because some rescues bringing in foreign dogs are easier to adopt from. It’s pretty much buying a dog online from some places, in that they just rehome them to whoever applies and pays for them to come over.

We got lucky with a local rescue charity, and picked up a very calm and characterful sight-hound. The charity didn't stress about the fence heights etc., but they did have a trial period and a home visit to make sure everything was going fine. It's luck of the draw. Like others here, I wouldn't have been interested in a bull-type breed if that had been all there was.

But also, we probably wouldn't have gambled on getting a foreign dog— not because they aren't worth adopting, but more uncertainty about health, the cost, the feeling that at least some of these rescues are scams. Not sure how well grounded those concerns would have been though!

Basically this. The rescue charity I used in the end has robust checks etc, but is also flexible. My experience of Dogs Trust sadly left me with the distinct impression they would rather dogs remain in shelters than go to loving homes…

The British Veterinary Association is very much against rescuing from abroad and has urged people not to do it.

We adopted a foreign rescue, advertised as a mixed breed. He is a large dog and is a Romainian Mioritic Shepherd (a guardian breed). I stupidly went for a foreign dog as uk rescues wouldn’t let me due to being a childminder. I’m now in a position where I can’t have visitors in the house as he is wary of strangers, walks are awful, we have to go to quiet places. I’m doing all the training I can, but all my energy is going into the dog and not my family. The original rescue closed their FB group amid rumours or not doing proper home checks. I was constantly hearing ‘adopt don’t shop’ and thought I was doing the right thing, it’s totally changed our lives….not in a good way. We have been trying to rehome him to people who have the same breed as they understand them…to no avail

This sums up my experience of every UK dog shelter we contacted before driving to Ireland to pick up our ddog.

Our local rescue has a no crate policy. You crate one of their dogs and they take the dog back.

This is a deal breaker for me. My dog is now 5, got him as a puppy. He's little (5kg) and sleeps in a crate in our room at night for his own safety. It's cosy with a lovely dog bed and means that none of the 4 people in our house will accidentally step on him in the dark. If he lets out the slightest noise, he knows that we will get him out immediately. He's never ever in distress in that crate. But the rescue people think I am a demon for crating the dog. Whatever.

Oh and his crate is a big one, for a big dog even though he's tiny. He can stretch right out, stand right up, no cramping issues whatsoever.

I was turned down by a rescue because kids/ cat. Ended up getting a labrador puppy who is super family dog (age 4 now). I think rescues can be a bit unrealistic and can see why people turn to more pragmatic organisations.

I didn’t intend to adopt a Romanian dog. She was at a local, very well established and respected rescue centre, who it turns out had a relationship with a charity out there.

If they hadn’t had our dog (or a couple of similar, medium sized adults), I would not have adopted at all. The absence of foreign imports wouldn’t convert me to someone who would want a husky or muscular mastiff/ bully type dog.

I do see a risk of encouraging puppy farming overseas, but as others have said, there is plenty of that here and just like humans in need, a dog is a dog no matter where is was born.

This is an incredibly unpopular opinion-but I think that there is nothing wrong with animals being humanely put to sleep. There are so many in shelters and rescues who will never find homes and will live miserably there for years. And it would be better for everyone and the dogs if the available resources and homes were focussed on the ones with potential happy futures. And I think that applies to this country and abroad. And I speak as someone whose dd has an absolutely gorgeous rescue from Cyprus who is the apple of my eye.

I've had very under-whelming experiences with animal rescues in the Uk.

20 years ago I wanted to adopt an adult cat (I'd never had a cat before) I was privately renting (very secure was family friend) until I bought my own home with the next year or so.

I was turned down by the local RSPCA for all the cats I wanted, an absolute no because of my housing circumstances, but they were happy for me to have a kitten or an extremely traumatised & aggressive cat (that presumably no one wanted).

I'm the end I took to FB and rehomed an unwanted cat from someone 150miles away - the cat lived with me for 18 years.

