Staffies and crosses not welcome at Dogs Trust

Just read this on FB that staffies and crosses won't be taken in by the dogs trust here due to the fact they are too hard to rehome due to prejudice and behavioural problems. This revelations came about because a staff cross was abandoned and the pound are now ready to get him put down but the Dogs Trust won't take him to save his life cause they don't think he will be rehomed.


Lovely to know that ALL dogs get equal treatment by one of the countires largest no kill shelter.

That's disgusting! I hope the media have a field day with that! I used to be a big fan of the Dogs Trust, not anymore!

that is horrible

I see. So, they won't put a healthy dog down, but if it's a certain type, they won't take it? So it's put down anyway.

Seems that way! I have contacted the person who said this to see what they intend to do about it. I will also email the dogs trust!

words fail me

The dog was taken by another rescue centre thankfully. Hopefully it gets a good home.

i have just emailed the dogs trust to see what they say
i think it may all be hear say as they mention nothing about not excepting them on there site

Its just this lady phoned them to ask if the dog could be taken in by them as it was due to pts but they said they wouldnt take it as a staffy x is too hard to rehome. Its nothing official per sey

Equi wrote:Its just this lady phoned them to ask if the dog could be taken in by them as it was due to pts but they said they wouldnt take it as a staffy x is too hard to rehome. Its nothing official per sey

get it it may just be an over run center then still not good enough and the dogs trust may be glad to be alerted as there a charity and bad p[ress could be very bad for them

Yeah thats true! Hopefully someone gets back to me, if they say that they are less likely to take staffs cause od rehoming issues ill go mad, but im guessin they will just say the same as you have, but in that case why would they tell this lady they find it hard to rehome stafs and not just say they are full. i nearly have a mind to ring and pretend i want to put a dog in lol

just been told that other sanctuarys refuse to take german shepards. what is going on here?!

That's terrible. I got Lilly from Liverpool Dog Rescue, its only a small centre and they had staffies, staffie crosses, German Shepherd and a couple of small terriers. They never pts even if they don't rehome, one large staffie was with them for 3 years before its eventually found its forever home. And they insist ont he dog back if there are any issues once the dog is rehomed, they do such a great job.

my mothers auntie donnates a fair sum to the dogs trust,over lunch the other day she told my mam and her cousin,the only family she has left,that when she goes theres a little somthing for each of them,guess whos havin the house,the bloody dogs trust,i may print the origional post and show her ,make her change her mind ,giving the house to the dogs trust thats sacrilage,my mam needs to talk to her ,tell her they will make a nice donation but leave the house to her and her cousin who would benefit more,BTW her dog is a staffy.

i wouldn't believe a word on facebook these day its full of nut-jobs go undercover and phone them up and found out...

Ledger is from Dogs Trust Shrewsbury and I have the staffy page bookmarked to see the comings and goings seam to be a frequent turn over of new faces being rehomed just one boy Frankie that was reserved when I got Ledger who was returned and nearly a year on is still there they couldnt have been better they talked me into taking Ledger earlier than I planned as he wasn't happy in kennels but offered to home him for free for a week if I couldnt talk my parents into looking after him for a week while I was away at work

I guess it depends on the area but another local family run rescue near here is over run with staffys I guess the nature of the non breed specific rescues is that they need to give people a choice of breeds to rescue

Sadly I heard this a long time ago, never new if it was true or not.

That is the sad state of affair our breed is in, there are too many needing homes that even shelters can't help, they rely on the dogs being homed and a turn around, staffs are hard to rehome in the numbers that they are in.

I will never slate a shelter, they are doing a job, but I will slate the byb breeders for over producing.

The shelters no its not the dog to blame, they're not prejduice, its the people who over breed them that are the culprits and until we stop that shelters will be over run by Staffies.

This is the response I have just received from the Deputy CEO at dogs trust regarding this issue:

"Nicholas

Many thanks for your e mail. It's always useful to receive feedback from our supporters.

With regard to your query, I can say that Dogs Trust does take in Staffordshire Bull Terriers and Staffie Crosses.

Every day Dogs Trust has approximately 1,600 dogs in our care. At present, 822 are displayed on the website. There are a number of reasons why half the dogs are not featured on the website - eg they may be waiting to go to a new home, have only just arrived, be undergoing behavioural work or they might be a young puppy (we don't promote individual puppies on the website in order to give older dogs a chance).

Of the 822 dogs currently on display, 85 are Staffies. That's just over 10%. If that picture reflects the situation amongst all our dogs (which is more than likely), then we'll have around 165 Staffies at our centres at the moment.

I did a quick check of other popular breeds and it seems that we have more Staffies in our centres than any other breed.

It may well be that the rumour you heard concerns our policy of offering as much choice as possible to prospective adopters in order to maximise the numbers of lives we can save.

Sadly, there are more dogs needing to be saved than we have available kennel space. So very difficult choices have to be made. We're unashamedly a charity that believes that our duty is to save as many dogs' lives as is possible and, to that end, we try not to allow any particular breed to dominate our centres as we know this has an adverse effect on the numbers of dogs we can rehome. It has an adverse effect because there are only so many people in the local area looking for a particular breed of dog. So, the less choice you have in the centre, the fewer dogs you can rehome.

So, on occasions, it may well be that the decision is taken to favour a dog of a particular breed or crossbreed over one that is already well represented in a centre. Whilst there are more abandoned dogs than available kennel space, such tough choices will always need to be made.

That being said, we will be opening a new centre in Loughborough in a fortnight and another in Basildon in 2013. That will mean more available kennel space and more dogs, of all breeds, saved.

