Dog rescue in the UK at the moment is at crisis point. All of the rescue centres are full, the council pounds are under enormous stress and more dogs are being dumped on a daily basis.
So what can be done about it and why is it happening?
We have made great advances over recent years with legislation surrounding microchipping and responsible dog ownership;however;we are still stuck in this loop.
The Covid pandemic no doubt had a massive impact on the pet market. People found themselves forced to be at home and felt this was the right time to seek canine companionship. The knock on effect of this was massive, the puppy market soared, with huge prices being charged for puppies and demand far exceeded the market. This led to a boom in breeding by both reputable, family and disreputable breeders. These new pups were then brought home to an artificially quiet environment and the situation prevented adequate socialising. Roll on a couple of years, people go back to work and we have a large number of dogs with an inability to cope with change and with significant behaviour problems, new owners who can’t cope but also now simply don’t have the time so they look to rehome. Simultaneously, the demand for puppies reduces back to a normal level and many breeding dogs now find themselves turned out as they are no longer useful.
Rescues are swamped and the rehoming situation is further complicated by competition from foreign rescues bringing dogs into the country who are deemed to be in greater need of rescue than the UK bred dogs.
Is there a solution? The answer is I don’t know. I feel we need more education for owners to spot and manage behavioural issues, more control over importing dogs and more support from vets, pounds and other charities to work with these dogs .