Barnaby Longdog - fighting against illegal dog importing

This is a question I have been asked a number of times. The answer is also important to understand my next two posts. Please bear with as it's quite detailed though easily understood. Pet Passport Scheme: this is exactly what is says, a passport for YOUR pet. The assumption is that responsible owners will ensure their dogs are healthy and vaccinations, worming etc are up to date. They are ONLY for use when a dog is travelling with it's owner or an appointed legal representative who is travelling with or within 5 days of your dog from the same country of origin to destination. Further, " you or your representative must sign a Declaration of Non-Commercial Transport stating that your pet's transport does not involve the sale or transfer of ownership of your pet." This is applicable for all animals coming to the UK using the PET passport scheme(exceptions for show or exhibition dogs exist). So, if your dog has left it's country of origin using the Pet p...

This post involves the transport side of the illegal dog smuggling. Many were/are involved and so I ask you bear with me as it will be a work in progress and I might post separate blogs for each transporter. As you read through, you might also recognise other names of UK rescues who have not been previously mentioned, they will be in a later update post. Further, you will note many Bosnian rescuers, the Bosnian aspect came late in the day to me as I couldn't see the point, nor from Bulgaria - both are in the EU so why not just take them out legally. Again, it comes down to the turnaround time and profit. To legitimately move from either country, the dog would need rabies vaccination, wormed and wait 21 days from the vaccination date. The documentation is also more involved and there are fees to pay. All time consuming, expensive and so it's easier and cheaper to just pop across the border using the pet passport scheme, in batches of 5 into Hungary or to Serbia and travel with...

What can I say except a huge thank you to each and every one of you! Thanks to everybody coming together to support us on this, Barnaby target has been reached so he will be returned to us in August. The prize draw has been left to run as tickets have been purchased, it will end on the 2nd of June and the fundraiser will be closed. Any extra after quarantine and expenses will go to a doggie charity. I always said that when Barnaby's fight was over I would be leaving social media as it has never been part of my life and this I hope will still come to be. However, in the time between now and Barnaby being released, there is so much I want to do. We are currently talking with organisations and individuals in the UK, Serbia and Romania. This issue is so complex that it requires new legislation to effect change and that is a long and slow process. In regards to this, we will be campaigning and petitioning for Barnaby's Law. The law would mean a maximum of 5 dogs could be comme...

Dejan Savic, well, what can I say! This man apparently fooled many people. From vets, to transporters, to rescuers to admin on Dachshunds Needing Homes. How many were genuinely fooled though? How many instead just turned a blind eye to the goings on? That is for you to decide, all I can do is present the facts. My instincts told me to steer clear of this man, one of the reasons I refused to give him my phone  number or address and that has proven to have been a very wise decision. As most will know, I did not buy my dog from Dejan and was unaware of Kristine Smiths connection with Dejan. Myth: Dejan was a kind, loving person who rescued street dogs and sent them to a better life.  Truth: Dejan found a way to make easy money as over time he cut corners to maximise profit. Many dogs came from breeders. In one chat below you will see him talking about selling dogs for a friend. Note the Pure bred St Bernards and boxer pups who were too young (under 7 months) to even...

After posting the names of some of the "rescuers" involved in the illegal trafficking of Serbian dogs, I received some vile threats from Dea Bella of Pozega Dogs and Humanimals. Dea also goes by the name of Svetlana Bulajic and runs the trafficking and fund raising operation with her sister Dusica Radulovic. Wendy Feather of Wags N Wet Noses, is the UK counterpart who finds and liaises with UK adopters and fosters. To substantiate my claims, below are a few of the messages I have proving their illegal activity. This was Dea informing Wendy that along with the dogs she was sending, there were antibiotics and heartworm treatment for her...... So Wendy, not only bringing in illegal dogs but sick illegal dogs and administering medication to them or sending it to adopters to administer!!!! These dogs illegally left Serbia to be collected in Romania and given Romanian passports before being sent to the UK. The above messages  are discussing meetings i...

It was a lovely sunny day today so I carried all my toys outside so I could play in the sun. I didn't take my balls out though, I have a thing about my balls (I have six of them now) and hide them under my blanket. When anybody tries to play with them I get very sad and cry then hide them back in my bed but my mummy isn't sure why I do this. Anyhow, I had all my other toys out and was playing by myself when I heard mummies' voices and my tail started wagging, I ran to the fence and then I saw both my mummies walking down the path calling Barnaby, Barney bubbles and I felt so happy. With it being sunny, we all sat outside today and it was great fun! Mummy didn't bring me chicken, she brought me a special doggie meal with meat and rice, said it is better for my waistline but I don't believe her as she also brought me a bag of treats and didn't say anything about them and my waistline. I ate my meal, half my treats and mummy hid the rest in my ball and my bed fo...

