I have sadly got used to seeing and hearing upsetting sights and stories with the rescue work that I do, you’d think, with our animal welfare laws, our pets would be protected, unfortunately not.
On Friday 27th July, I was alerted to a JRT Mum, chained to a fence, feeding her seven 5 day old pups in the blazing sun, with no shelter. Alongside her was a crate containing an 8 month old JRT and a 10 week old JRT cross. The water in the crate was brown, a bowl of wet food was crawling with flies, and all around were deposits of diarrhoea. I tried to reason with their owner, explaining how dangerous the situation was to the lives of these poor dogs, but it fell on deaf ears. All of this was in the car park of a local sports field.
I called the RSPCA control centre requesting that they send an officer out asap, I gave detailed information about the dogs, the owner and the situation in general, the operator even thanked me for being thorough, before she assured me the incident would be forwarded to the area’s officers straightaway. I had an urgent situation of my own to deal with that weekend, so I trusted someone would go out, a decision I now deeply regret.
On Sunday 29th July the weather had changed, the blazing sun had gone, we now had thunderstorms and very heavy rain, I’d just got home when a photo popped up on FaceBook, those poor dogs. I immediately went to the carpark, to be met with the same sight, but now they were cold and soaking wet. I called the RSPCA to find out what had happened….. nothing, they didn’t attend, even arguing with me that they didn’t have the powers to do anything even if they did. A member of the public had called the dog warden, bear in mind this is happening in Gloucester City, we do not have animal welfare officers, we have a dog warden service provided by a company 40 miles away. To give them their due, they attended, but were unable to do anything as the dogs weren’t straying, their job is to collect strays for our Council, that is all. I knew I was going to have to do something, so called the police to ask for assistance, just to be there incase the owner didn’t co-operate. Well, they couldn’t help either, they would come if there was a breach of the peace, were powerless to help in what was an animal welfare case.
Thankfully, after lots of discussion, the owner realised the danger to the dogs lives and agreed for me to take them, whilst I and a lovely lady who stayed to help, put the dogs into the van, the owner vanished. I issued an abandonment notice for all the dogs and pups at the last location he was in and have checked personally everyday to see if he made any attempt to claim them, but he hasn’t. In accordance with that notice, the rights, responsibilities and ownership of those dogs have transferred to Noah’s Ark Rescue.
I must say thank you to Alex and Dawn for their immediate offers of help to foster these dogs, and to Wood Veterinary Group for once again being there to provide the veterinary assistance needed 24/7, I couldn’t do this without them. Sadly, we lost one of the pups on Thursday night, they are fighters, but were struggling when we picked them up, for this little one the fight was too much, and she made her way to the bridge knowing she was loved. We have a long way to go but are confident all will thrive and find loving homes, in the mean time they will be costing lots of money, so if you can spare the odd pound to help, it will be much appreciated. There are donate buttons on our website and FaceBook page, Alex has also offered to organise a fundraising auction, in between cleaning up after mucky pups, so watch this space.
Let me introduce, the amazing Grace (Mum) her 6 surviving pups, Willow the fun loving black and tan JRT and Buffy ‘don’t mess with me’ JRT x Chihuahua, all will be looking for loving homes when ready, if you are interested please send us an email via the website in the first instance.
On Friday 27th July, I was alerted to a JRT Mum, chained to a fence, feeding her seven 5 day old pups in the blazing sun, with no shelter. Alongside her was a crate containing an 8 month old JRT and a 10 week old JRT cross. The water in the crate was brown, a bowl of wet food was crawling with flies, and all around were deposits of diarrhoea. I tried to reason with their owner, explaining how dangerous the situation was to the lives of these poor dogs, but it fell on deaf ears. All of this was in the car park of a local sports field.
I called the RSPCA control centre requesting that they send an officer out asap, I gave detailed information about the dogs, the owner and the situation in general, the operator even thanked me for being thorough, before she assured me the incident would be forwarded to the area’s officers straightaway. I had an urgent situation of my own to deal with that weekend, so I trusted someone would go out, a decision I now deeply regret.
On Sunday 29th July the weather had changed, the blazing sun had gone, we now had thunderstorms and very heavy rain, I’d just got home when a photo popped up on FaceBook, those poor dogs. I immediately went to the carpark, to be met with the same sight, but now they were cold and soaking wet. I called the RSPCA to find out what had happened….. nothing, they didn’t attend, even arguing with me that they didn’t have the powers to do anything even if they did. A member of the public had called the dog warden, bear in mind this is happening in Gloucester City, we do not have animal welfare officers, we have a dog warden service provided by a company 40 miles away. To give them their due, they attended, but were unable to do anything as the dogs weren’t straying, their job is to collect strays for our Council, that is all. I knew I was going to have to do something, so called the police to ask for assistance, just to be there incase the owner didn’t co-operate. Well, they couldn’t help either, they would come if there was a breach of the peace, were powerless to help in what was an animal welfare case.
Thankfully, after lots of discussion, the owner realised the danger to the dogs lives and agreed for me to take them, whilst I and a lovely lady who stayed to help, put the dogs into the van, the owner vanished. I issued an abandonment notice for all the dogs and pups at the last location he was in and have checked personally everyday to see if he made any attempt to claim them, but he hasn’t. In accordance with that notice, the rights, responsibilities and ownership of those dogs have transferred to Noah’s Ark Rescue.
I must say thank you to Alex and Dawn for their immediate offers of help to foster these dogs, and to Wood Veterinary Group for once again being there to provide the veterinary assistance needed 24/7, I couldn’t do this without them. Sadly, we lost one of the pups on Thursday night, they are fighters, but were struggling when we picked them up, for this little one the fight was too much, and she made her way to the bridge knowing she was loved. We have a long way to go but are confident all will thrive and find loving homes, in the mean time they will be costing lots of money, so if you can spare the odd pound to help, it will be much appreciated. There are donate buttons on our website and FaceBook page, Alex has also offered to organise a fundraising auction, in between cleaning up after mucky pups, so watch this space.
Let me introduce, the amazing Grace (Mum) her 6 surviving pups, Willow the fun loving black and tan JRT and Buffy ‘don’t mess with me’ JRT x Chihuahua, all will be looking for loving homes when ready, if you are interested please send us an email via the website in the first instance.
RSS Feed
