Im on the committee for Oldies Club. We specialise in dogs age 7 and over. We are 100% volunteers and none of the money received goes on any form of salary. 87% of our funds goes on vet bills alone. I see the monthly accounts and most dogs that come in produce a bill much higher than the amount we receive in their adoption fee.

The welfare of the dogs in our care always comes first. If dogs come in and are too ill for whatever reason to rehome we keep them in long term foster for the rest of the days where they receive all the love and vet treatment they require. In some cases this runs into thousands of pounds.

We are totally reliant on the generousity of our supporters in any form be it donations, fundraising, homechecking, fostering or transporting. Without their support we would not be able to survive and that is true of all rescues no matter what age dogs them deal with.

No, but considering I sit at home on my a*se most of the time, apart from caring for my disabled 84 yr. old mother, walking the dog, cleaning the house, shopping, cooking, taking care of a husband etc. I suppose I COULD just fit that bill for a rescue centre perhaps??? Even if I did just an hour a day for them, it might be a help. Not that particular rescue though, coz they wouldn't want me, or I'd probably have to go through so much red tape to do it, I'd be disabled myself by the end of it! I might ask my local rescue centre if they would be willing for me to take some phone calls for a few hours a day though, it's definitely worth a thought, coz I know them personally, I know how busy they are and that is why they never answer their phones either, apart from 5pm when the day is done!

I know all you volunteers work your butts off for the love of dogs, but it just appears to me, for some of these perhaps smaller places it's just not working, and that is why I mentioned earlier, that perhaps the whole thing should be tied up in one major organisation, such as the dog's trust, and that way, all the funds would be going to just one place, all the volunteers could be dotted around the country purely doing the necessary, i.e. either home-checking, collecting dogs, you wouldn't have to make all those vet trips would you, you wouldn't have to deal with the dogs themselves on a daily basis (unless you wanted to, and took that job on), you would be designated a certain part of the whole workings of it, and whether you got paid for it or not is entirely up to you.
Why do we need all of these smaller rescue centres, who are running out of funds, the staff are running themselves ragged to get the job done efficiently, when we could have big major centres with local staff given certain areas to cater for, and that way, the dogs are looked after by certain people, the office is run by others, the vets are all there in-house, and more people get an answer to their phone messages or e-mails and it should all run smoothly? My whole point is, I know the animals are well cared for, their every veterinary care is catered for, BUT, it's all such a mess, you shouldn't all be running around chasing your tails like this, so why is it? Something is wrong, surely? Missed phone calls are missed homings in my book, and isn't that the name of the game!??

Maybe it's because the larger ones cannot take any more animals, that we have the need for these smaller ones who can't seem to cope or make ends meet most of the time, and although the dogs never suffer, it defeats the object of getting them out of there if there's nobody left to answer that phone!

If I myself am going to offer to do a couple of hours a day manning a phone, why can't other volunteers do this SPECIFIC job all day long in a smaller rescue centre then? The only time I actually got an answer from one rescue, was when she was "just going out for an appointment somewhere", and nobody else was answering the phone that day I'm glad my husband doesn't run his business like this, and afterall, it IS a business isn't it? It is if you decide to take on a project like becoming a small animal rescue centre, surely you want the dogs OUT not IN!

Yes, I DO have a problem with SOME rescue centres sad to say!

So what happens to the dogs then, i know that back in August the Dogs trust in Leeds had a 4 month waiting list to take dogs in, so what do they do in the meantime, when its urgent, i took in a springer who;s owner has leukemia, and had a letter from his mcmillan nurse to say he couldn't care for him, but the dogs trust still couldn't help, I would expect it to be worse now, and as for the smaller rescues not working, i don't think the 200 plus dogs that we re-homed last year would agree with you

Don't they have a slogan which says "we never turn a dog away??????" I thought they did, maybe it is the RSPCA who has that?

Having spent the last 3 months TRYING to get a suitable rescue it seems to me, there are too many people after the same dogs, coz by the time you do get to speak to a person, that dog has gone, or had a queue around the block You then get told about another one which would be suitable, and it sounds lovely, perfect in fact. Then you get to speak to somebody who has that dog at home, in foster, and then the story changes completely, you're getting the true facts coz that person obviously knows the dog well, so you go through the same process again, with numerous places, breed specific in my case though. Although I'm an animal lover, and love them all, I do want what I want, and surely it's my choice to have that if I can, and surely it's much,much better if I take on an unwanted or neglected one than go out and buy a puppy, but it seems to me, everybody wants to do this now and it's going to take me far too long to offer a good home to a dog that suits us and one that I like and know so well (i.e. a gsd), my current dog will probably be dead by then! Sadly, very sadly, I am not prepared to put myself through any more of this trawling, frustration, only to end up disappointed yet again, and I've given up now! There is just one small chance that my local dog warden who gave me Georgie might just come up with something now that Christmas is over ( didn't want to have to say that bit, but you know what I mean! )as he knows what I want, knows my current dog, and he will just phone me and bring it on round, what could be more perfect than spending hours/days on the phone and puter trying to give a dog a home!
My plight has been just as exhausting as your valuable job the other end of the scale I'm very sad to say, and I'm sure I'm not alone, I'm also very sorry to say.

I agree with Lizzy23.

The Dogs Trust have a great reputation for looking after their dogs and for getting funds in, but this is partly because they do and will turn dogs away when they don't have the space or when they don't think the dog can be rehomed.

If it wasn't for the smaller rescues who run on a shoestring there would be far more dead dogs because there would be no-one else to look after the. The dogs trust would not take the same number of dogs for the same donations as the smaller rescues currently look after.

i think they say "we never put a healthy dog to sleep".

no, their slogan is 'we never put a healthy dog down'. But they can afford to say this since they just refuse to take in dogs when their kennels are full or when they think the dog will be too difficult to rehome.

true, and unhealthy means includes mental health and staff member health and safety, all of which is the way it should be.

PS - that answers the question someone asked me earlier when i was responding to SB's assertion that Dogs Trust keep dogs alive that suffer mentally in an unnatural environment.
They also foster out dogs to address that situation, and did used to have a rehabilatation home for problems dogs in Evesham (dont know if thats still active though)

Be nice if I was right though! I didn't know that about the Dog's Trust, and I suppose the same goes for Battersea and the likes, which of course then means, we have to get an overspill, which has to go somewhere........ oh it's all so blooming sad!

Maybe it's time we put a stop to any future breeding, sort of like the cod rations with the fishermen to build up stocks again, whereby this would hopefully empty most of the rescue centres? If they can stop humans breeding in China, only allowing them 2 children to one family, then surely we can do this, stop people breeding from their dogs for one whole year or something??? That might be a good idea???

Totally!

We need a cooling off period until demand outstrips supply again.