I hope this has answered your question. Should you have any additional queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

With best wishes

Adrian"


At least they responded.

Yeah at least they responded. But basically said that if they have a different breed they will take it over a staffy.

Good to hear that two more centres are being opened, but sad that they have to be.

i think they seem to be doing all they can but there are 2 many unwanted dogs! i feel the best thing to do is support all these animal charities they are struggling as we all are in these dire economic days i give what i can and i dont feel negative publicity helps these organisations im sure the dogs trust do a fantastic job in most instances! i know if it werent for the rspca and staffy rescue my 2 dogs wouldnt be with me now!

We're not saying don't support them. I was just expressing my anger that if givin a choice, another dogs life is more important than a staffy. I don't like liar sand telling people they help all dogs is a lie. They help dogs that they can rehome. And they should say so.

it just concerns me that posts expressing negative comments damage how people see these organisations which in turn will affect all the dogs be it a staffy or a heinz 57 there has already been one posted on here by a person that was going to tell her mother who does support dogs trust! dogs trust did respond and i do understand but maybe not overly agree with what they said! if all the A holes in this world stopped abandoning dogs like they were rubbish then the shelters wouldnt be so full in the first place!

It is entirely up to that person if they want to donate a HOUSE to the dogs trust and whatever reason they want to. Negative comments make the world go around, perhaps this will make them sit up and do more education on staffies rather than just abandoning them to being pts cause there are too many. as a dog charity, that is the leeast they can do. i'm all for charity rescues but im appalled they have said this. i dont know why you are getting to up in arms about it.

maybe in your world but not mine!

I dont even know what you are talking about now.

Give up.

End.

Well, that is just lovely!
What are they gonna do? Kill them when they need help?

Thank you for contacting Dogs Trust

We do indeed take in Staffordshire Bull Terriers and crosses. We do not like to turn any dogs away. However our centres have many SBTs and crosses in their kennels and as we try not to discriminate we look to take one of a particular breed when we have rehomed one of that breed. This is not a rule but we work this way in general for the most popular breeds. We do similar for Greyhounds for instance.

It is a concern that we do not become a breed rescue as we try to assist with all kinds of dog including crossbreeds, and not a particular breed

We try to help as many as we can but it would be an impossible task currently to assist will al requests to take in dogs. Sadly people remember the ones that we cannot take and little mention is made of the assistance that we have given by taking in other dogs.

We are sorry that there is this perception and it is not pleasant to know that we are seen as such but we will continue to help Stafford's and others as much as we can.


I am awaiting figures from our IT deptment as to the number of SBT’s and SBT crosses we have at our rehoming centres at this time and I shall forward these figures onto you when they get back to me, I just wanted to send you a reply for now.


Yours sincerely

Ann Campling

ann.campling@dogstrust.org.uk
Dogs Trust - A Dog Is For Life

Visit our website at http://www.dogstrust.org.uk
or call us on: 020-7837 0006
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Registered Charity Numbers: 227523, SC037843 and CHY 16218here the reply i received from the dogs trust

the reply i recieved today from them

Dear Hayley

Thank you for contacting us with this query. There are no breeds that
Dogs Trust refuses to take just because of their breed.

However we do select dogs from the waiting lists based on their
temperament and rehomability. In the case of certain types (including
Staffies) we have a maximum number we can take into each centre.
Unfortunately there are so many of these dogs around that we would
quickly fill our kennels if we took them all.

Also as these types are much more difficult to rehome this would prevent
other breeds from having access to kennels resulting in more dogs put to
sleep. We have staffie crosses in Ballymena that have been in kennels
for over a year with no interest from potential adopters.

We all do our best for all the dogs that come to us but we have to
carefully manage our intake to guarantee as many dogs as possible get
the chance of finding a new home.

Regards




David

David Franklin
Assistant Operations Director

Thats the one i got.

Also as these types are much more difficult to rehome this would prevent
other breeds from having access to kennels resulting in more dogs put to
sleep.

loved that part

janey wrote:

Sadly I heard this a long time ago, never new if it was true or not.

That is the sad state of affair our breed is in, there are too many needing homes that even shelters can't help, they rely on the dogs being homed and a turn around, staffs are hard to rehome in the numbers that they are in.

I will never slate a shelter, they are doing a job, but I will slate the byb breeders for over producing.

The shelters no its not the dog to blame, they're not prejduice, its the people who over breed them that are the culprits and until we stop that shelters will be over run by Staffies.

I think its great that they have responded and I aplaud them. I get what they are saying so once again I repeat, blame the breeders not the shelters, they are doing there best.

total agree janey

janey wrote:

janey wrote:

Sadly I heard this a long time ago, never new if it was true or not.

That is the sad state of affair our breed is in, there are too many needing homes that even shelters can't help, they rely on the dogs being homed and a turn around, staffs are hard to rehome in the numbers that they are in.

I will never slate a shelter, they are doing a job, but I will slate the byb breeders for over producing.

The shelters no its not the dog to blame, they're not prejduice, its the people who over breed them that are the culprits and until we stop that shelters will be over run by Staffies.

I think its great that they have responded and I aplaud them. I get what they are saying so once again I repeat, blame the breeders not the shelters, they are doing there best.

Couldnt agree more! Its a bit like when i was keeping snakes. The market was absolutely flooded with corn snakes because irresponsible breeders just saw pound signs instead of looking at whether there was actually a market for these snakes.

You have to blame irresponsible breeders and owners for the amount of staffies needing rehoming, the charities are just trying to do their best.