Welcome to the U.K.!

We have ten happy Hungarian immigrants!  They came ashore last Thursday in a van – all the way from shelters in Hungary.

So here they are – having a stretch after their long journey. This is Bobby … This is Torpi, now MarleyThis is Prue Some of them have already gone to their forever homes, others are still waiting to be picked up and some are just hoping someone will give home a forever home.

We wish them all a happy life – even though the English aren’t the best of the world class footballers, we are champions at giving these abandoned souls a better life. God bless the generous humans of Great Britain!

May’s comment: These are dogs rescued from Killing Stations in Hungary who have been saved and moved to shelters and/or fosterers after they have been to the vet for check-ups, inoculations and chipped. They are cleaned and introduced to potential adopters in the UK. This is an effort of Hilda and her team both in Hungary and the UK Hungarian Dog Rescue

It seems one of the repercussions of a worsening economy is more stray dogs. When people can’t afford to keep them, they are let out to stray and fend for themselves. The Government pays dog catchers to round up strays but in the event they also round up dogs who have been let out to roam. Once rounded up, they are sent to Killing Stations. As there are also no funds to feed and keep the dogs healthy, the situation in these Killing Stations are dire. If a dog has not been claimed within 14 days, the Government pays to have them put to sleep. But the Killing Stations would rather keep the money and either starve the dogs the death or kill them in some horrendous way.

Along come people like Hilda who have set about their life’s mission to save as many of these dogs from Killing Stations as possible. And working with shelters so they can take keep these dogs safe and in better conditions. Hilda was working as a translator for a Hungarian Rescue Foundation when she became emotionally involved and she then started to raise funds to help get dogs out of the Killing Stations. Most of her work are done through her Facebook Page – Hilda Hilda (Hungarian Heart Dog Rescue.)

She organises everything from getting dogs out of Killing Stations, to the local vet – getting them chipped, dewormed, vaccinated. They are sent to foster homes in Hungary during which they can assess the temperaments and nature of these dogs. She introduces them to potential adopters and getting the dogs over either to foster homes in the UK – a better chance for adoption when people can actually meet them or to their forever homes.

Some people would say we should not encourage the importation of these dogs as it encourages them to breed more. As I’ve learnt from this rescue effort, they are not dog breeders, it’s just a culture where dogs are not cared for like they are here. They have no money to get them spayed or neutered so when the dogs wander the streets, things happen and there are more puppies without homes. The Government pays to round-up dogs. And there are people there who are surviving by rounding up as many dogs as they can and they are incentivised to kill them.

Rescues such as this is about saving a life that already exist. Puppy farming on the other hand is creating more than we need. There’s always another dog to save – and we can’t save them all. All we can do is our bit. If everyone does their bit, the “bits” will become quite “big” and it can make an impact. Hilda has ongoing dogs needing a home and needing funds to save some more. Go to her Facebook page and see what she is doing and what she has done. Hilda’s Facebook Page