Romanian rescues anyone?

[disappearingfish]

We lost our old boy early last summer and are ready to take on another rescue.

We have had a home check with a charity that rescues dogs from Romania and have been matched with a 2 year old dog that looks lovely.

Has anyone been through this? I'm slightly nervous about adopting a dog that you don't meet IRL first. Otherwise the organisation seems great.

@RowenaEllis so you rescued a dog from a foreign country that was already domesticated and had been part of a loving human family but had also somewhere along the line also been part of a wild pack - ok I take it all back. 🤔

Ours is definitely not feral. He's very Velcro-y this morning. Which is lovely.

Bn Showing your ignorance again!!
My dog is a Spanish hunting dog. I didn't say he was part of a wild pack did I? Spanish hunters keep packs of dogs and when they get too old or slow they abandon them or kill them. My dog was found scavenging in a village and living stray for a few weeks until someone got his trust and took him in for a few months where his nature became clear. The rescue only guessed his back story but it's likely.

@maybejustonemoretime
reed this - you might learn something (and develop some compassion)

https://www.hopeforpodencos.com/the-plight-of-the-podenco

@RowenaEllis I have read the entire thread and learnt a lot including the serious concerns vets have about this current trend.
I own a uk rescue who I love dearly and I am satisfied I am as informed as I need to be to hold an opinion on the issue.

There are wild dogs on the beach in Gambia, they’ll happily curl up to humans on sun beds. You aren’t supposed to feed them but people do, the locals drown the puppies if they can find them. All dogs can cause harm, either because of behavioural issues or mental issues. Like us, they all have different issues, some are good natured and others aren’t. 🤷🏼‍♀️

The best thing I’ve ever done Op is to volunteer as a dog walker at a rescue, walk a few dogs and get to know them before applying. Get to know the staff, often if you bond their criteria will change. Dogs that need “lots of exercise” because of their breed actually turn up not needing all that exercise. They want a 30 min walk and then sit on your lap.
Is it many tears that will only rehome to people that have an existing dog? also ridiculous. Most people don’t have that kind of time, space money or indeed cleaning ability!

I’m waiting for the new monstrosity that’ll be created now the XL thing is passing. Stupid, stupid law that won’t work. I think the most formidable dog I’ve ever come in to contact with (as fluffy as he was) was a Caucasian Shepherd dog- very watchful, uncomfortably so and beneath that fur very strong and muscular. I certainly wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of a grumpy one!

Is it many tears that will only rehome to people that have an existing dog? also ridiculous. Most people don’t have that kind of time, space money or indeed cleaning ability!

I wonder if it's at all possible that Many Tears have good reason to generally rehome dogs only to people who already have a dog. I guess that might be a possibility. But being ridiculous and not taking into account the amount of time, space, money and cleaning ability people have is another I suppose.

Good news @disappearingfish Looking forward to seeing the photos😊

I had two Romanians (one sadly died last year) and both have been amazing. Luckily in our case they were fostered in London beforehand so we got to meet them & it was a done deal. They needed house and lead training but it was straight forward.

Like you, finding a suitable dog in the U.K. was impossible and many times we didn’t even get a call back or could visit the dogs beforehand.

Is it many tears that will only rehome to people that have an existing dog? also ridiculous. Most people don’t have that kind of time, space money or indeed cleaning ability!

Or maybe Many Tears recognise that the dogs in their care need the company and leadership of a confident, resident dog?

Many of their dogs come from puppy farms or breeders and have never been socialised with people or the outside world.

Its nothing to do with time, space or cleaning ability

It’s also not true that they only rehome to people with an existing dog, it’s dependant on what the individual dog needs.

It’s listed individually on each Dog’s profile whether they can be an only dog or not.

My son had a puppy from many tears. They didn't have a dog previously. Each dog is assessed on it's needs

@disappearingfish we need pictures!

I get the impression from reading reviews about Many Tears that they have either relaxed their policies or got a different team/person reviewing applications. We rescued a dog earlier this year and they were great to deal with and even did the home check virtually to speed up the process.

Most vets are against the imports because of disease risk- plus they are often timid and clingy before gaining confidence and beginning to 💪 flex after a few weeks-
There are lots of “Kill shelter” dogs here that don’t have alien parasites- heart worm is particularly nasty.
Transmitted by a mosquito- It’s definitely a money making thing importing these strays
plus having a merely U.K. stray isn’t enough!

It has to be Romanian or Spanish one for maximum mentions .

Irish greyhounds are killed in their thousands- but no one gets the tiny violin 🎻 out for them.

They are brutally killed at knackers.

@oakleaffy This is a brilliant charity which re homes Irish sighthounds in the UK,

erinhounds.co.uk

We got a beautiful lurcher from them last year.

Our Romanian rescue was fully vaccinated by Romanian vets(they have them you know!) and came to us chipped, neutered and with passport.

She’s 9 now , got her at 2 and she’s been a dream.

And fyi I didn’t go 👀 for a Romanian rescue. She was at our local shelter, brought there by a charity that rescues from kill shelters. We had looked for 6 months around the U.K. before finding her.

I’m actually a bit dubious that all of these rescues are “rescuing” these dogs as genuinely as we think they are.

I suspect that many of them are actually quite happy living on the streets of Romania and have adapted as such. Yes, their lives may be shorter, but for many of them it must an extremely stressful ordeal to be shipped overseas, banged in a house and then expected to interact with people and other dogs- something they would naturally keep to a minimum.
Rather than this altruistic self congratulating at “improving the dog’s life”, perhaps this export money should be used to neuter and re-release some of the population- so they don’t have too many but they can go back to the lives they are used to.

The cynic in me tells me that that might not be good for, er, business though.

But they don’t get to live as street dogs. They get lassoed by kill shelter operatives. I’ve seen photos of my dog in the kill shelter at Codlea. Google it. It’s horrific.

And I most certainly don’t support those. But I’m just not sure that all these outfits are as well meaning as we think they are.

It also beggars belief that people who claim to be dog lovers, are so eager to import dogs with exotic diseases. To a country with a naive dog population. If this was a production animal species (a pig/ cow or sheep) that was regularly being imported with an exotic disease, there would be absolute uproar. In fact, it just would not happen.

My dog has no diseases.

Here's the small print from the overseas charity where I obtained my 2 dogs (one permanent resident, one foster). There are good and bad rescue centres and I trust mine 100%

𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘦 dogs 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘴 (APHA – UK), 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 (2), 𝘥𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥, 𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘫𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘥, 𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥, castrated, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘬 & 𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥. EU-pet passport holders. hip X-ray
Blood tested Mediterranean blood diseases (erlichia , leishmania)

YourTruthorMine these tests are a minimum requirement for imported dogs.
So your rescue is only stating the obvious....

@Ylvamoon if you honestly think that all dogs imported to the UK have their hips x-rayed as a minimum then you are utterly ignorant to the conditions these dogs are living in and the resources available in their country of origin.

Do you think UK born dogs in rescue have their hips x-rayed before going to their new home? Do you think this is a good idea for all dogs?
And what about breeders? I guess you know that many breeders don't bother with testing before they breed?

As for all these dogs leading happy lives on the streets, as described by a poster further up - god give me strength.