‘Fake strays’ add to crisis for charity
A WELSH rescue centre for stray and abandoned dogs has reached “crisis point” with the sheer volume of dogs in its care.
Hope Rescue, based in Llanharan, is completely full with more than 154 dogs, more than it has ever had in its 16 years. All of its available foster homes are also full.
As well as dealing with an overwhelming number of dogs with health or behavioural issues, it is also seeing a growing number of owners handing in their own pets as “fake strays”, meaning they have to turn others away.
As a result, since January, the centre has had 7,200 applications from people looking for pets but rehomed just 211 dogs.
Charity founder Vanessa Waddon said: “We knew this was coming, it’s the fallout from the pandemic, the huge spike in the number of dogs purchased during lockdown.
“The more dogs that are purchased and bred means the likelihood of more dogs coming into us.”
Many of the dogs coming into Hope Rescue are not “straightforward” cases, she added, meaning they need extra time to support them before they are suitable for re-homing.
Ultimately, as available spaces fill up, it means rescue centres like Hope Rescue are regularly having to turn dogs away unless they have a suitable foster home available.
Vanessa said: “It’s heartbreaking that dogs are being put to sleep unnecessarily at the vets, that we would of course usually take in but we just can’t because of the sheer amount of dogs we already have in our care.”
Hope Rescue takes in a quarter of all strays in Wales and looks after six local authorities – Merthyr Tydfil, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Bridgend and the western half of the Vale of Glamorgan.
The biggest issue dog rescue centres are facing is fake strays. This is where an owner pretends they have found a stray in order to skip the wait times for rescue.
Fake strays are a problem because the rescue centre has no information on the dog’s background and whether they have any health or behavioural issues.
This makes them so much harder to re-home as they have to be assessed properly before they can be put up for adoption, which means they are in the centre for much longer than necessary.
As a result, the centre has made the difficult decision to suspend new applications for dogs until November.
Explaining the impossible situation, Hope Rescue took to its Instagram page to say: “Like many other rescues, we have reached crisis point. With 154 dogs in our care across our rescue centre and foster homes, for the foreseeable future we can only accept those dogs that can easily move in to a foster home.
“The demographic of dogs coming in postpandemic has changed. Many of the dogs we have in either have health or behavioural issues, or often both.
“These are not the type of dogs that can be quickly re-homed, and they need the time and space for us to support them and set them up for success.
“Not being able to help these dogs will break our hearts as these are the very dogs that need our skills and experience.”
It added: “We have a backlog of adoption applications to get through and have taken the decision to suspend applications until November.
“Since January we have had 7,200 applications and re-homed 211 dogs. We’re inundated with applications and follow-up messages and calls and we are really struggling.
“We need to prioritise those waiting patiently to match them up. Most of these understandably want family dogs, which we just don’t have at the moment.
“This is our world for the foreseeable future and it’s a huge concern. If you could help us out with a donation we would be so grateful.”