Hi,
A friend of mine has seen a dog that she "likes" on one of the Irish rescue sites and she's planning on calling to ask about it.  I've tried to reason with her and explained that there are so many perfectly healthy dogs put to sleep in England every day....why import more in?
While I sympathise with the plight of the unwanted Irish dogs, shouldn't we try and rehome dogs nearer to home?  Our local pound is overflowing.

I don't think it matters, the life of a dog in an English shelter has the same value as the life of a dog in an Irish shelter.  A dog is a dog and if your friend fell 'in love' with an Irish stray than I think that's great. 

There is quite a bit of importing in rescues .. from Greece, from Spain and so on.   I personally am not sure what makes importing rescues more appealing to some people, but each to his or her own.

Stacey

Quite alot of the irish rescues end up over here anyway!

IMO any decent shelter would want to vet the home to which the dog goes. It would seem that a shelter that is willing to let dogs go across the sea to homes which it cannot check, may not be the best place to get a dog. :(

If the choice is between euthanizing the dog or sending it to a home that has not been checked, which would you do?  

Stacey

I think you'll find that there is a network of volunteer homecheckers over here who can be called upon to check homes in their area for a number of different rescues.

Hi,
All I would say is try and get as much info on this dog as possible.
Go and visit it before having it imported.
I say this from experience of getting a dog from a shelter. We had to pay a contribution toward the rescue centre (which we were very willing to pay as a dog's life is much more important than money).

We brought this particular dog home and had him for about a week. We were advised to get him checked over by the vet.
When my bf took him to the vet he was told that this dog is chipped. Meaning that he was well looked after by someone else.
we then had the opportunity to say 'well we paid for him, he's ours' but we are not like that (I wouldn't have liked it happen to me).
So we contacted the owners and gave him back.

As I say, just be careful and make sure he or she is scanned properly by the shelter for the chip.

Ashleigh

Hi Ashleigh
I read a story on www.doglost.com which was like your experience. A couple lost their boxer dog and after a few months realised they probably wouldnt get him back so went looking for another companion. When they went to the boxer shelter they found their original dog (who was micro chipped) there up for re-homing! The people who worked there had not checked if the dog was chipped and it was so lucky that these people got their dog back in time. It just makes me think how many other dogs in the world have been chipped and not checked and then re homed. I am completely for chipping but It just makes me so sad to think that some dog people who work in homes neglect to check weather the dog has been chipped and then give them to different owners :( It causes so much heartache like it must of for you.     

Hi,
Thank you all for your replies.
After giving the matter much thought, my friend has decided that it really does make more sense to adopt an unwanted dog nearer to home.  She is travelling down to our nearest dog trust at the weekend for a chat and to meet some of their dogs.
I think she has made the right decision.