That's shocking!... I know in experienced hands the captive bolt is a quick end, but for livestock animals who are used to moving through chutes and being 'crushed'... They genuinely don't seem to know what hit them..

To even think of using it on an animal as emotional and stressed as a dog is just shocking!...

I can only imagine it was cost and convenience that were the factors considered here.. Not 'humanity'... If the dogs were that aggressive and stressed, maybe blow dart sedation and lethal injection would have been more humane as they would for a wolf or tiger... Not just wrestle the poor thing into a hold then shoot it...

But then little the RSPCA does surprises me anymore...

I long ago stopped donating to them and changed my donations to the Dogs trust and PDSA

OMG..........are the RSPCA answerable to no-one and a law unto themselves.

If the dogs were really so un-homeable (probably not a real word) then why did they think that another rescue could help then????
Stinks of 'cant be ars*d' syndrome. Appalling

Difficult. While I am somewhat shocked by the actions of the RSPCA they had warned the relatives what would happen. I'd like to know how many other rescues they tried & whether the RSPCA gave them a list or just told them to find someone else.

Would the other dogs have been able to see and hear as their pack was shot? That just escalates the distress they would have been going through surely.

As others have said why not sedate like they do a big cat and then PTS humanely?

A really sad story and does the RSPCA no favours, they're reputation just gets worse despite what good they do do.

My first thought was that the first might not be destressed - but by the time you got to number 10 it would be horrendous

I cannot believe that this was the best way to deal with this situation. How sad.

ETA -I have just read the blog - it says that none of the dosg were killed in front of the others....yet they were displaying worrying pack behaviour....so they seperated them, but felt it safer to do it this way....does it make sense to anyon else?

thats discusting.....

bolt guns i thought were for horses/cattle??? not dogs!

rspca will never get a penny of my money again or my time.

thought they were supposed to help animals and stop suffering??

did they even asses the dogs properly then if needby destroy them?? or just destroy them in the house?

Yes. Exactly.
As a Registered Charity, as long as they fulfil their `aims` as stated in their constitution, and file annual accounts, yes. They aren`t accountable to anyone.

Words fail me. This is horrendous. Never will the SSPCA/RSPCA get another penny from me.

As others have said, if they did all have to be PTS, this is not the way to do it. A sedation via a dart, then an injection would've been much more humane, I would've thought.

Evil b@stards.

RIP dogs. Poor things.

You have to have a firearms license to own and operate a dart gun. If there was nobody available who could do so then I think a bolt gun would have been the next best choice by far. It's not nice to think of, but at least it's instantaneous. If they had been tranquilised they still would have been staggering around distressed as the sedative took effect, which probably would have been as or more stressful for them than being handled by strangers. It can take a long time and multiple darts for an animal to go down if it's tranquilised under stress, and it can easily do a lot of damage to itself in the process. And who knows? Maybe they did use a dart gun first, they didn't explicitly state that they didn't.
It's very unfortunate, but in this economic climate I suppose they have no choice but to euthanise more animals, and those with the best chance of being rehomed will generally be the ones who are spared. I'm not saying that it was the right thing to do and personally I'm not a fan of the RSPCA at all, but I don't think we know enough of the facts by far to pass judgement in this case. At least the little ones are at peace now.

This is so sad for the dogs and to be quiet honest and sadly not at all suprising actions of the RSPCA, after a recent altercation with an RSPCA Officer who got me so *blip blip* cross I made reference to how they work and healthy dogs being removed/taken from people and being PTS ~ how suprising (not) the officer couldn't then look me in the eye although she still did continue with her bolshy attitute but not with so much eye contact. To be quite honest I think the RSPCA are a set of W*****S