you should have heard the rumpus from a lot of the people involved in rescues who were at the seminar when it was suggested that the agreements wouldn't necessarily stand up in court.....

Legally and morally anyone who takes a dog from a rescue that has an agreement that the dog be returned to them obviously should contact the rescue.

However, consider this completely hypothetical situation: a lady takes on a 6 - 12 month small crossbreed dog from a rescue and signs an agreement to hand it back if she can no longer keep it. She has this dog for 12 years or so. The dog develops a number of health complaints (all of which would be paid for by the rescue if he was rehomed to a new owner but are time consuming to manage). The lady becomes unwell herself and needs to move into some sort of assisted accomodation but she can't take her dog there. She could return the dog to the rescue but he is over 12 and not all that desirable because of his health issues. However, her daughter loves this dog almost as much as her mum. She works at a riding stables so could have the dog with her all day and her mum could see the dog regularily. The ideal situation for all would be for the mum to explain to the rescue that she can no longer cope but could her daughter meet the rescue staff and take over care of the dog. Just one problem with the daughter taking the dog - she lives in a flat and, despite the fact that the dog would be with her at the stables everyday, she has already been refused a dog from this particular rescue because they have a blanket ban on people living in flats.

Do you send the elderley dog back to the rescue and hope that someone will choose it over all of the other dogs in there or do you say nothing to the rescue and give it to your daughter so the dog can live out its twilight years around the people that he has known all of his life

Valid point Lizzy & one which very well may happen which is another reason why the animal should go back to the original rescue

If money changes hands it is irrelevant what the contract says----in fact some rescues no longer refer to it as a contract.

I gained George in an odd fashion via a rescue that I then became very involved with. When they rang me to home check I said they were welcome but I also said that the dog was now mine regardless.

It is in the spirit of the 'contract' to let the rescue know what is happening but in law when it has been tested it hasn't stood up on its own. It might well stand up if the RSPCA or similar were involved and the dog was being ill treated.

I think border collie rescue did a case and lost---a lot of years ago now.

Often when a dog changes address/owners the rescue only find out about it by volunteers meeting it---its rare IME for people to ask.

rune

I'm very confused now (it doesn't take much!)
Is this a hypothetical question?

I agree with Crysania, I too have issues with rescues who consider they are always the owners of rehomed dogs.
I have paid more for my rescues than I would pay some breeders (plus neutering in one case) so why don't I have the right to be the owner?

You do----it isn't an enforcable contract----as yet.

Dogs are property and unless you have lease contract as with a car or rental tv you have paid for the dog and it is yours.

Lets face it----if the dog is going back the rescue have failed it once anyway----so you have as much chance as they do of finding it a decent home!

Unless they or the RSPCA can prove ill treatment.

rune

Majuka - sorry cant quote your post - on the iPhone & sometimes it messes lOng quoted posts up

I can Only speak for the Rescues i am personally involved with. If this happened it would be questioned that this elderly dog had led a sedentary life up to now with his owner, how could he cope with a sudden active lifestyle at his age, such as round a busy stable yard. Has the dog been used to this environment previously at any time? It would obviously be something that would need careful thought & consideration. Some dogs may adapt well to this change but there are those who may not, they are all individuals.

At the end of the day the animals welfare is of utmost importance, no-one wants to disrupt it anymore than it has been & this would be taken into consideration & the situation could be monitored & relative given support should they need it.

How do you make that out if the owner has died, lost tgeir home due to marriage breakup & neither can take the dog into rented property, a child becomes allergic who has never had allergies before etc. I dont consider that as failure to foresee the future from any rescues point

must be very cheap breeders.
99% of the time rescues are cheaper in the hundreds compared to breeders. rescues subsidise all the vaccines worming fea treatment and neutering.

its true rescue contracts probably are questionnable in a court of law.

I totally take on board what you are saying about the energetic side when I think about some dogs at stables I suggested stables in my hypothetical scenario because it was somewhere the dog could realistically be at work with an owner, even if the dog had a basket in a quiet corner of the office.

I went to one of those out of town craft shopping villages and they had a little staff garden and one of the traders had his dog in the shop and it had the run of the secure staff garden. So my hypothetical scenario could equally be that the daughter worked there and could take the dog with her. What I am trying to get at is what is must disrupting for the dog? To spend possibly months back in kennels before going to another similar environment that it had experienced before or to be with someone that it knew well but adapt to a different sort of routine?

I agree totally with the part in bold

No one said it was----the unexpected happens, However if there is another chance at a home through the owners (and they ARE the owners) That dog has as much chance of getting a good one through them as through the rescue home.

In the circumstances you describe probably a better chance as the original owners are likely to care very much where the dog goes.

rune