Just read this
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/couple-savaged-sedated-dog-just-25498983?fbclid=IwAR2k_ntblv0g3XkvuX-HU4M1LaHsKTjdzzbMD6SUgDCFs3VicqJbDDiRbnY

ok the couple were very foolish agreeing to take a dog they had never met but the rescue are unreal- so irresponsible dumping dogs on people with no home check, no introductions just hand over money and get a dog-and then rescue are having a hissy fit all over social media about the dog being PTS after he bit the couple in a sustained attack.

Very sad.  Horrifying for the adopters but who knows what that poor dog was going through or had been through in his previous life.  Absolutely appalling that the "rescue" handed him over with no checks, and also that they allowed the adopters to barter the price down.  Definitely not the actions of a responsible rescue organisation.

It is staggeringly bad.  Rescues/dog dealers like these should be banned.

The adopters were foolish but I think the responsibility is on this so called rescue.   I do feel sorry for the dog- a 16 hour journey to strange inexperienced people but his bites were too bad to risk passing back to the idiots who shipped him there - who would have likely sold him again to some poor mug.  People are constantly pressured that they should have a rescue dog & think are doing the right thing, these dealers prey on the inexperienced who don't understand its a bad idea to just accept a dog on basis of a photo & glowing selling advert making out its the next Lassie

This is very common for foreign rescues. You don't meet them, they get driven over the continent and then usually dropped off at your home or in some cases at a set location.

The mirror are very good in trying to get it out there about the bad side of foreign rescues. My friend had a huge ordeal and it transpires many other people have from the said same rescue.

I know many people have good experiences but I don't get why you would rescue a dog you've never met, how on earth do you know if the dog is suitable for you and you for the dog?

I have met numerous foreign rescues who were obtained under similar circumstances and would say at least 75% have been shown to have issues. Either dog on dog or human aggression. So many are handed over sight unseen and with sketchy information.  People are so gullible.  Families with children seem to think it's fine to introduce an unknown lethal weapon into thier homes. Then they cry when it all ends in tears. The rescue in this case were so to blame, but the couple too must accept some responsibility.  Tragic end for a troubled dog. The dog would have been better PTS and not drugged and transported miles over long hours to meet its end like this.

I too know several lovely people, genuine dog lovers who thought they were doing the right thing getting a foreign rescue. The dogs have arrived and are nothing like the way they were described. All have issues that mean that owners who bought the dog thinking how nice it would be to walk round the park talking to people now have to walk in the middle of night avoiding all others and in one case she can't even touch her dog herself, after over a year of owning it

What a shame for the couple involved here, and poor, poor dog too. These dogs that are shipped long distances but don't have the temperament needed to cope with that would (in my opinion) be far better off being put to sleep, for the dogs benefit first and foremost.

And of course all this is before we get to the contentious subject of the new diseases foreign rescues are bringing over here.

A friend of mine sister got a rescue dog from the RSPCA local to her. No home check, no vaccination or titre test data available, stated to be spayed & cheap too only £200. As soon as their payment cleared, she took the dog home, along with various goodies & some food for the dog, which was added to the "adoption fee"

Everything was fine for the first week or so, then she developed terrible diarrhoea & ended up at the vets on a drip for several days, tests showed the bitch had Giardiasis, which is what the vet had suspected.

The bitch had been in the RSPCA kennels for nearly 9 months, so had probably contracted it in the RSPCA care.

Worse was to come when the bitch was discovered to be in whelp & sadly aborted her puppies, part formed, in her new home.

It's not just foreign rescues that are disreputable. Obviously the bitch wasn't spayed(had to have an emergency spay after aborting her puppies) & had conceived in the RSPCA care.

Titre test shows she needed vaccinations as well.

The RSPCA did offer to have the bitch back, but never offered to pay for any of the treatment.

The new owners opted to keep her, as they were already attached to their dog & couldn't bear to think of her to be exposed to further infections/parasites with the RSPCA.

This is not the only report about RSPCA & similar rescues sale of their sick dogs

Yeah most have behavioural issues or medical issues. Bringing in diseases we don't have this country is what gets my back up big time. Bringing over dogs with broken limbs which haven't been treated. Claiming vaccines have been done when not. Falsified passports. A friend got one who is human reactive and her passport says male on it.

You have met 100s of foreign rescues then, to be able to state most have behavioural issues?