I'm realising for many people, what is actually going on is difficult to understand. I have the proof in front of me, documents, statements etc and so it all fits together, it's more difficult to understand if you don't have this. In this post I will try to explain the extent of the crack in the TRACES and pet passport systems and hopefully you will understand why I seem hell bent on ensuring APHA re-evaluate the effectiveness of these systems. I will focus on Romania and Serbia but this is also relevant to many other countries as on this journey I had discovered or heard of dogs being illegally trafficked from as far away as China. Let's call the dog Bowser. Bowser arrives in the UK with a Romanian microchip and passport. The passport is filled in with batch numbers, vaccine dates, dog ID information and microchip number. The passport is signed and stamped by a vet in Romania. The dog has his TRACES document and is entered in the system. Everything complies with...

So, this is Sandra, who lives in Serbia and with the aid of a woman from the USA, brings illegal dogs into the UK then tries to justify it! Are you serious Sandra, neither you nor XXXX (I promised confidentiality to this person as they provided evidence for the investigation) live in this country so the potential health risks are of course, irrelevant to you but please do not try and claim this is revenge. What you are doing is illegal and as for nobody talking to Dejan, you know as well as I do that is because he was, in others words, sloppy, didn't care for the dogs, didn't worm or vaccinate, cut corners, was going to cause problems for the rest of you. Just because some of you "might" vaccinate the dogs before they leave Serbia, you know as well as I do they are all leaving Serbia without an FAVN, a CVED and health certificate. They are all put on Romanian chips and passports so they can go through on Romanian TRACE's. You might find a handful of people who...

With all the nonsense that has been going on, this is the first chance I have had to post about our last visit. Barnaby wasn't as happy as the last time we visited but I think that was due to the rain as he really prefers being outside, especially when it's warm so hopefully the weather will turn again soon. We took him along many new toys so along with with angels visit on the Thursday, he now has quite a collection and insists on them all being on his bed with his balls hidden under the covers. He ate the treats we took him but looked at me as if to say where is my chicken? We had decided not to take him chicken that day as he is actually getting quite fat in there but I might take him a couple of carrots or an egg on Saturday - though he turned his nose up at the all natural treats the pet shop gave us for him! We gave him lots of cuddles a live streamed some of the visit which was funny as I kept saying don't film this bit (when I was saying something silly to B...

Unfortunately, yesterday the hatred, bullying and harassment got to the point where I listened to those who have been telling me to report it for weeks and contacted the police. A report has been made against five people for harassment, libel, bullying, inciting hatred and threatening comments. This is not something I have done lightly and at the beginning when it was just the admin of a facebook group accusing me of being a thief and stealing Barnaby, then of being a liar, then claiming my daughter lived in Birmingham, that Barnaby had been take to a apartment, questioning whether he was in quarantine provoking what the authorities call "suspicious" emails to be sent to quarantines and trading standards, silly playground stuff I thought and so I brushed it off and moved on. For the record, I have never been abusive to any of them, not even when it was posted on DNH that I had stolen a dog and should return it. I have stated my opinion that they were complicit in enabling...

It saddens me that some still try to claim Dejan and presumably, the other "rescuers" are doing nothing wrong. Of course I understand, dogs in some countries can have horrendous lives and it's such an emotive subject that the morality and ethics of the situation become skewed. Removing dog rescue as the subject, I am sure most would have a very different opinion. A shopkeeper sells bars of chocolate, smuggled from abroad but knows they haven't gone through the correct import procedure and there is a slight risk somebody could get sick but they continue selling them for a number of years, would you question their ethics? Moreso if your child was buying and eating(interacting) with this chocolate. One day, the same shopkeeper, has a problem with some of the chocolate and decides to stop selling it as if customers found out, it could be bad for business. Would you expect them to inform their customers in case somebody became ill and should they report the exporter ...

The intention of this post is to inform those considering re-homing a dog from Serbia. The people and organisations named are or have been complicit in bringing in illegal dogs. One UK rescue might argue they had no idea but if your business or charity is run with the sole purpose of dog rescue, it is your duty to understand and abide by the regulations of both the country of origin and the UK. Serbian law, to the best of my knowledge: dogs can only be exported on a commercial or non-commercial export certificate.  Commercial certificates are only given for dogs from government authorised facilities, I have yet to find an individual or organisation bringing dogs out on a commercial certificate. They must be chipped, have a pssport, FAVN, health certificate and CVED  ( Common Veterinary Entry Document) the health certificate and CVEd must accompany the dog to the UK. " Registered establishments  - dogs, cats and ferrets must come from holdings or businesses which...