We've reached Day 86 on our 100 Days with 100 Dogs journey and as it's Boxing Day we wanted to take a step back and examine our current status. It's a bit of a lengthy post, but will aid the digestion of any large meals you may have eaten over the last day or two!
As a charity, our primary mission is to rescue German Shepherds across the mainland UK. To perform this mission we have three supporting pillars:
- Rescue GSDs and place them in safe environments, temporarily at first but ultimately in adopted homes. If that isn't possible then they are kept in our permanent care as long as they are able to enjoy a fulfilling life. This often involves rehabilitation work to help them recover from whatever trauma they have been rescued from.
- Fundraising activities and awareness activities to find suitable homes and pay for our mission. We are not supported in any way by government funds and are completely reliant on public donations.
- Education and awareness. Dogs are complex creatures. They have their own personalities and physiologies. Whilst the level of research is far lower than for humans there has still been significant progress in recent years. And we want to ensure that this up-to-date knowledge is available.
In an ideal world, there would be no need for our services although even if people looked after their pets correctly circumstances can change and some form of safety net will always be needed. Whilst it would be lovely to assume that the government could provide such a system it would be naive to assume that they will do so - especially when potential existential threats to the human population are taken into account.
As many of you are aware the past few years have presented challenges to the point where we are teetering on the edge of what we can do. We are not alone in this situation and even much larger organisations are reporting issues handling the influx of dogs needing rescue. It's easy to look at the pandemic and other major situations in recent years and assume they are the cause for the crisis in dog rescue. There is no doubt about their massive impact but that only hides the fact that many key problems already existed.
A report has been put together to identify the key problems that need solving to enable dog rescue across the sector but also to minimise the need for our services as much as possible. Over the coming weeks, I will reach out to other rescue and welfare organisations to invite their feedback and support. I mentioned earlier that we shouldn't rely on the government to fix things however they can be instrumental in helping things change, To that end, the All-Party Parliamentary Dog Advisory Welfare Group (https://apdawg.co.uk/) already have the report and has swiftly responded by setting up a panel to review the issue. This will take place towards late February 2023 and I will share more details when I get them.
In the meantime please take a look at the document and comment with your feedback. I will reach out to as many rescues as I can, but if you are involved with a rescue or any appropriate organisation then do share this post and the document link with them. Note that this document isn't about solving the issues but making sure I have identified everything that needs consideration. Fixing problems is the next stage and will require lots of support!
No comments:
Post a Comment