My next experiences have been with the local dogs trust. I'm in a fairly nice area, the dogs they have are mostly huskies types & dogs imported from Ireland. They turned me and DH down for some reason 15 years ago, I can't remember what, probably because we were honest and said yes likely the dog would be left alone at home for more than 4 hours in their lifetime as although one of us could WFH & both could take the dog to work with us we didn't realise how strict they were going to be because we were experienced dog owners with own home/garden/no kids etc.
All their dogs were horrible, lots and lots of behaviour issues (not the Irish dogs as they were unknowns/strays) and not breeds we ever would have considered due to breed traits let alone the additional behaviour issues.
We bought a puppy instead - this was DH first choice but I wanted to get a rescue and unfortunately we weren't allowed.

When I got divorced and lost the dog I just went for a rescue from abroad. She is perfect, been with me 6 years, I'd get another that way when she goes unless I can find a private genuine re-home from the Uk

Fact checker

Mongrels are not automatically "healthy"

Small UK rescues will rehome with children - people just stick to Dogs Trust and are not prepared to search for smaller rescues.

Foreign recues often do not have qualified staff doing the assessing of dogs as the UK rescues do

For every happy homing from abroad I can match it to probably 2 unhappy homings in the UK with the foreign rescue having "issues" that were not mentioned on adoption including serious bite issues and guarding issues.

Many foreign rescues are rehomed to people without them even seeing the dog first _ why would anyone think this is a good idea.

Foreign rescues are bringing in diseases into the UK.

Some foreign rescues are actually breeding dogs and getting dogs to sell to UK as rescues when they are not at all

Maybe think why a UK rescue has turned you down or why it is hard to rehome in the UK. UK rescues will have life time support. If anything happens to you or the dog they will take the dog back. This level of support means that dogs are very carefully vetted before being rehomed.

Getting a foreign rescue just fuels the trade of rescue dogs abroad - you are perpetuating the trade of rescue dogs not preventing it or helping the situation at all.

Curlew - couldn’t agree more. It seems cruel to keep many of these dogs alive to me. Lots of people are making money out of this dog trade.

I was suspicious that some foreign rescue are breeding for profit, when I got my dog he came over on a bus with 24 other dogs and there were 4 buses @£450 each dog. I’ve been trying to search for information on this, where did you get your information from please?

They don't. They wouldn't normally be brought over until reserved.

It's just a way of people being able to help more dogs.
It's not as if people who decide they'd rather rescue/adopt rather thanbuy a puppy have some sort of moral obligation to just take on any rescue animal that's available.
Rescue dogs can have all sorts of backgrounds and the rescue centres have all sorts of stipulations.
Ive adopted dogs from ukrescue and I've also had a Spanish one.

In my experience the UK rescues are often overwhelmed with poorly behaved untrained dogs and ex breeding stock that's been unsocialised.

I think that it's good to have more options to help animals from all over

We already had 3 dogs and absolutely no intention of getting another one. Long story short - we ended up with our Romanian boy because the worst of the shelters in the UK are veritable palaces compared to the “shelters” abroad. On the whole we treat dogs very well here. Abroad, they’re treated worse than vermin. You can’t even begin to fathom the evil things that humans find to do to these animals. So they’re in dire need of homes, and it’s really that simple.

@SuddenlyOld every single dog matters though, just because a dog is physically not in the UK it still needs a home, at what point does a dog become more deserving, when it is in uk airspace? A dog in India (just for example) is still just as important as a Spanish dog as a uk dog, people who throw dogs out like rubbish and treat then as objects aren't going to stop because of the re homing process.

The root cause does obviously need to be addressed (I don't know how) but I don't think where the rescue dog is from matters, its enough that any dog is give a home regardless of where it came from.

It's strange how people will happily take in stray immigrant dogs, but not stray immigrant people.
If only we were as generous to people who don't have homes who want to come to this country.