Great Advice from Wood Green

Very interesting read which was posted on the Wood Green website:

http://www.woodgreen.org.uk/news/4099_speak_to_pet_experts_before_you_click

Very true Xx

Good advice - sort of. But I dont follow why a rubbish irresponsible owner is any worse because they offer their dog in part exchange for a mobile phone, or whether they exchange it for money, or give it away for free. Their status as irresponsible owner is unchanged whatever medium of commerce they decide to use. At least if you go to gumtree (which I am not recommending, only observing) you get to see the dog in its home and can get a sense of how it has been treated. When I got my dog from the biggest rescue charity in Scotland, they would tell me NOTHING about his past whatsoever. Data protection was the excuse, so they said. I was and still am annoyed about that - I think I deserved to know more due to the size of the commitment I was about to make. All I was allowed to know was what they had written in their advert, which I still have. These are its skimpy 3 lines:

'X is a young, neutered boy looking for a new home.
He is a friendly lad who will thrive on plenty of exercise, fun and games.
X would suit a family with older children'.

I even phoned them 2 weeks after adopting him, assuring them that I was not proposing to return him, but just asking again if they could tell me more information about him from their files. I wasnt asking for names and addresses, but again 'data protection' stopped them telling me even which part of Scotland he'd come from. I was allowed to know nothing about how he'd come into the care of the charity nor anything else about him.

If you believe, as I do, that there is no such thing as a rescue dog - only a dog - then ones on gumtree are equally worth rescuing as ones with the charities. New owners get extra protection from the charities in theory - but only if the charities tell the truth and are prepared to give sufficient information (not hiding behind the DPA). My dog was said to be a 'friendly lad', ok that he is - with people. But with other dogs he is far from friendly and as for cats, we need to steer a very very wide berth. There was never any mention of dog aggression by the charity where I got my dog, neither in their advert nor during the several conversations prior to adoption. While obviously no one would want to emphasise the negative points of any rescue dog, the charities do have a responsibility to pass on a better minimum standard of information. And yet, this is all very difficult: the charities are squeaking at the seams and everyone's doing their best. Whether on gumtree or in the rescue centres, the dogs just deserve good homes.