The last word from me on dog re-homing

Thanks to everyone who read, and commented on, my previous posts, which told of our experiences with dog re-homing. Before I continue the adventures of the Mad dog woman for 2013, I wanted to have one last say on the matter.

Through our interaction with two rescue centres (Boxer Rescue Service (Southern) and The Dog's Trust) and several comments on my blog and on Twitter, it seems that re-homing a dog is not an easy thing to do. Whilst we completely understand the need for rescue centres to properly 'vet' prospective dog guardians, we do feel that the system is unnecessarily long-winded, time-consuming and frankly a pain the neck. Sadly, I don't think we will ever go to a rescue centre again. 

In the case of Boxer Rescue, we never even got near the kennels, so we don't know how many dogs are waiting to be re-homed. We do know that they only re-homed 28 dogs in the year to the end of March 2011. They have over £50,000 in the bank, and they claim that it costs £1,100 to re-home a Boxer dog (from their accounts submitted to The Charities Commission). Boxer Rescue Service (Southern) are a breed rescue service, recommended by The Kennel Club. I have written to The Kennel Club expressing our concerns about the organisation. From the documents submitted to The Charities Commission, one can see that the organisation received funding from The Kennel Club, for the kennelling of rescue dogs. That is, much of their income comes from the number of dogs housed, and NOT from the number of dogs re-homed. Certainly, this service appears to be motivated to kennel dogs and not find suitable homes for them, in direct contradiction of their stated manifesto.

And from what we saw at The Dog's Trust, we believe this is true of that organisation too. The kennels in Shoreham are really lovely. Bright and warm, with arm chairs and blankets. Perfectly designed for tugging at the heart strings for more donations. For here's the rub. They are centrally funded, from public donations, based on the number of dogs they can house at any one time (approximately 60 at Shoreham). If they are not maximally occupied, they take vans of dogs from the Republic of Ireland. I don't agree with this practice. 

I don't doubt that the people and organisations discussed here are committed to the animals in their care. We met some lovely people who clearly had a close bond with the dogs. What they lacked was a common-sense approach to re-homing, to making it a streamlined process for dogs and families.

I heard a radio debate this week which added another side to this debate. That of breeder-bashing. I do not support puppy farming. I do advocate neutering. But I cannot join in with pedigree breeder-bashing. We have been interviewed each time we reserved a puppy, to ensure our suitability. We have met both parents in the home, and seen all the puppies in the litter. 

Getting a new furry friend is a wonderful addition to every family. Having a dog brings many benefits; companionship, exercise and unconditional love. Rescue centres would do well to remember that they are there to bring dogs and families together.

Happy new-dog-year!

An open letter to Boxer Rescue Service (Southern)

Dear Boxer Rescue Service (Southern),

Further to our email correspondence, I write to offer feedback on our experience with your organisation in our recent attempt to re-home a Boxer dog.

We wrote to you on 15 November 2012 outlining our credentials and our wish to re-home a Boxer dog to be a companion to Brin, following the death of Themba. Our decision was not undertaken lightly. 

We had a reply immediately from your website co-ordinator, and the following day (16 November) a further request for our address. We also telephoned both numbers listed and left messages. We had no reply. 

Ten days later (26 November) we received another email, asking if we were still interested in re-homing. I replied immediately 'Yes, please'. You telephoned me later that day to say that you had passed our details to your home 'vetter'. 

During that telephone call, I asked you the following questions:

1. Are the Boxer dogs in your care in foster homes or in kennels? You said all the dogs are in kennels.

2. Does the home 'vetter' know the dogs in your care, so that when she visits she will be able to suggest a suitable match. You said that she does not know the dogs and will write a report, following which you will decide which dog might be suitable. At no point did you suggest that we visit the kennel to meet the dogs in your care.

3. I asked you about the availability of a suitable dog for us to re-home, and got no information. In fact, the impression I was left with was that you did not think you had a suitable dog to re-home. 

Three days later (29 November), your appointed home 'vetter' contacted me. Due to the nature of my husband's work, and the need for Boxer Rescue Service (Southern) to meet both of us, we had to agree a meeting time on a Saturday (8 December), a further nine days to wait. You have now cancelled this appointment, as we have registered an interest in re-homing a dog through another charity. 

