Pup 'put to sleep' days after leaving Bucknall kennels

“I have dealt with City Dogs Home twice in the past 2 years.
My first rescue was a young German Shepherd and the latest a Staffie cross.
Both dogs were in good health although unsocialised.
On both occasions the staff were very friendly and appeared to care about the animals and their welfare. they are hampered by the bare open kennels the dogs are housed in but do the best they can to make them comfortable.
Both dogs came with vaccination certificates and 1 months insurance included.
Please don't let a few bad reviews put you off visiting the kennels if you are looking to adopt a dog.
They all deserve a second chance.”

“Same thing happened to me about 7 years ago. Adopted a little Jack Russel pup who we named Rigby from the city dogs home and had him for about 4 days before had to be put to sleep. He was such a well behaved happy little guy, and seemed fine for the first few days, but he got ill and went downhill very quickly from there. I then worried incase I could have inadvertantly passed this diesease onto anyone elses dogs and wouldnt let any of my friends who had dogs into my house for months even though they had been vaccinated. We complained to the dogs home and they said there was nothing they could do because he was fine when we took him from them, not seeming to care about the incubation period of the illness at all. Waste of time if you ask me. Put me off even going up there since then and most definatly would not adopt another dog from there which is really sad.”

“So sad to read this story, such a shame for poor Bailey and his new family.

Myself and my parnter went through the exact same thing after rehoming a dog from the city dogs home in November 2010. Our story was covered by the sentinel too. We rehomed a lovely little terrier called 'Pip' and had decided on rehoming a dog rather than to purchase a puppy, to give a dog a second chance in life with a loving family. After bringing Pip home on the Tuesday, it was clear to see straight away she wasnt herself. The following day she was sick and had the runs which consisted of mostly blood. Following an emergency appointment at the vets, suspected parvovirus was diagnosed. Pip was admitted to the vets on that Wednesday and did not make it back home. She sadly passed away at the vets on the Friday just 72 hours after leaving the dogs home.
The whole situation was heartbreaking.
Myself, my parnter and my mum, contacted the city dogs home over those few days and did not ever feel that they were concerned about the situation. We also sent two letters to the city dogs home and still to this day have not received a reply from them.

They are just a business and don't seem to be at all concerened about the dogs they rehome.

After having the virus in the house, we were then told not to have another dog until at least 6 months later due to the virus being able to stay live.

I am aware that others have not experienced any problmes after rehoming from the dogs home.

But this should NOT have had to happen to us or anyone else. The more people you talk to, the more stories are shared regarding poorly dogs from the dogs home. Surely something has got to change? How many more poor dogs have to suffer becoming ill and how many more families put through heartache?”

“Please still get dogs from here we are their only chance otherwise they all jusy gonna die lonely in there.”

“I got my little miley beagle on 25/10/10 from bucknall. I was so excited. She was so thin tho so cudnt wait feed her up. She was in our home a few hours when she started been sick with what lookednlike faeces out of her mouth. We kept an eye on her and took her a vets near us in longton they said she had a sickness bug from kennels so gave her a a jab. We took her home and comforted her but she was gettin way worse so i rang the vets up again and they said give it chance for the jab work. We waited another hour but i knew this was serious so we took her to a different vets called hope in trentham lakes. They knew straight away she had parvo and it was life threatening so they took her under their wings and told us she had a 10% survival chance we asked them to do whatever they needed. We rang bucknall told them and they said ifnshe dies you can pick another dog! Vile. Thankyou to 2 weeks in the amazing hope vets miley survived and is healthy today. We spent nearly £1000 on getting her better. What do they do with the dogs that arent rehomed that get this just let them die in pain. Feel sorry for this family. These dogs should go to animal lifeline bucknall dont deserve their precious lives to be in their hands!”

“I think this is absolutely horrendous what has happened not only for the poor dogs but also to the family involved as well as other families. It begs to differ as to why the RSPCA and the City Council aren't involved in order to prevent any further heartache and torture for these poor animals as it appears to have gone on for so long. I just hope that someone from the council or RSPCA see's this and takes action!!”

“I have had exactly the same problem. I visited the City Dogs Home at Brookhouse Lane, Bucknall in July 2011 and after being introduced to a number of dogs I chose a lovely s***** called Tilly. I was told she would cost £175 as she needed to be spayed and I needed to leave a deposit and a home check would have to be done, if all was well she would then see the vet on the Friday for the vet to carry out the spaying before I took her home.

The home check was done on the Wednesday when I was informed that tilly was in fact a s***** cross not a pure s***** and they were not going to have her spayed so I could purchase her for £70 instead but I needed to collect her the next day or I could lose my deposit if someone else wanted her as they needed the space. I wanted to collect her on the Saturday as I was unable to get the time off work at such short notice and I also had a week's holiday and she would have been able to get used to her new surroundings but they were insistent that I collect her on Thursday, which I did.

When I got up on Friday morning Tilly had been extremely ill during the night she was vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea, this got progressively worse during Friday by which she was also very frail and weak, she could barely lift her own head so I rang the Dogs Home for advice and was told that there was nothing that they could do until Monday when the vet would be there again.

To cut a long story short I was forced to take Tilly to a vet where she was put on a drip then tested and found to have parvo virus and needed to be put down as she was so ill, I was distraught.

The City Dogs Home were no help at all and should not be rehoming dogs that are not healthy, poor Tilly suffered terribly and I can only be left wondering if the reason why they wanted her rehomed immediately before she saw the vet on the Friday was because she was already ill.

I may not have had Tilly very long but she touched the hearts of all my family and friends and we are very angry about how the City Dogs Home is run especially as I have learnt since, that a number of people have recently had the same experience with dogs from the same place.”

“Shocking, I thought that all dogs should go though a strict health check before re-homing? This is not the first time I've read about the same thing happening before and I remember a story about a dog which gave birth to a litter of puppies only days after being re-homed from this place.”

“My father in law had exactly the same problem about 15 years ago. It seems that nothing has changed. I have heard that a number of local vets advise people not to use the City Dogs Home as they are forever treating sick animals as soon as they leave there.
Animal life line are a safer bet.”

“Unfortunately this is nothing new, years ago my Nan had a dog from the City Dogs Home that displayed exactly the same symptoms he died at her home in the night and when we contacted the Dogs Home regarding the issue they told her to put him in a bin bag and leave out on bin collection day. Disgusting treatment all round I would never ever use them. The home needs properly policing because obviously the problem still remains. Very sad indeed :(”