I must say all the UK bull type rescues I've encountered have had extreme behavioural issues, usually dog to dog real aggression(ie no warning signs, straight into attack mode)& are very unpredictable.

I have personally been attacked by a really human aggressive Labrador, no growling etc, just pulled his owner over & bit through my right hand, I still bear the scars & don't have full function in my hand. I was one of over 10 people who had been attacked by this dog, who went back to the rescue he came from(RSPCA) & was spirited away to another area.

Most have health issues too? Passing on fatal conditions to UK only dogs? Really? Again you must have seen the health records of 100s of foreign rescues to state this.

So many xenophobic members on this forum.

so irresponsible dumping dogs on people with no home check

Just in addition to what others have already said and which I agree with -what difference would a home check have made? In this case, none at all as it wasn't the couple who took on the dog who were at fault, and proving they had a secure garden etc wouldn't have changed anything.

Any good rescue that takes dogs fom abroad should hang on to them for a period of time before being rehomed in order to be assessed. There are ones that do. This one sounds like the sadly far too many that import cute looking rescue dogs (seldom the types we have rescues overflowing with here already) and basically just sell them on for a small profit. Lots of small profits build up. There's been complaints about the new foreign travel rules for dogs entering the UK only allowing five dogs to be brought in together, because that would limit rescues. (I haven't followed it enough to know if they made rescues exempt or not.) This case illustrates perfectly why rescue dogs should not be imported in large numbers. Even if they were assessed originally in the country they came from, this is a different world to them so they should be allowed to settle and be assessed again.

I hope this rescue is taken to task.

all the stuff I have seen online is the rescue being angry with the adopters for putting the dog down- calling them terrible.  No remorse what so ever

The real "foreign"rescues do just that, either a Foster home in UK or a Foster home in country of origin whilst they are having all their preparation for adoption outside the country of origin, which of course includes any veterinary treatment/tests required

Interestingly the vast majority of these foreign rescues don't come to the UK, but are rehomed on the continent & Scandinavia, in countries like Germany, Austria, The Netherlands etc there are far less rescue dogs available, because of breeding & dog licensing laws.

At work we see many owners (who we know to be sensible dog people) bring in their new foreign rescue dog for a check up. Within 6 months about half have had to be returned because they haven't been as described. One that was "good with cats" actually killed the adopter's existing cat. Of the remaining ones, several have on-going issues that make them not really suitable to be domestic pets as we expect in the UK environment; as guard dogs on an isolated property, living outside in a kennel, they'd be okay, but they can't cope with being indoor family pets.

The only time my Romanian rescue has been to my vets was to be castrated as he was too young to be neutered when he came over.

I was met by a new to the practice VN, who had a couple muzzles in one hand. She was not an inexperienced VN & she proceeded to tell me that ALL Rommie needed to be muzzled as they ALL have"issues"& not to be trusted ever.

One of the receptionists who knows me very well, saw my reaction & collared one of the senior vets, who came out to see me(we were still in the waiting room at this time) My boy immediately greeted him by sitting on his feet & leaning heavily on him, looking up at him with his usual goofy expression. He took us through to an exam room to do the paperwork, along with the VN. When she tried to muzzle my boy, the vet stopped her & took him off through to the operating area, for his blood test & pre op prep. I then said to the VN"don't assume that all animals are the same, not all Rommies are feral or fearful, muzzling my calm & gentle boy would have traumatised him. You should be able to read a dog's body language" I didn't get angry nor aggressive & when back to collect him after his op, three of the younger VNs came with him to say goodbye as they had fallen for him & his very goofy character. His only other visit to the practice was to have his operation site checked by one of the VNs(no stitches he had been "glued" externally) for which he obligingly rolled on his back to display much to the VNs amusement.

Never seen the first VN again, I wonder why?

To judge a dog by country of origin, lumping the majority of "types"together is wrong, I transported & fostered a far few Rommies from the same rescue, none had any issues either with me or in their forever homes.

Probably 20 uears ago now, a good friends former puppy buyer decidedbtontescue from RSPCA Dogs home Bristol.

She chose a GSD cross type bitch.

She wasn't allowed to have her straight away as she was in season ( she had been in the kennels several months).

She got her home, but was concerned that she was getting pot bellied.
Turned out to be in whelp.

With my friends help and vets cooperation it was agreed to let the bitch keep 2 puppies and euthanise the test at birth.