We appreciate that you are a small charity, however, your association with The Kennel Club breed rescue implies a standard operating procedure. On this occasion, we feel that your level of service to us and to the Boxer dogs in your care, falls well short of expectations.

We wish all the Boxer dogs in your care happy homes. 

Dr Lesley Beeton
Shackleford, Surrey

Fee-fi-fo-fum

Brin the Boxer smells the Springer Spaniel's bum. And the Lakeland Terrier. Two new friends who have joined us walking in the woods. Of course, Themba had a real nose on him. Brin has to get really up close and personal to make his acquaintance. Which leaves some dogs and their owners a little non-plussed. Not Rory, the tough little Lakeland Terrier, who can high five and roll over! But can't walk to heel.

No matter, we know all the paths and disappear in a flash, behind that tree, into that copse, or as last night, onto the cricket pitch. It's actually a great space for walking the perimeter. Plenty to look at, plenty to sniff at. The Pavilion is a bit run-down, but news of the imminent demolition of the Mushroom Farm should hurry up the plans for the new houses, and a new cricket pavilion in the Village. And so, we have been taking a last look at the mushroom farm development site. It really is quite sad, and will be a huge task to clear the site of all that concrete and asbestos. When we first moved to the village, the local pub restaurant served a very popular ShackMush burger, a vegetarian option which was delicious. Although the pub is still serving good food, it no longer serves local produce.

The work done by the Ranger earlier in the year, to clear the birch trees and rhododendrons, is now yielding results. The central part of the Heath has been opened up, the fungi have been splendid, although if you blink, the giant slugs will eat them before your eyes! The badger setts are very obvious now, as are the deer 'bedding areas'. I keep Brin on lead so as not to disturb the animals, I hope other dog owners do too.

Stockings for Australia, gift tags by Christmas Pie Crafts

Things have been a bit busy at chez Mad dog woman. Not content to be pushing ahead with phase 1 of the patient digital record system, I have also had to host a dinner for Consultant colleagues, purchase gifts for junior staff, and have all the nephews, nieces and assorted God-childrens' gifts ready for Dad to take to Australia next week. No, Dad isn't the postman or Father Christmas, but he is going to Australia for 5 weeks and my brother will enjoy the special time with him (or else)!

Gift bags packed with gifts for staff.
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

That means that we (Mr B, Brin and I) will enjoy a very quiet Christmas. We have been invited to spend it with Mr B's family in Croydon, but the thought of leaving Brin alone all day, and sharing Christmas with some of my least favourite people in the world has driven me to tears - quite literally. I have written about this here.

Talking of Brin, we have been in touch with Boxer rescue, and at last, someone is coming to see us, to vet us. Please, fingers crossed that we will be matched with an adorable Boxer dog before Christmas. A new companion for Brin, who although he is a human dog, should really have a playmate to romp around the garden with. He gets easily bored when I am mucking out the hen house. When Themba was alive, they would play and play and never get bored or cold.

And to end, the community police person has been around this week. Not a woman I have taken to, but she seems very efficient. This week, she was on the trail of a pony (it could have been a donkey) in a field. She noticed the gate was down on the service driveway of the neighbours. Unbeknown to me, the tree men had opened the gate, it fell down as the post is rotten and it had been tied up with green garden wire! Anyway, they were only picking up any debris from the hedge trimming, to keep things neat and tidy. Next thing, the police person is about, asking questions and implying that the neighbour is furious. I went over to appease her and sort things out. The police person explained that she thought the driveway was the path to the field (!) and thought some undesirables had broken the gate down. All's well that ends well, but beware. Don't leave your neighbour's gate open, don't leave your donkey in a field, and don't get the tree men to tidy up, because, in Shackleford, you are being watched and will get into trouble.

(Of course, the next day, the wind blew the gate over again. The tree men were blamed, so I enlisted the help of the super-neighbour who tied the gate to our gate post. Job done).

Photography by Lesley Beeton.