Here we have seven puppies, roughly two weeks old, possibly Beaucerons (a Northern French herding and protecting breed), that our daughter has agreed to foster and bring up for the next six weeks or so. They are mostly about a foot long and in decent health, although there is a runt about two thirds that size. We have them on good puppy milk being fed every three to four hours and will gradually move them onto good solid puppy food when they are ready.
They were found last Saturday evening in a bin bag on the edge of a busy road. As the people who saw them and were turning round a car nearly drove over the bag, it was that close to the road. They were only seen as one of them was crawling out of the bag.
This year has been especially bad for abandoned puppies and kittens in this part of France, although you usually find them in boxes found by the communal bins.
There are few words to describe how we feel about this.
Comments
Good on your daughter for taking them in...I just wish for a world where people like her didn't have to.
Words won't do my feelings justice so i will just echo what @digitalscream said.
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
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Top job fostering them. People are absolute cunts.
It's crazy. Puppies are worth good money. Why chuck them away?
In France you need to be licensed to sell any animals. It is regulated and taxed. There are severe penalties if you try to sell puppies, kittens etc. without the appropriate paperwork and approval.
Of course you could just have your animals neutered to avoid this but that is too much effort and expense, especially when you can just dump them. It's very much part of the culture sadly.
When he went for a health check a year or so ago, the vet asked "Do you have insurance?". "Yes" we replied. "Good", said the vet, "because you wouldn't get it now". Apparently we may have heart issues to deal with at some point.
My feedback thread is here.
So it's not always as cut and dry depending on circumstances.
I do wish more was done to regulate breeding and clamp down on animal cruelty in this country though. I watch the Dog Rescuers on Channel 5 each week.
The other week, a poor german shepherd was starved to death and left to live in it's own shit....You hear they have tracked down the owner for prosecution "they got a suspended 3 month prison sentence and banned for keeping animals for 5 years"
Wait, what?? Lock them up and throw away the key! 3 months suspended sentence? That'll really fucking teach them won't it?
Ludicrous.
On the other hand...there have been a couple of high-profile cases in the last couple of weeks where there's been some actual common sense with dogs seized under breed-specific legislation being returned to their owners (albeit with some serious celebrity clout used to pressure the authorities), so it's swings and roundabouts at the moment.
Sprocket was from a breeder - a reputable one, not a puppy farm. This was Lady BMcH's plan - as Sprocket is my first dog it was felt that a rescue might be too much.
That's a mistake we made with Mac, our first - he was a rescue, and we really didn't have any idea what we were doing. As a result, we didn't do enough to calm his anxiety or help him get past his...past...and so he's a bit of a stresshead, which is unfair to him. He seems to be calming down a bit these days with the addition of another big dog to the family, though, so he's enjoying his retirement a little more.
Manchester based original indie band Random White:
https://www.facebook.com/RandomWhite
https://twitter.com/randomwhite1