She had 9 pups. Homes had already been arranged for the 2, and the vet took the test away when he came to check her over (they had been discreetly removed during birth), while she was busy with the 2.

The bitch was under a year old.

> she proceeded to tell me that ALL Rommie needed to be muzzled as they ALL have"issues"& not to be trusted ever.

I think the fact the VN said that proves the point that most do have problems.

Of course there will be the odd nice one, but the vast majority as JG said are not suitable as pets here,

This VN also insisted on muzzling ALL GSDs, Dobes & Rotties, because apparently they are known aggressive breeds, quite a few clients refused to allow her near their dogs because of attitude.

I know all the senior vets very well at the practice & when I asked them about the Rommies they had as patients, I was told they hadn't had been any better or worse than any other rescues/pet dogs

I subsequently found out she actually quite badly bitten by a fox terrier type UK rescue after ignoring the owners warning that he was frightened whilst at the vets!

I will repeat none of the numerous Rommies I have fostered or transported for the Save & Care rescue, have had any problems, their dogs are all fostered & assessed in Romania before coming to UK.

Was this not your romanian rescue you were talking about here?

> I have an ex street dog(yes one of those awful foreign things) he learnt to defend himself & his possessions" on the streets & does not tolerant other dogs invading his space, he growls & air snaps, but to Joe Public he's reactive & aggressive

Different people have different ideas about what a good temperament is and they are willing to accept different problems. If you as an experienced owner/trainer can not stop your dog doing this, then for the average member of the public it could be much worse?

Nope, I have 2 foreign Rescues, one is a Rommie in my Avatar & the other is a Portuguese ex Street dog, who was adopted here in UK, sadly by an abusive family, who lied to the rescue he came from. Sadly adding to his suffering in the UK, he was castrated at 4 months of age in Portugal, by a TNR UK group.

He despite being beaten & abused both in UK & Portugal, he is only reactive to other dogs, not people, he is frightened of children & tall men who are smokers, because of the UK family he was with, otherwise he has never even so much as growled towards people, he freezes & wets himself at the sound of young children's voices without seeing them.

My Rommie is a very different dog, despite having had several UK non rescue dogs launch unprovoked attacks on him, has never even offered to retaliate. He is the antithesis of my Portuguese boy.

Those kind of problems you have in your dogs are often way too much or the average family to take on. We need to be real here, most want a loving family pet that gets on with people and other dogs, most are not like this. I've come across many and they have reactivity issues and there have been some awful incidents across the board.
Rescues, all rescues need to be honest about the temperament of the dogs they are putting up for rehoming, many probably shouldn't be. Do I think PTS is an option, yes if they are that bad and can't remain life longers in a rescue. Putting into a home and hoping for the best is neglectful at best to the home and the dog in question.

To me the crunch is People matter more then dogs.  Yes I love dogs but there are limits and putting the general public at risk with dogs of damaged temperament is simply not on. There are many unwanted dogs in the world. PTS the ones with dodgy temperaments and just rehome the sane ones.

> PTS the ones with dodgy temperaments and just rehome the sane ones.

Absolutely agree. It's easier to return a dog from a rescue in this country, or take it on a trial run, but wherever it's coming from it needs to have a great temperament or yes, in my opinion, it should be put to sleep, not spend possibly years n kennels waiting for a home and then potentially endanger someone in that new home.

Just to play devil's avocate here - all too often a dog may be quite different once out of a Rescue Kennel situation and with his 'feet under the table'.  And the opposite too.  When mine had to go into 6-months quarantine when we returned to the UK (before Pet Passport) I sent them in with virtually a book about each one of them - there were 7 in there.  It turned out my advice was totally not how they were whilst in there!  So I really need not have bothered, much as it helped me feel better to do that.  So it's not always the fault kof kennel/shelter staff.

The problems I have with my dogs>plural<???

The Portuguese rescue was abused in the UK by the male adopter & his child, prior to this he had been living in Portugal in a foster home of the rescue, which was an ex Pat family, with 3 young children. The rescue have videos of him happily playing with the kids & adults & their very calm & gentle GSD. The adopters lied to the rescue & they were told about his problem with strange dogs getting into his "personal" space, they told the rescue their last dog was reactive to unknown dogs so knew how to deal with the possible situations that may arise. However when he was in the adopters home, he was put outside on a chain, if he made a noise he was beaten by the male adopter(who is 6 foot + tall) & had stones, sticks & anything else available thrown at him by the child. The female adopter just screamed abuse at him. Fortunately a nearby neighbour intervened, threatened the adopters with the police & got the dog & his paperwork from the adopters, contacted the rescue & I collected him. I quickly realised he was now a dog with serious fear problems & opted to adopt him to prevent him being PTS.

