BBC report on 250 (yes two hundred and fifty) neglected dogs found in shocking conditions at a single residence

[TheGoldenOwl]

BBC news article

Absoloutely shocking 💔

The photo the rescuers took was so bad people thought it was AI

Those poor poor dogs

I can’t even muster the strength to be surprised anymore. Always the same breeds of dogs. Always the same horrible specimens of humanity who will have been buying puppies from that person not giving two hoots about the parents. And classic animal charity saying it’s ’family Circumstances’ when we all know what it is…

I found the report strange in that it made reference to the owner of the house as someone who was vulnerable etc is this like cuckooing? A person who has diminished capacity is targeted and they use their residence?

The photo is unbelievable. Those poor dogs.

The RSPCA are only interested in making money not saving dogs. They are not the charity they used to be.

When I was a kid, there was an elderly lady who lived in a house over the road from us. Her house had a good sized yard to the side of it, but not a massive house. The lady was a hoarder. She had to climb in and out of a window to enter the house. She also distrusted pretty much everyone. She had a couple of hundred dogs on her property. I remember one day the RSPCA or someone turned up and took all the dogs away. I can’t remember the exact number. From the sounds of it, she’d started with a couple, that she never got neutered as she wouldn’t leave the house. Then the dogs all kept on breeding with each other. Really sad situation all round. She was most definitely a vulnerable woman, who let things get out of control. I do remember seeing her walking round feeding all the dogs. It certainly wasn’t deliberate neglect, she appeared to be trying her best to look after them. I think she died a couple of years after - I don’t remember ever seeing her leave the house again after that day.

We are looking to adopt a dog, and I came across a couple of these on one of the national rescue site websites described as coming from ‘extraordinary circumstances’. It’s so sad to think what they have been through.

Imagine the fights that will have broken out, there is obviously no way they were all 250 being exercised, malnourished probably (who can afford to feed 250 dogs on even the cheapest crap kibble), none of them have probably ever seen a vet, or slept on anything soft, seen grass or felt the wind on their face...

the matting in their fur must be so painful on their skin i guess some can't even move, mothers trying riase pups in such a scary unnatural environment....

If this is a puppy farm then this needs to be bad publicity and spread - amp it up and blast it everywhere.

Very sad, the one sat in the fire at the back!

I know someone who has taken one of the little dogs in. Early days but he is getting more confident everyday.

See this is why intervention needs to happen earlier I think! Why must it get to such an awful stage before anything is done

It wasn't a puppy farm. On other reports it says an elderly man and the dogs just just got out of control and I guess just breeding.

It was the one on the floor in the filthy squalid "bedroom" with the broken bed and slats everywhere and filthy dirty old duvet, and honestly much and shit everywhere that did me (more photos on another news website)

I then looked up at my pup tucked into her bed for the night with her full belly, clean blankets, brushed fur and fresh water bowl....

the juxtaposition 😭😭😭

How the hell did he feed those dogs then? Because they must have been fed something in order to have so many alive

The noise of barking dogs must have been overwhelming. Where was this house? Can't imagine there were close neighbours - the dogs would have been so loud. There must have been a really strong smell coming from the property as well. Poor dogs.

I agree. I was too young to really understand the situation, or report it, but I do think if she’d had help early on, she could have kept 1 or 2 (neutered) dogs and all would have been fine. Those dogs gave her a reason to leave the house, so they helped a little with her mental health too. And she genuinely loved them, the breeding just got out of hand (and yes that’s fully on her, but with the right support it could have meant happy dogs and a better life for her too).

I’m sure it was far more complicated than that, but those were comments I picked up on my dad saying the time etc.

It was all a bit weird though - I don’t know who reported it in the end as it had been the situation for literally years, likely more than a decade. Her house was directly opposite the ambulance station, and a minutes walk down the same road as the police station. Back in the days where you had “beat bobbies” so they’d have been well aware of the situation yet presumably chose not to do anything. I always wondered what suddenly changed.

Sad situation for sure. Obviously I don’t know anything about the story you’ve shared, it just brought back that memory. I’ve just remembered too that she did leave the house - but not until late at night/early hours of the morning she would be seen taking dogs for a walk somewhere. I presume she was doing it then to avoid contact with people. I wonder if she spent all night walking a few dogs at a time?

