IT must take a particularly cold heart to leave your animals behind and return to the UK, hoping that someone else will pick up the pieces.
But that was the reason why Lynn Stone, of the charity Les Amis des Chats, took a call from a French family looking for a home for the animals.
“We took a couple of cats in the other day through some French people whose English neighbours had just upped and left their horses, their dogs and their cats behind,” Lynn said.
“There was nothing in place for them to be cared for, not even food or water. Brits moving back and not taking responsibility for their animals are becoming a big problem.”
The summer is a difficult time for animal shelters and charities in France as the number of abandoned animals increases, with people casting their pets out before heading away on holiday.
The national charity, Societe Protectrice des Animaux (SPA), is experiencing one of its worst summers for people abandoning their pets, with many centres taking care of more than 200 cats and dogs, something Lynn recognises.
“At the moment we are full because of all the abandoned cats and their kittens, we can’t take any more in, yet we are getting at least 10 calls a day asking for help,” Lynn said.
“We just can’t accept any more cats, but I can’t bear to think what might happen to them.”
In the Dordogne the Phoenix Association is facing similar problems, with a lack of preparedness by owners causing all sorts of difficulties.
“We have received many larger, adult, male dogs this year who have not been castrated and so have behavioural problems,” said Richard Johnson, president of Phoenix.
“Also more Brits are running home because of their economic problems or health issues saying they have not made arrangements for obtaining a PETs Passport for their animals and so they look to us to rehome them.
“Or they say they can’t take their pets into rented accommodation back in the UK, though of course all animals have a vastly better chance of adoption from a shelter there than in France.”
The Phoenix Association is often called to take in animals that have been abandoned, or dumped on unsuspecting home owners.
“We have found pets tied to trees, thrown in bins, thrown over garden walls, locked up in garages and barns, abandoned at boarding kennels or just left on the street,” Richard said.
“At the moment we are receiving around 50 emails and telephone calls a day and unless we take the phone off the hook we wouldn’t get any sleep.”
Comments
9 responses to “Brits head back to UK, leaving their animals behind”
It is very sad, we have 5 cats and we will never leave them behind, it is inhuman.
I am going to put this article on my website, http://www.andrics.com, hopefully to help and inform more people of this problem
Just to add my comments on this subject, my wife and myself have talked about this impending problem long before it has happened. We see it so often with the Brit families arriving over here, and in no time set about stocking their terrain with numerous varieties of animals and pets.
It seems to be some sort of mindset that goes with coming to live in france, along with all this so called wine drinking, eating and relaxed life style they think everyone in france seems to have.
It is something that they would not do if they were still living back in the UK, and going back and just simply leaving the animals is a heartless thing to do
It is so infuriating, what would happen to these poor animals if there werent the associations like ‘Phoenix’ who do this wonderful job. These people in my mind would do this whatever country they were in, even back in England, it wouldnt surprise me if they had done it before they moved to France leaving pets behind for someone to find. They should be named and shamed.
We have just adopted a border collie from the SPA at Limoges and thought he would be French but on getting him home it is obvious he is English as he only understands English commands not French. He is 8 years old, no rabies vacs, had his first vacs in December apparently and we cannot fault him. He had been at the SPA for 8 months and had a skin infection, but we love him, so we are presuming he was left by Brits returning to the UK. Bless him he is now much loved and cared for. We feel at the age of 8 he did not have much of a future if we had not taken him.
Hi all, many thanks for your comments. Hopefully our support of charities such as Les Amis and Phoenix will enable them to continue their work and spread the message that with having pets there is also responsibility.
All the best, Craig
My wife and I are migrating the other way and will be moving to our house in France full time in December and we’re interested in getting a resue puppy – we live in Orne (near L’Aigle) – and would appreciate any advice (centres, regulations etc.)
Seb ….. There is an Animal rescue centre quite near, we have contacted them in the past and we live about 20kms south of L’Aigle. Their name and address escapes me at the moment, but when you arrive your first port of call should be the local vet and make some enquires there
Hi Karl, many thanks for helping out with the question from Seb. All the best, Craig
I think it is rather unfair to tarnish us Brits in this way, I have a lot of friends here some with one or two animals some with numerous animals.
All of my friends look after their animals and the domestic pets are treasured as mine are.
I also look after a bundle of stray cats ignored by the local population.
I am sure, that these isolated incidents that you make sound so common, are just that ‘Isolated incidents!’
As abhorrent as these people sound, their circumstances must be very desperate for them to behave in such a way. Are there no arrangements made available to such people before they leave?