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.

redboxer321 ... at last when buying a uk bred dog , you can make an informed decision. You can go for rouge or fully documted.
You can meet the dog, assess the temperament, you can choose to get a KC registered pupy / dog and have detailed documentation of health tests incl. hip and elbow scores... most importantly you can walk away if you think the dog isn't right for you.

With an imported dog you have to take the dog as soon as you meet it. You have to rely on the charity and hope that all paperwork is correct and they stand by their fancy promises.

And if you don't want the dog or your circumstances change, it's very likely it ends up in a uk rescue...

Why on earth would a neutered dog need screening x-rays of their hips? Screening X-rays are to check whether a dog is suffering from hip dysplasia, which is a hereditary condition, prior to breeding.

Other than that, the only reason would be if the dog was lame. In that case, why aren’t they x-raying other stuff as well? Why not check their elbows/ necks/ backs and paws. All bits of the doggo that can get disease.

I wouldn’t put any of my dogs through a GA to “check” their hips unless there was very good cause to.

And actually I’ll stand by my comment. I know of three foreign rescues- two have very sadly been euthanised due to biting. All owned by experienced dog owners. All three really struggled to adapt to the “pet” way of life, and I certainly would not call any of them happy. They probably were happier living on the streets- rather than the stress and anxiety caused by sudden domestication.

Here he is. He's obviously still quite confused but has slept so well overnight and is re-learning indoor manners. He's super affectionate and very curious, but still obviously decompressing so we're keeping it simple.

He's definitely not an ex street dog. He's house trained for a start. More likely a puppy whose family got bored of him when he grew up and threw him out.

Ah he’s lovely @disappearingfish . Good luck, he’ll get there.

Thanks, we think so 😊

He’s absolutely gorgeous. Good luck with everything OP.

I suggest you look up Kill Shelters.
it might just change your mind….

He's beautiful!

Yes, they have fraudulent vets who deliberately and greedily fake documentation allowing disease to cross borders.

£400/500 is a lot of money in Romania-
DEFRA temporarily suspended imports from Romania and other Eastern European countries for this reason.

Laxness and greed and utter irresponsibility.

There's absolutely no proof that anyone is using this as a money making scheme, or that there's a cabal of criminal vets in Romanian faking travel documents for money. It's pretty insulting when you think about it. Or are you the type of person that thinks "foreigner = dodgy"?

@disappearingfish He is lovely, I hope he continues to settle in well.

@oakleaffy So you don’t want a Romanian rescue. They’re not for you. My 9 year old is as fit as a fiddle thanks. Is never ill and as she’s mixed does not suffer from the ailments that so many inbred pedigrees have.
I would always choose a rescue over a puppy that’s been bred for money.

I am shocked that pp are recommending buying puppies rather than adopting a rescue. Grim.

Both are fraught with potential issues.

I think buying a puppy is by far better than importing a dog from abroad where most of them have never lived in a home, have been brought up on the streets with 0 socialisation, and where the rescues aren’t very picky about who they sell rehome them to.

The rescues in the UK need to get their act together in terms of who they will and won’t rehome to, and IMO importing animals from abroad should be banned.

My rescue vetted us fully , inspected our house and garden .

What are you even talking about selling?? As I said upthread the adoption fee was £140ish. Wouldn't have scratched the surface of the costs of the medical care, food and tests that he had. I paid the transport fee charged by the animal transport company. Nobody makes profit off the dogs in this organisation. I am not saying it's impossible that some dodgy orgs exist but I can't see how they could make profit from shipping dogs over. Shipping dogs is expensive.

What a beautiful dog.

I have a Romanian rescue,he is almost 10 and I have had him since he was 20weeks.I wanted a young rescue dog and none of the rescue centres had any at that time.

He arrived neutered,chipped,all vaccinations up to date etc.

I would never,ever have a puppy from a breeder.

I also had a home visit before I was allowed to adopt him.He is my constant companion and way better than any human I have ever known.

Good luck and enjoy every moment.

Sorry forgot photo,here he is this afternoon mast on his sheepskin in front of the fire.

All the vets complaining about foreign rescues - I guess have never had to euthanise dogs bred in this country for behavioural issues or illness then. All the dogs rehomed by uk rescues who have major health and behaviour issues - we won't mention those?

Done right, a foreign rescue can be a great choice. But you need to do your homework.

@LadyWiddiothethird ❤️❤️❤️

Not every foreign rescue is a feral/stray from the streets. Mine is definitely not. He's housetrained and definitely familiar with sofas as we've had to keep him off them (for now 😀). So far he's been much less trouble than my previous (UK) rescue although it's of course early days.

In an ideal world everyone in every country would treat dogs well and rescues would only be because of a change in circumstances.

If the health risks were so great the government is free to ban dogs from abroad - but that would mean that UK dogs didn't go abroad on holiday either.

We have a gorgeous Romanian resuce but we used a rescue who places all foreign rescues in foster homes first so they can be properly assessed. They are in foster for anything from a couple of weeks to a year depending on the needs of the dog.

What are you even talking about selling?? As I said upthread the adoption fee was £140ish

Thats about 800 RON ... 🤔

You really need to stop thinking that everything is done for the goodness of the dog by selfless altruistic people.

There is a whole chain of employees (incl. the transport company) that will get their wages from selling the dog to the UK.
If it wasn't profitable you wouldn't be able to buy one... think about the Irish greyhounds that have been mentioned up-thred. Not fancy, shiny and new. Everyone knows about their plight, so you are less likely to get that fuzzy warm feeling of doing something good form getting one of them.

I can't see how they could make profit from shipping dogs over. Shipping dogs is expensive.

That's why they do it en masse - to cut down on transport costs. The dogs are transported in huge groups in vans for several days at a time. They're stressed, scared, frightened, overwhelmed. Some are even brought to their "forever homes" straight from transport at 2am or some other ridiculous time to further reduce costs to the rescue.

They're not assessed, they never spend any time in UK kennels or foster. It's horrendous.

I'm not saying all rescues are like that and I'm sure some are legitimate charities who do great work, but that doesn't mean some of these dogs don't get put through utter hell to get here for us to "save them".

Not picking an argument with you - but that doesn’t mean he’s been a pet tbh, he may well have been, but those things mean nothing much.

I know the history of mine from approximately 6 weeks old until I got him at 5 months and he was kennelled outside in (different) rescues all that time - he didn’t need housetraining and took one look at furniture and went, yep, comfy.

The reason people are mentioning strays or street dogs is that a lot of them are. Yours might not have been, but that doesn’t make it less of a general issue.

Why did Defra suspend imports specifically due to non compliance?
Why are so many UK vets against the importing of 'overseas' dogs with the very real disease risks?

Many Romanian 'rescues' are scams, just making money for the organisers.
Fill up a van with strays, sell them @£4/500 a pop , easy money.

As for the emotive ''Kill shelters'' -plenty of dogs are euthanised in UK/IE but no one makes a song and dance about it.

Importing dog aggressive/human aggressive dogs that trojan in disease and parasites -Brucella canis

Many of the Romanian strays that were seen locally have disappeared-Why is that?

Where have they all gone? Unlikely that the original sellers will accept them back, so more likely gone to UK rescue centres.

If one wants to feel ''good'' about saving a dog from ''a kill shelter'' -there are plenty of UK /IE dogs at equal risk of euthanasia who are probably far better socialised who aren't a disease risk.