Whitna dug is yun?

[Claadehol]

I am now reading on here that British citizens are dumping their dogs on the continent. I presume that this is people moving back to these shores and leaving their pets behind, rather than people holidaying abroad and not bothering to take them home. The latter seems expensive! Is this really happening?

Now how does one identify the nationality of these animals? We can safely assume that they will not be carrying any paperwork, so how can one be sure that the animal was dumped by the British? The dogs by now are probably multi -lingual and if this is the case, that may help.

Now of course they may have been ID'd by a neighbour, but then the neighbour may be looking for a means of getting rid of a dog himself, and sees this as a good means of achieving this. He would also feel safe in the knowledge that the dog would be unlikely to find its way home across the Channel.

If of course these dogs did belong to British citizens we owe it to them to find a caring home for them in this country, even if we have to ship them all the way to Shetland. There are of course plenty of dogs in Shetland already so we may have to introduce a quota system. 

But then, I believe there is a EU agreement that stipulates those seeking asylum should take up residence in the nearest country they come to. This would probably be England of course, and there are millions of caring dog lovers, who hearing of the animal's history would be falling over themselves to adopt.

However fair's fair, if we can identify pets dumped in this country in the same fashion, then maybe they should be sympathetically rehomed to the country of their owners. This could be facilitated as long as we have freedom of movement and even if this means taking them to a far flung corner of Europe. I'm sure our warm-hearted European friends would welcome them.

Ideally, of course, all this would need to be accomplished by a registered and responsible charity, leaving private enterprise out of the picture. Of course "charities" have had a bad press lately so no guarantees there.

 

 

 

[George.]

Control of Dogs Order 1992

 

If you have your dog out in a public place, you are legally obliged to have it tagged with the name and address of the owner on it. That's why everybody knows where they come from. It's still utterly wrong for people to leave them behind. Perhaps the animals had the sense to leave their owners behind.

[Claadehol]

What people are legally obliged to do and what they actually do can differ quite substantially.

[Scorrie]

http://www.galgonews.com/2010/04/hearless-brits-abroad-abandon-their-dogs-boobalubes.html