Did you ask if any of the dogs you were looking at were imported?

Not read whole thread but my views (if of any interest) are as follows:

1 Charity begins at home, when we have achieved Nirvana then they can turn their head elsewhere, it should be stated in the policy what their views on this subject are so potential donors can make an informed decision.

2 PTS policy - I do not support ANY charity that does not have a PTS policy, ie I do not support the Dog's Trust. I cannot see how being locked up for 23 out of 24 hours a day for life is better than death! If you kept a dog at home under these conditions you would be prosecuted!

3 If individuals have the disposable income to fund the arrival of a dog from abroad, then good luck to them, personally I would not be paying thousand of pounds out in this way for myself, nor would I expect funds from anyone else!

No why would I ? Odd question ...

Not really, if your stance is such that you disagree with the dogs being brought over, I wondered if that had been a consideration when you were adopting?

If you had found out the dogs had been brought over would it have made you look at different dogs or go to a different centre?

Because of the rules most rescues have we are very limited as to where we can get a rescue dog so much so next dog will be from a breeder as we cannot go through it all again. But that's for another thread really.

I also assumed the rescues we dealt with, as they had histories for the animals, were telling us the truth and they all had English/Welsh dogs.

Both the dogs I own now are from breeders. have owned rescues in the past , and may do again in the future!

I'm interested in your views although I don't necessarily agree with them.

1. When you say "charity begins at home" I assume you mean in the UK. But IMO this only reflects the unnatural human borders created by the human race over time. I don't suppose dogs have any concept of "home" in that context. And a dog helped/saved, is a dog helped/saved wherever it comes from & wherever it lives. The only context in which perhaps it may be better to give preference to dogs that happen to find themselves living in the UK, is if it is cheaper & easier, in which case it frees up more funds & more time to help more dogs. But I agree that registered charities should include what their aims are & how their funds are used, in their mission statements, & that this information should be available to potential donors.

2. I don't know where you've got your comments on the DT from as my experience of the DT is completely different. I know they say that they never put a healthy dog down, but this includes mentally/emotionally healthy, as well as physically healthy ~ so there is, effectively a pts policy in place, it's just that it's based on the quality of life for each individual dog, not blanket policy to be applied across the board regardless of the dog's behaviour & health or the time it has spent in kennels. And from my experience, the dogs in DT are certainly NOT locked up 23 hours out of 24 (unless they're recovering from an op or something, in which case the canine carers will try to make sure they're given appropriate & alternative activities instead). All DT rehoming centres have outdoor exercise facilities for the dogs (some better than others, granted) & most centres have dogwalking volunteers to give the dogs more stimulation.

3. Yes, each to their own. But sometimes the suffering of dogs in other countries tugs at the heart strings & some people can't walk away from this & will make huge sacrifices to help those dogs ~ good on them. And if rescues choose to spend donations in this way, & as long as the donors are aware of this, then they can choose the charity they want to give money to.

Good luck with your next dog

I was just curious if it would have made you turn away from the rescue or a specific dog if you discovered it was from another country.
Do you know if the rescues you dealt with have a policy with regards to imported dogs?

No idea as it was only recently reading posts on Dogsey I realised it was going on - obviously I know people bring them in individually and that is entirely their own business but this movement of dogs through rescues is totally baffling to me as I understood we had a huge problem ourselves. I rather naively assumed we were tackling that alone not adding to it from other countries. Actually makes me wonder if our figures are as bad as they sound if many are from other countries

Em Its MT that are gettin the treatment done on these ex breeders not the puppyfarmers