October 27 2008
Questions We Have Asked the Press Office
Tagged Under : "mandy jones" veterinary, animal charity, animal hospitals, animal welfare, animal welfare uk, blue cross, Blue Cross Dog Foster Scheme - Disaster, blue cross dogs, blue cross dogs for rehoming, blue cross durham, blue cross foster cheme, blue cross foster dogs, blue cross north east, blue cross tyne and wear, blue cross uk, Cross, dog fostering scheme, dogs, dogs for rehoming in north east, dogs in need animal adoption, dogs in tyne and wear, dogs north east, kim hamilton, laura dobson press, mandy jones blue cross, mandy jones bluecross, mandy jones charity work, nala, north east dogs, pet memorials, steve goody, the blue cross, the blue cross durham, the blue cross foster scheme, the blue cross foster scheme disaster, the blue cross north east, the blue cross tyne and wear, Tinker Nala, uk animal adoption, uk animal charity, uk animal hospitals, washington, washington dogs
We decided to add an extra angle to this story and we asked the Blue Cross press office (Laura Dobson) to answer some questions for us. This would allow the Blue Cross to tell us either where they went wrong and what they’re doing to put this right, or defend their actions. So far we don’t have the answers but as soon as we get them we’ll let you know.
Here are the emails sent to and from Laura:
HiSome of the people who have left a comment are asking us questions that we don’t have answers for and we would like to get answers for them and ourselves. To try to even the story out and show the Blue Cross in a better light as it has never been our intention to make the organisation seem bad.The questions we have been asked have been posted on the website, but I was wondering if you would like to add any comments to the questions or provide answers etc so that we can add them to the site.Why have we been pushed into making a rash decision at every stage?by this we mean Denise firstly giving us 10 minutes then after beggin giving us overnight.How is it in the best interests of the dog to have her taken out of a loving home when all we needed was an extra day to make our decision?we asked Steve for one further day to gather information because we needed to contact one more company and he refused flatly.Why was the decision made (after we begged) to give us overnight to think about adopting Nala (Tinker) when it is not Blue Cross policy and goes against the advice of the behaviourist?the behaviourist had said that if it was up to her she would have given us a week or so, but that it was up to Denise and we know its not policy to ask people to make decisions there and then.Why, when we tried to adopt her hours after she had been picked up, were we refused when we could offer her everything she needed?we got all the info we needed within 12 hours of her being taken away and she was still at thirsk. We asked if we could do the paperwork and pick her up and the answer was no.Any comments would be added to the web site if that is ok with you and then it would give another aspect to both sides.Thanks in advanceDavid and Heather
Hi Heather,Thanks for your email. As you say, it is unfortunate that the website only seems to show part of the picture, so I am about to post another comment to try to make our position a bit clearer.Further to your discussion with Kim last week, I’m sure you appreciate that there is a different commitment needed to be a pet foster carer than to adopt a dog permanently. As she explained, we have a carefully established process for permanent adoption to make sure our animals find the best possible match with an owner who, amongst other criteria, can offer the long-term commitment needed.I gather Kim is going to keep you updated on Nala’s progress so that you can apply to rehome her if you wish when she is ready. In the meantime, please rest assured that she is in the best possible hands with our experienced staff who are working to resolve the behavioural and training issues that you brought to our attention.Thank you again for your feedback about the pet fostering service. This is still a new scheme and while it has been successful with other fosterers, we do accept that there are areas for improvement that we will learn from.Thanks,Laura
Hithanks for replying to me. As we keep saying, its not our intention to blacken the Blue Cross. If you could give me specific answers to the four questions sent to you yesterday for my to post that would be great. Could you also post a bit on why we were given a maximum of overnight to make a decision to adopt when you say in your email that it is not policy. That would be great as I think that these are the issues most people have concerns over.ThanksHeather
Dear Heather,
Laura has forwarded me your response from yesterday.
I don’t think getting into specifics at this stage is either constructive or going to help Nala. I have accepted that there are weaknesses in our processes and possibly errors in implementation for which I have apologised, however as you and I agreed on the telephone last week, we now need to move forward. What is important is that we learn from this situation to prevent it happening again. I can assure you that we are actively reviewing the fostering scheme and its processes in light of this incident.
You will be pleased to hear that Nala has settled in well and appears to be making progress at our Bromsgrove site, she is still under assessment there however we hope that this will be completed by the early part of next week. As promised, I will let you know when that happens; if at that stage you are still interested in adopting Nala, I will ask our head of companion animal welfare department, Mandy Jones, to contact you directly in order to schedule a convenient time for you visit Nala at Bromsgrove to begin the adoption assessment procedure.
Kind regards,
Kim
We replied to Kim. Here is the email:
Hi KimThanks for your reply, we really appreciate the effort you are putting into this and we are grateful for all the help you are giving us.I realise that this will sound a little bit paranoid, but will Mandy Jones be taking instruction from Steve Goody on this? If so, I am deeply concerned that we will be refused because of all the lies told about us and everything else and this is worrying because all we want to do is to adopt Nala and we wish we had had all of the information before we had to give her over to yourselves. We got all of the information a few hours too late. Can you confirm to me that we won’t just be refused because of the issues with Denise and Steve and that we will be fairly assessed? I hate to come across strongly but as I’m sure you can understand Nala is important to us and we can offer her everything she needs, we know that.The questions we submitted to Laura were questions that the people leaving comments on the site had and we have no answers. I don’t want it to seem all bad towards the Blue Cross as it is an important charity, with a lot of good, honest and hardworking people in it doing their best for animals in need and I feel that the answers to the questions would be a benefit to us so we can post them and even the balance. The investigation that is being conducted is great and it has been posted on the website so that people can see you are doing something about it.Thanks again for all of your time and we look forward to hearing from you next week to let us know we can start the adoption process.Thanks again for all your hard workHeather and David
We don’t have plain and straight answers as yet from the Blue Cross on the concerns that you have all raised but as and when we get them or a member of the Blue Cross posts on the website. As per Kims email, however, there is an investigation taking place into why this happened and what will be done to stop this happening in the future.