More on Pawprints2Freedom , which brings dogs from rescue shelters in Romania into the UK.
I told last week how one owner had been left with a vet’s bill of more than £900 because her dog had the virus heartworm, that story is here .
Now a former worker at the organisation, which is not a charity or limited company, has blown the whistle on some of its practices.
Emma Bernard says that Pawprints brought around 1,600 dogs over 18 months into the UK, some of them “with serious issues that perhaps should not even have travelled”.
“A lot of dogs that arrive sick are from the same rescuer in Romania,” she said.
“There was a discussion to stop working with her or assist her to improve but nothing was done.
“You expect to have issues with a certain amount of dogs that you don’t know about before they get here, but a lot of this is about Pawprints’ reaction to when these things happen, they take very little responsibility.
“They have in my opinion a high number of dogs that bite people.”
Dogs handed back for biting were later re-homed, with Pawprints charging further adoption fees for the same animal but the new owners not always being warned about its behaviour.
Emma, who now runs her own rescue group Ruff Start Rescue , is caring for a dog called Chance that Pawprints brought to the UK. Its vet’s bill has reached around £2,000.
“She has distemper and travelled to this country in a minibus with 16 or 17 other dogs,” Emma said.
“Pawprints did nothing to alert every other person who was getting a dog from that bus.
“She also had in her passport a known poor-quality rabies vaccine, but tests showed that she was not actively vaccinated or resistant to rabies, meaning she was illegally imported.”
I’ve had no response from Pawprints2Freedom, despite repeated requests.
