THIS is not a condemnation of any animal charity working in the area, as all the charities work very hard.
Firstly if you take on a pet it is a lifetime responsibility, a dog is not just for Christmas. If you cannot accept this do not get a pet... but there are exceptions as who knows what life will throw at you.
You are planning on going home, for whatever reason you cannot take your beloved pet. The reason could be ill health, lack of funds, too elderly to manage. In your mind you may think there are solutions. Let me tell you the solutions are practically non existent.
Assuming you have your dog or cat meeting all the necessary health requirements what is the next step. You would think the pet charities, but you may be wrong in this assumption. One at least says they are not a pet rehoming centre and to take a pet would cost you a lot of money. To be fair rehoming a pet you may have some months is an expensive business and someone has to pay.
You may consider having the pet put to sleep, but many vets will not do this to a healthy animal.
There are the town refuges but for anyone these would be a last resort, but I will find out what their policies are on taking in a pet.
So what do you do placed in this position?
Now I know why people turn pets out and leave, they can see no option. I know someone who did this and it appalled me but I can see why in certain circumstances what option were they given.
We personally have a house full of pets, 10 in all ( not counting kestrels) We are in the lucky position to have funds put aside for them in case of our illness or death, but this is not the case for everyone.
I do not have a solution but I am going to ask all animal charities in the area French and English to give me their rehoming policies. I will send the same letter to each and then we will have a list of charities and know their policies.
Basically I want to bring this problem in to the public forum and see how we can aid these unfortunate people and animals, any helpful ideas from readers ?
...and always remember with any one no longer able to manage a pet... " there for the grace of God go I"
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