My Rommie rescue came directly to me from the rescue for fostering, but as he wasn't a fluffy ball of cuteness no one was interested in adopting him. His mother & 4 siblings were quickly adopted, after being fostered, as they are the fluffy type.

Now according to you both my boys have problems that make them unsuitable for a "normal" home, can you explain what my Rommie's problems are? He's a very calm chilled out boy, walking beautifully on & off lead, 100% recall, is NEVER reactive to any dog, cat or human, even if they are reactive to him, loves to be cuddled & his favourite place is curled up or on his back next to me. If these are the problems you perceive he has, your dogs must be automatons.

>shakes head at assumptions & walks away <

Under the heading 'irresponsible rescue' .... I've just seen another Basset in MT - unfortunately a female which I can't risk with Teazel.  Reading the information, it says she 'freezes when they try to pick her up'.  Gulp.  Don't they KNOW Bassets are not normally picked up - she's an ex-breeder so I very much doubt has ever been used to being picked up!   I wish I could get her out of there.

There might well be homes for these dogs but the majority don't have the time or the knowledge to put into these dogs. I have a friend with one, came over with heartworm, came with drugs illegally brought into the UK. The passport shows a male, SHE is not one. Vet check showed the heartworm in a worse state than advised.
Serious behavioural issues have raised. She is reactive to unknown humans, this wasn't advised to my friend. She suffers from SA at times as well. Its got to the point she can't cope any more. She has had a behaviourist in and honestly my friend doesn't have the time that is needed to work on these issues. She was mis sold to my friend.
She barks at the slightest of noises and as such it's a drain to live with. This isn't the easy going, loves everything dog she thought she was getting.
What will the rescue do if she returns her? Do nothing other than advertise her again.
People who worked in this rescue have spoken out with dogs on deaths door arriving. They know many of these dogs are bite risks, some have bitten. They then readvertise them with none of this info making them out to be a great family pet, take another adoption fee and so the cycle continues.

I've known one to be pts because of serious bite wounds on yhe owner, she had multiple behaviourists out and vet checks and the consensus was pts, which she did and then the rescue went mad, yet they weren't offering support or to take the dog back

There are some nice dogs however they do have nervous dispositions but these were rescued as puppies or born in rescue.

It's the lying and deceitful behaviour to get these dogs into a home and out of Foster overseas or a kill shelter.
Be honest, say a bite risk, dog or human reactive. Say when the dog has a health issue. Fix said health issue before the dog travels not leave it and then new owner in one case finds the dog had a broken leg which had been broken for a while, so not in transit.

Imo rescues should be charities and not limited businesses as I see one is my way bringing in foreign rescues. The ones based here in the UK.
I don't have an issue with bringing these dogs in providing they are fully healthy and if there are behavioural issues these are addressed before they are put up for adoption. Breed rescues tend to work hard on behavioural issues so that they are suitable to be put up for adoption, if they can't be then usually they remain lifers and that is fine.

Let's all support good reputable rescues like we do breeders and shun the poor rescues as we like to do with the poor breeders.
I know of a good foreign rescue, its a lady essentially doing it herself and she only has a couple of dogs at a time. She works with them, gets them healthy and then tries to find homes either in the country she is in or here. She mainly deals with 1 breed.

They should not come straight off Ferry into a new families home.  These dogs need to be properly assessed in the UK by vet and behaviourist before being advertised for sale -and their problems made plain to adopters who should have to meet the dog properly before agreeing to take it.

Selling dogs off photos and glowing comments about what a perfect family dog this is should not be happening. It is a dealing for profit not rescuing with some of these companies

There are some nice dogs however they do have nervous dispositions but these were rescued as puppies or born in rescue.


So another sweeping generalisation even the nice dogs are all nervous!!! I'll tell my Rommie he's nervous the next time he cuddles up to a complete stranger, then rolls on his back for a tummy rub<~terrible nervous behaviour.

Imo rescues should be charities and not limited businesses


Many Tears is a limited company < ~nuff said!