About Beagle Welfare
The main aims of Beagle Welfare are:
- The prevention of maltreatment and cruelty to Beagles and to encourage responsible ownership of Beagles throughout Great Britain.
- To re-home Beagles whose owners are unable to do so.
- To provide advice and guidance to Beagle owners.
- To encourage responsible breeding practices in the Breeding of Beagles throughout Great Britain.
All ‘clients’ are expected to make a donation to help finance the work of Beagle Welfare, both when they give up a hound and when they adopt. However, we would never turn away a Beagle in need just because the owner could not contribute the recommended three week’s kenneling costs. Our fund-raising efforts make up any short-fall in meeting the costs of any individual case.
As the years have passed, the number of hounds dealt with each year has reached a plateau. More and more of our work in the last few years has been educational. We hope to prevent rescue problems by making prospective owners fully aware of their responsibilities as dog owners, and the particular needs of Beagles as pets. We would rather put someone off having a Beagle in the first place than have to pick up the pieces a year or two later. On the other hand, potentially good homes can be encouraged to learn more about the breed so that they can enjoy life with their Beagle to the full.
A few of our Activities..
To this end, our booklet, Beagles as Pets was produced several years ago and has been widely distributed to interested parties (and copied by Beagle associations abroad!). We co-operate with the other Beagle breed clubs to have a presence at the ‘Discover Dogs’ exhibitions at Crufts and Earls Court, winning the award for best breed stand at the first Earls Court event.
The Beagle Welfare stand has attended many dog shows and event aimed at the ‘general public’, such as the Town & Country Festival at Stoneleigh, bringing sensible information about Beagles to as many people as possible. The stand has won a number of awards - notably Best Welfare Stand at the Hound Club of East Anglia many times, and Best Breed Stand at the HoundShow for several years running. In every case the judge has remarked on the quality of the breed information which we have given.
Regarding Neutering
Beagle Welfare does not have a hard and fast policy on neutering. In some cases we have bitches or dogs neutered while they are in our care, if we feel that it is in the best interests of the individual Beagle to do this straight away. In other cases we wait for the hound to settle down in its new home and allow the new owners to arrange for the operation. If any prospective owner was reluctant to have a hound neutered we would be very wary about passing them as suitable to have a Welfare Beagle as a pet.