This sounds exactly like the situation I shared with the lady over the road from us. So sad in both cases.

Absolute rubbish.

Who do you think they are making money for? They don't have shareholders or an owner. The people who work and volunteer for them must be very brave, resilient and see some terrible things.

Who would have looked after these dogs if the RSPCA didn't?

to me the problem starts in two ways;
two dogs m and f they breed more dogs then those breed all because the person did not get them spayed or neutered at the right time then it becomes out of control.
or two are purchased with the idea of breeding making a fortune afraid not it sounds a dream nearly a thousand for a pedigree pup but it does not work out like that then before they know where they are they are overwhelmed with pups they cannot sell
i would like to say if this person is vulnerable and i do get sick of that word banded about seems an excuse for everything assuming that there was services involved such as social workers surely they should have stepped in before things got out of control and insisted they rehome some of the dogs?

Exactly @rainbowunicorn22 how the hell does it reach TWO HUNDRED AND FUCKING FIFTY dogs before services (any services) says yeah this isn't good really is it....

And if their hands were tied before that, then we need to bring legislation in to un-tie them

I understand that they won't be prosecuted because they did come forward of their own accord.... in the end. And they don't want to discourage people from asking for help.

It's more common than we think.
I volunteer for Cats Protection and we took some some cats from a 1 bed flat which had 87 cats. It was a sad case as the person had a lot of issues and was basically invisible. They were taken into hospital and only then was the issue seen. Made me wonder how many cases there are like this.
My centre manager went with the RSPCA to get some of the cats and said the smell and crunchy floor will stay with her. The cats mostly went to CP centres, the RSPCA took about a quarter. They were actually pretty healthy.and randomly, one we took in was neutered

@PottingBench

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEO_compensation_among_charities_in_the_United_Kingdom

We rescue or help with re-homing, on average, 10-20 Golden Retrievers a month through our breed specific rescue. None of us take a salary, and we know a damn sight about our breed than the RSPCA, Battersea and Dogs Trust do. All of them frequently come to us for advice and support after they have failed, often multiple times, to re-home dogs and had repeated returns OR they refuse to give dogs to perfectly suitable families (something I have seen first hand when we have offered to find families for these dogs). Spaniel Aid (bigger than us) re-home dozens of dogs a month and their staff also don't take salaries.

I'm sorry, but these big animal charities are a disgrace. More breed specific rescues would make re-homing far easier, safer, and better.

And not taking action against the perpetrators in this case is not acceptable and just reinforces my (very negative) view of these charities. Nothing ever excuses animal abuse.

There was more going on here than the RSPCA will admit because there is no way anyone can afford to feed 250 dogs (anything else aside), without making some sort of income from them. This isn't a case of someone being overwhelmed as the RSPCA have alleged.

The sheer cost of feeding these dogs makes that impossible - even if many of them were not fat, and needed more food - you'd be looking at £13-15K a month (saying on average it costs £80 to feed a cocker spaniel, and there are 250 dogs would make it £20K, but I'll be generous and say they weren't getting the best food and some were starving).

So, once again, the RSPCA are being less than honest about what really happened (possibly because they have been advised that legally they should not be honest).

In other shocking news, the sky is blue, grass is green and water is wet.

a local flat same size caught fire and there were over 120 cats in it they said they were rescuing them. thankfully they were not returned to them and all have good local homes now
before that there was a lot of cats going missing so makes you wonder if that was where they went. its easy I guess for some people to think a cat wandering around doing what cats do was a stray

To be honest, if a charity ceo does a good job and enables the charity to do good work, then I don't care what they earn.
But try reporting a case of animal abuse or neglect or need to the RSPCA and see how far you get.

The individual centres can be very different and how good or bad they are largely depends on the people working there and running them.
But the RSPCA as a national organisation is a total fraudulent organisation imo.

Edited to say, poor poor dogs but it's difficult to be shocked any more

@HungryHungryLandsharks Thank you so much for the work you do for dogs.

I'm sure you know more about the RSPCA than me but I personally have only had good experiences.

I have read on one of the dog adverts that they were fed on mass and just had to get what they could.