Who would have thought that dogs are being regularly imported to the UK by the very British charities who are claiming that we have a massive dog overpopulation problem?

Since last February the Brighton branch of the UK animal charity the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has helped find new families for 114 stray and neglected dogs from a number of animal rescue associations in Portugal, having re-homed all but two of the dogs that were shipped there (to Brighton) over the past year.

The SHG has been informed that many rescues import dogs from abroad because there is a shortage of easily saleable animals (re-homeable for a fee).  Nevertheless, we were surprised to be sent proof that the RSPCA in Brighton regularly sells such imports via its branch rehoming facilities, not just from Portugal, but from Ireland as well.

German Shepherd Rescue have long argued that every rescue dog that comes into the UK from Ireland is a risk to the life of a rescue dog already in the UK.

Bizarrely the RSPCA has also stated that Irish animal welfare charities should stop sending unwanted dogs to Britain for rehoming, and David Bowles of the RSPCA said the influx was affecting the ability of British charities to find suitable homes for unwanted and abandoned dogs. “There are enough dogs in the UK that need rehoming. Around 10,000 dogs have to be euthanised every year due to lack of good homes in England and Wales alone,”

But now there is a far greater risk than an imported dog simply taking the home that would have been available for a British dog.  There are concerns that the risk of Rabies has risen and there is now the added risk of a dog carrying ebola entering the country.  If that happens the authorities would have no option but to cull every animal that might have come into contact with that dog or its contacts ad infinitum.

Would any responsible rescue continue the practice of importing dogs knowing the risks they are taking with the lives of every dog already in the country?

Few people could  fail to be sorry to hear that Excalibur, the pet dog of a Spanish nursing assistant who contracted ebola, has been killed in the interests of public health.  It becomes even more heartbreaking to read about how his owners had left him with a bathtub full of water and 30 pounds of dry food when they were taken away to be quarantined.

One wonders whether any of the protesters or the people who signed the petition aimed at saving Excalibur had thought about what would happen to all of the other animals in the country if there was a full blown outbreak of ebola.  Here in the UK it is almost certain that ebola or even rabies would lead to mass culling of animals as a precaution.

It is known that dogs can pass ebola on to people.

Thus, dogs

appear to be the first animal species shown to be naturally

and asymptomatically infected by Ebola virus.

Asymptomatic Ebola infection in humans has also been

observed during outbreaks (18) but is very rare. Although

dogs can be asymptomatically infected, they may excrete

infectious viral particles in urine, feces, and saliva for a

short period before virus clearance, as observed experi-

mentally in other animals. Given the frequency of contact

between humans and domestic dogs, canine Ebola infec-

tion must be considered as a potential risk factor for human

infection and virus spread. Human infection could occur

through licking, biting, or grooming. Asymptomatically

infected dogs could be a potential source of human Ebola

outbreaks and of virus spread during human outbreaks,

which could explain some epidemiologically unrelated

human cases. Dogs might also be a source of human Ebola

outbreaks, such as the 1976 Yambuku outbreaks in

Democratic Republic of Congo (19), the 1995 Kikwit out-

break, some outbreaks that occurred in 1996 and 2004 in

Gabon and Republic of Congo (5), and the 1976 (6), 1979

(20), and 2004 (21) outbreaks in Sudan, the sources of

which are still unknown. Together, these findings strongly

suggest that dogs should be taken into consideration dur-

ing the management of human Ebola outbreaks. To con-

firm the potential human risk of Ebola virus–infected dogs,

the mechanisms of viral excretion (i.e. body fluids and

virus kinetics of excretion) should be investigated during

experimental canine infection. This research would also

offer insights into the natural resistance of dogs.