Imported Dogs ‘Risk to UK’, RSPCA warns

A major animal donation has called upon all dog rescue organizations to obtain licenses amidst the increasing concerns of behavioral issues and disease risks in imported pets.

Thousands of dogs are brought to the UK every year, many of which are being sold to owners through websites and social media posts without any significant matching process or evaluation.

The BBC has spoken to several owners who have faced serious difficulties with dogs transported from countries such as Romania, Ukraine and North Macedonia to their doorstep, including infectious diseases and aggressive behavior.

RSPCA spokesperson David Bowls described the process as “delivu for dogs” and urged the government to consider strong regulation for the region.

Currently, rescue organizations in Scotland must be licensed, but there is no such rule for England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Secret recording as part of the BBC investigation revealed that many rescuers working through social media were happy to provide a dog after a small phone call, completing an application form and a video check of their property.

Analysis of 150 advertisements on Facebook and a major online pet market showed that majority were offering dogs from Eastern European countries, half suggestions will be rushed to a owner’s house in the UK.

Most transportation and imports are run well by dog lovers, following the rules about paperwork.

But preparations and scatting deficiency for owners who get directly unseen dogs at their door are causing concern among experts who say there is no way that people can know the nature of animals.

“The main concern of the RSPCA is that these dogs are essentially time bombs – coming, not being tested,” Mr. Bauls said.

“Diseases are now coming through these dogs. They are not only affecting dogs that are being imported, they can already affect dogs from this country and their owners.

“They have almost set a delivu for dogs and this is a real problem.”

Scientists are monitoring Brucela Canis, a rare disease that can be passed to humans.

Transmitted through a dog’s reproductive fluids, it can introduce flu -like symptoms such as a short -term fever in humans such as muscle pain, but some may face long -term complications such as bone and joint disease.

Prior to 2020, there were three known positive cases in dogs in the UK, but the test has increased and in 2024, 333 cases were being investigated, contracting by a dog owner with at least one example.

Alfraton, Derbishire’s Turudi Can discovered the rescue dog Nola Brucela Positive four months after his arrival from Romania.

She now faces the growing vet and insurance bills and is concerned about the health of Nala and her family, although she refused to offer her to a vet to sleep.

“My brain does not calculate being a dog that looks healthy to sleep,” she said.

“It just breaks my heart, it is very difficult.

“I wanted to do a good job and now I think I have done a bad thing.”

Dr., a advisor of Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology at Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Stephen Woi stated that people from dogs had the risk of transmission “very low”, but described the disease as “less studies and neglected”.

Many weight recommends that a dog who conducts positive testing for the disease should be placed below, but also people who say that it can be managed by taking care around disinfection.

Sian Keen agreed to take a pregnant rescue dog from Ukraine and gave birth to 11 puppies during the arrival of Narla.

But several weeks later, trading standard officials pounced on Sian’s Samarset home and removed all 12 dogs on concerns that they were imported with lattice blood test documents.

19 dogs belonging to Rabies, Narla, her puppies and others, as a precaution, were quaranticated in the caneal.

The dogs were freed after three weeks of investigation, but when Narla returned home, her behavior was dramatically changed and she attacked Sian and her 12 -year -old son.

“She was just reactive in a way, as she was never before, as she was an aggressive dog,” Sian said.

“I was bitten into my arm, I was in great pain. The bite corrected through the muscles.”

He felt that he had no choice but to sleep to Narla.

“There was just nothing we could,” Sian said. “Our intentions were completely and completely for the right reasons. If I was now looking for a dog, I will definitely not go online rescue.”

The organization that Sian used the Burton-on-Trent, Pav Help UK located in Staffordshire said, “It is deeply regretted that due to stress and animal welfare and public safety were added, its highest priorities.

It was said that it was not known that the documents were forged and they originated from the laboratory used on an emergency basis after the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

In 2022, only one consignment arrived with false documents, the couple, and that all the dogs were brought before and after, were completely valid paperwork.

Government figures received by freedom of information request 32,391 dogs entered the UK in 2024 as commercial imports, including several rescue dogs.

The UK-based rescue organizations said that the prevalence of dogs coming to the UK and being kept with owners who could not face, were putting additional pressure on the region.

Emma Shefferry of Forest Dog Rescue at Warsesterushire said: “We are originally ready to mop after rescue who are not moving forward and not taking responsibility for our dogs.”

Charity takes dogs from the UK and abroad, but insists that every new adoption meets the first dog. The new owner is a cooling-off period before taking his dog home.

“It blows my brain a little – you have seen a video and some pictures and literally you adopt the dog, the dog is sent and it can be dropped at you at three in the morning,” Emma said.

A dog behavior specialist at Royal Veterinary College, Dr. Rowena Packer said she was worried that many owners were being associated with inappropriate dogs.

Ms. Packer said that foreign rescue dogs could be shocked by a long journey to the UK and can also suffer from the trauma of early life.

“The situation right now we have very well -meaning people in Britain who are engaged in adopting these dogs or are part of organizations that import them that really want to help,” he said.

“I think it’s really a big gambling that you are going to do because you are difficult to match you with that dog, without clear information about the lots of elements of that dog’s life and history. So it’s a little Russian Rulet here.”

When asked by the BBC, the government did not comment particularly if there was a plan to start licensing for rescue organizations.

A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DFRA) stated that animal rescue organizations should “meet statutory welfare requirements”.

The spokesperson said that public members could check if a rescue was a member of the Association of Dogs and Cats Holmes, with “clear standards”.

“The government is developing an overlapping approach to animal welfare,” he said.

Rescue Rough: Dogs from abroad are on iPlayer Now and BBC on 20:30 BST on July 28 in West and East Midlands