As 2 Greyhound Trust branches announce closure – we examine why.
In the past 2 months, 2 very well established and respected branches of the Greyhound Trust have announced they are closing – this is a massive step backwards for the world of greyhound rescue. Both are closing because it is becoming more and more tricky to be financially viable and run a rescue. With their closures, the greyhounds lose many years of dedication and experience.
What has changed?
Rescue and rehoming is more difficult than it has ever been – more dogs need help, more genuine people need help, due to home and work insecurities, but also more people are buying dogs then giving up on them – and people adopt and hand them back within weeks. Rescue cannot function unless people adopt dogs – and they cannot adopt when they don’t know if they will have a roof over their head or job next year to pay their bills. The all breed rescues are full of hand-ins which are not being adopted, so they cannot take in greyhounds and lurchers – putting more pressure on breed specific rescues. The dog pounds are full so they have no wiggle room. The local councils have to decide if they want to pay to keep dogs alive or fund children’s services – because there is not always the money for both.
The only thing not slowing down is breeding – whether that is greyhounds or lurchers.
The last 12 months have been the end of the line for many businesses and many of those still trading have a glum future ahead – and many rescues, although they are charities not businesses, have the same rising costs and the same problems. They have increased utility bills and rental costs – lots of people on rescue work for minimum wage meaning salary costs have risen considerably, NI has increased – more ER tax to be paid, ULEZ costs. vet bills have gone through the roof, dog food has increased 20% and so on.
We are incredibly fortunate to have few fixed liabilities and very low overheads so we are not in this position – although we do have to fundraise for the huge dog related costs that we have each year (mainly vets, transportation and food) – those bills are in part funded through people shopping with us on our website. Our rehoming numbers have not reduced much this year – but the effort we have to put into finding those homes has very much had to increase dramatically.
So as we lose the OGs, Brighton GT and Portsmouth GT with a combined experience & dedicated service of nearly 100 years – the South East loses 2 big players in greyhound adoption. Where are their future intake dogs going to go – everyone is full – where are the homes coming from? Take our rescue – we just cannot take on any more dogs than we do – even if we had more home offers – we are very much limited by finances, plus the volunteers and foster homes that we have.
Rescue has never been more tough than it is today – we all battle ever rising costs & fewer adoptions – with a direct onslaught daily from social media.
Karens, Trolls and the rest of the sofa brigade – take note!
And yet still people sit in judgement – there is nothing more pathetic than moaning and criticizing from the comfort of your sofa, while doing nothing constructive. It seems every time we post a dog looking for a home we get a host of negative and often quite nasty comments – we do ban a lot of people to keep the page positive – but it takes out time away from doing other things. We continue because for every 1 idiot – there will be lots & lots of positive comments and 1 person will like the post enough to apply to adopt. Who knew videoing a dog stuck (aka lost) in a understairs cupboard would find him a home, rather than send him spiralling into anxiety. We know there are Karen’s out there wandering around in the wild just out to cause trouble – and people have anxieties and mental health issues – but most are just plain awful people or attention seekers – they come on social media to make it all about them and what they know – so here’s a thought – maybe if those “dog lovers” got off their sofa, and focused their energy into helping a charity – maybe then just maybe, they could help save a life – help save a rescue from closing – take some pressure of them.
Before you post nasty content – just think how many people in the rescue world are going to lose their jobs next year – how many volunteer rescues will be closing because of rising costs and the stress of trying to keep up with all the extra animals and peoples expectations – just how hard it is for them. Have a think about where all the dogs (and all the other animals ) are going to go. Fewer rescue spaces means more animals being taken to the vets by owners to be put to sleep – or owners just dumping them on the streets – or they will be put into the already totally overwhelmed dog pound system to take their chances of coming out alive.
If cannot do anything positive then do nothing at all (although sitting on your hands helps).
