News Article

You may be aware that five years ago, Border Collie Rescue went over to foster home accommodation as our preferred means of housing the dogs we care for and we no longer keep any dogs in kennel blocks.

This has been to tremendous advantage for the dogs but is far less convenient for the human carers - however, the dogs advantage outweighs inconvenience and the assessments we carry out are more accurate on dogs that are relaxed and stress free - this is a major plus for the humans involved.

Although our costs for housing dogs is now virtually zero, the increasing costs of fuel and the increasing activity within BCR regarding transportation of dogs and accessories to and from scattered locations has grown to be a comparable expense.

The amount of tax we pay on the fuel we use is a major burden to ourselves (and any other charity that is reliant on road transport as an essential part of its work). Even a small reduction in fuel costs would enable us to do more with the funds available.

It is therefore difficult to condemn the activists that are campaigning to draw government attention to this unpopular problem, even though it affects us greatly. The outcome is very important and will affect us all long term.

Having dogs individually housed in locations scattered throughout the UK and having applications to adopt coming in from locations all over the UK presents us with logistical problems we cannot overcome if there is a shortage of fuel.

We have home visitors who cannot visit, dogs waiting to be assessed that cannot get to the assessors, dogs waiting to be neutered that cannot get to the vet, fund raisers that cannot attend events, our open day on Saturday 16th has been cancelled and we are having problems getting staff into the office.

Very few of us can 'get on our bikes' to fulfil the needs of the organisation and carry out our work.

We have some small fuel reserve available to HQ, having predicted the problem to some extent - but mainly because we have the advantage of access to a garage in a very rural location with fewer clients which only ran out of fuel Tuesday.

However, due to the unpredictable outcome and possible extent of the crisis we have cut journeys down to emergency and essential ones only - to husband these reserves - and we are using public transport where we can.

Our dogs are all OK and safely housed and cared for - but we have a bottleneck of dogs waiting to come in this week.

If the crisis continues we will have some additional problems. At the moment much of our dog foods are distributed for us by the manufacturers who deliver directly to our more remote foster homes through haulage contractors. At HQ we buy food by the ton and distribute locally, regionally and Nationally by taking advantage of members taking regular trips to certain locations where others can collect.

As our members and haulage companies run out of fuel we will have increased difficulty in maintaining supplies of foodstuffs and equipment. Our foster homes may then have to rely on local sources - which themselves will be subject to delivery shortages.

If the situation has not resolved by Saturday midnight we will have to take the decision to suspend our rehoming and therefore the intake of dogs (one has to go before one can take its place), and concentrate our resources on looking after the needs of the dogs already in care.

This will continue for the duration of the crisis and until our members are individually and collectively back to normal.

At HQ, when our local members run out of fuel we will have to shorten our office hours and may have to temporarily close.

Things will have to get a lot worse before we face a major crisis but we are currently moving dogs with ongoing medical problems to foster homes within close proximity to veterinary surgeries or into foster homes with qualified veterinary nurses or practitioners as carers - we are fortunate that we have a lot of support from this section of the pet industry. Its a lot more work but we will get by.

It's re-homing and taking in that are most dramatically effected and the dogs on our waiting list that are most at risk if this crisis continues. Long term we are in danger of depleting funds as our normal sources of income are reduced by our inability to attend fund raising events.

We remain optimistic.

Today's early news indicates an improvement in the situation now that a call has been made to lift the blockades by some of the protesters. If this works, normality should be resumed within a fortnight. Its then up to the government to see the sense in listening to its people and starting some discussion with affected parties - or will it happen all over again - in early December ?

It would be re-assuring to believe that common sense and justice will prevail, but if the crisis does continue we will all be well advised to work more closely in co-operation with each other in order to survive as the infrastructure of our fuel dependent society collapses around us. The rules will change.

Border Collie Rescue is not a business but big businesses and large organisations are just as likely to be logistically crippled as smaller operations. Competition, under these circumstances, would be plain 'old fashioned' selfish, anti social and potentially suicidal. Co-operation could help all survive to compete another day.

Maybe that's too optimistic!

For more details: Border Collie Rescue

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