STATEMENT FROM DORIS BANHAM DOG RESCUE
A VOICE FOR GOBI - THE FACTS AND THE WHY
We are so very sad to have to take our eyes off our front line life saving work to set the record straight following lies in a post which are seriously endangering one of our dogs – Gobi especially as he is now searching for the loving forever home he always deserved.
Dogs like Gobi have suffered much injustice in their lives before they come into our care but they are voiceless and cannot defend themselves. Now they have us by their side, we will always speak out on their behalf.
Rescue should be a safe place not somewhere where injustice continues in silence. There has been enough damage done to Luna already - we cannot let this happen again.
In response to a post which has been publicly posted about Gobi, here is the verifiable truth which we hope will remove the terrible label that has been so unfairly, cruelly and deliberately attached to him by people who can only wish him ill to do this to him when they know the truth themselves.
It is very sad for rescue that such lies are allowed to be posted without any checks into their veracity.
Gobi was Mogli – an 11 month old pup who had been passed from pillar to post on the streets all his life. His homeless owner contacted a local rescue to say that if he was not taken into a rescue she was going to tie him up somewhere. We were contacted and said we would help to avoid this traumatic event for him.
The owner signed him over and the rescue involved organised for him to have 4 nights at £10 per night at a local kennels who had recently failed registration as a private boarding kennels through not having runs on the kennels. They have since become a rescue.
The dogs are mixed for exercise with all the dogs in the kennels and house thus allowing no decompression time for newly admitted dogs disorientated by the traumatic change of circumstances they had just endured.
This sink or swim mentality and the far too early assessments which is also used in some pounds causes many dogs to lose their lives when they had not been given the time to decompress and is extremely unfair on the dogs.
The attached video, which was sent to us at the time, was taken of Gobi after being at the emergency kennels for only 2 days along with a message that he was a lovely boy and good with all the dogs. We must admit we watched it in trepidation as Gobi had only just arrived and we knew nothing about him and he had been put in such a challenging situation with its multiple triggers. It is admitted by the rescue in the video that Gobi knows nothing.
Some dogs might be able to cope with this situation 2 days after arrival but for many this would be a very unfair and challenging situation to put them in so early and would be very dangerous for them in a rescue which openly advocates euthanasia as preferable to spending time in kennels.
At two days it is impossible to know which dogs will swim and which dogs will sink with possibly devastating concequences.
Very swiftly another message was forwarded to us that he had just picked up one of the dachshunds and shaken her but with no puncture wounds and no veterinary treatment needed but that now he could no longer stay in the emergency boarding as there was no time to work with him and it was hoped that the rescue he was going to would be able to do that with him.
It has been stated in the post that this incident happened on a walk but the owner’s dachshunds present in the video and the timing of the messages strongly suggests that this happened swiftly upon this video being taken.
The post also says that Gobi was stressed in kennels which we definitely have not found to be the truth.
Gobi was a dog who had just come in after a life on the streets whom we knew nothing about. With no runs it would have been impossible to carry out the decompression and socialisation he rightfully deserved and it was so very unfair and irresponsible to place him in such an unacceptable situation and then judge him as not being able to stay.
If we had not been there to take him the next day or the kennels, now a rescue, had taken him themselves what would his fate have been? The recent acquisition of a number of hospital crates by the rescue concerned suggests that the problems of lack of decompression will be continuing on an even larger scale
The incident which occurred with no decompression given and in a state of heightened excitement due to the game being played especially with a single ball being thrown to all the dogs had been marked down on our records and Gobi has undergone a slow and proper socialisation protocol in our care.
He is now a happy well balanced boy who adores people as you can see from the video of him posted just two days ago. He has been up for rehoming for a while now with the recommendation that he should be the only dog in the household.
How very many dogs would lose their lives if those who need to be the only dog are cruelly culled rather than being given the time to receive the training they need and any issues they have safely managed? I don’t think this is the rescue world that we want to live in! Any new owner will be informed of Gobi’s full history and will agree to follow our guidelines with regard to contact with people, children and other animals which is what we do with every new owner.
Gobi has now been given his voice – a chance for the truth to be spoken. A chance not to be cruelly and unfairly labelled after being placed in unfair and unmanaged circumstances and we ask that our dogs who have come to us after such traumatic starts in life are given the peace to continue on their journeys to a new life without further intimidation.
This beggars the question why someone would want to do this to Gobi? Maybe the following will explain…..
Doris Banham Dog Rescue made a decision not to close but to work frontline during the pandemic in many areas over the UK including extensively in the Bournemouth area which is where the rescue referred to in this post now operates. During the time we rescued over a 100 dogs from the Dorset area and have rehomed all but 5 who are up for rehoming at the moment.
That rescue was not in existence then as it was only set up in the last couple of years. We helped the authorities and rescued scores of dogs and also cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds etc whose owners had contracted covid.
Our path crossed with this rescue only in recent times when they were either holding a couple of dogs whom we had to pick up or when we were asked by others to try to save a dog whom they had decided to put to sleep by offering to take the dog into our care. Luna was one of the dogs at this rescue whom we were asked by another rescue to save as she had been booked in to be put to sleep.
We believe rescues should work together for the sake of the dogs and our relationship with them was always professional.
The situation only changed when we were asked by pound pullers to save the life of a puppy whom they had sent to this rescue from the pound and had been informed that the rescue were putting him to sleep. His name was Toby.
We contacted the rescue who would not reply to our calls and then searched for him for 3 days only to find out he had already been put to sleep even before we started. We had become very invested in finding Toby and were heartbroken to find out he was dead.
We wanted to make his life count for something so we told the pound pullers that we would take the next dog from the pound who had received no offers and was definitely due to die. This turned out to be a young rottweiler who is now rehomed and in dedication to the puppy we called him Toby. The rescue concerned was slated for putting the puppy to sleep. Intimidation started against our rescue and the pound pullers concerned simultaneously at this point.
It is our belief that the relentless and almost frantic intimidation of our non destruct unconditional rescue ( and the pound pullers involved with Toby), by the rescue concerned stems directly from that rescue’s anger at having their destruction of Toby exposed even though we did not name them and thus the need for that rescue to try to publicly justify killing Toby by attacking the non destruct rescue that could have offered him life. It is a personal vendetta as they were branded as puppy murderers. Gobi is just in their eyes dispensable collateral damage even though they had him in their care.
Fighting between rescues is a sheer indulgence at the time of a national animal welfare crisis where the dogs need all our energy and attention.
We do not understand why people even read unverified posts or comment on them. This just gives trolls the oxygen they thrive on. Posts like these cause chaos in an already chaotic rescue world and the reasons why the posts have been written have so much more to do with the mindsets of the people than they ever have to do with the welfare of the dogs.
Denying them oxgyen is the only way to fight them. Oxygen should be saved to feed what is good for the dogs. Without it what is bad will rightly suffocate.
Exhausted rescuers have been tragically toppled by unfounded trolling where lies are posted for personal reasons and with the school playground bully mentality under the guise of the truth using blatant underhand strategies.
Such unfounded posts muddy the waters, cause confusion and chaos which cause dogs to lose their lives and actual evil culprits like Obi’s Save A Paw to survive amidst the chaos.
Good people are frightened to comment incase they get trolled themselves, so they are silenced.
Doris Banham Dog Rescue will never give oxygen to this dark side and we beg our supporters to do the same. We all need to be allowed to do true rescue in peace – we owe the dogs that…. ... See MoreSee Less
