Cork dog charity struggling to rehome surrendered pets

CORK DAWG have warned that they are now “swamped with dogs”, due to an “unsustainable” level of owner surrenders that has continued to snowball since the pandemic.

Volunteer at Cork Dog Action Welfare Group (DAWG) Máire O’Sullivan said that the charity is being inundated with surrenders and requests to take in dogs, at a far faster pace then they are able to rehome them.

“We have constant contact from pounds around the country trying to try to place dogs that are approaching the end of their time in the pound one way or another, and we have constant demand for owner surrender,” she said.

“It genuinely is just an unsustainable situation. There are too many dogs coming in, and not enough dogs going out, basically,” she added.

Set up in 2007, Cork DAWG is a volunteer-run charity that rescues and rehomes approximately 1,000 stray, surrendered and abandoned dogs every year – although that number has been ballooning in recent years.

Ms O’Sullivan said that Cork DAWG is currently receiving dozens of calls a day from people looking for their dogs to be rehomed, as has been a constant since people returned to normal life after the pandemic, and were no longer able to give their pandemic puppies the attention and exercise they needed.

While the fact that people are turning to the service is welcome, Ms O’Sullivan said that people need to be patient with the re-homing process.

“It takes a while to find the right home for these dogs. It’s not that they’re in some way damaged goods or anything, it’s just that all of them have particular needs that needs to be met. One dog might need a lot of stimulation or attention, or another might need to be the only dog in the home. We need to find the right homes for them, there’s no point in just sending them to the wrong home and having them sent back the next week,” she said.

Ms O’Sullivan said it can be frustrating when people come to the shelter looking for help re-homing, and then get impatient and decide to give away a dog on the likes of Facebook or DoneDeal.

“Unfortunately we have had situations where we spend a lot of time and resources trying to re-home a dog for someone, but by the time we come back to them and say we’ve found the perfect home, they say they gave him to a person on Facebook three weeks ago,” she said.

She urged people to be patient during the re-homing process, both for those surrendering dogs, and those looking to adopt, as it can take several weeks to find the perfect match.

To support Cork DAWG, donations are always welcome, to help fund the rented kennel spaces for dogs that are still looking for their forever homes. The charity would also welcome donations of kennel space for the every growing numbers of dogs in their care.

You can also help by volunteering to foster dogs while they are being re-homed. For more information visit www.dogactionwelfaregroup.ie/fostering.