The Dog Rescuers: Heartwarming True Tails of Rescue, Recovery and Re-Homing

by RSPCA

As a nation, we're big fans of man's best friend. Nearly a quarter of all British homes own a dog. Sadly, not all of them receive the love and care they deserve and some dogs are neglected or, worse, abused. Enter The Dog Rescuers . Every day, these dedicated and passionate RSPCA inspectors - like Anthony Joynes - contend with dog owners' abandonment and misuse of their pets, and spring into action on behalf of dogs in trouble, returning them to health, happiness and a loving new home. This collection of heartbreaking but ultimately heartwarming tales follows the likes of puppy Clover, who suffered damage to her face and lips, and Flint, the Lurcher who’d been used for badger baiting and lost most of his tail. When all seems lost, the RSPCA’s dog rescuers are on hand, providing vital support to get Clover, Flint and friends the help they need and into forever families so that they don’t just survive, they thrive.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals

240 pages, Paperback

Published June 13, 2019

Reviews

[Alice-Elizabeth (Prolific Reader Alice) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased one of the Kobo daily deals e-books (which was this one!)

This read is not for the faint-hearted. I know the title says heartwarming tales, however, the amount of cruelty and neglect to some of the dogs that were rescued was at times shocking to read about. I've always admired people who save all types of animals who are in urgent need of care and support. Every chapter included in this book contains a real-life tale of a dog rescued and some photos in the middle so it was interesting to see what dog breeds were there. A good read, just expect yourself to feel more shocked rather than joyful!

[Isla Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book more upsetting than heartwarming. I suppose I should have expected that, being someone who has watched the TV series its based on for many years now. It contains lots of advice on numerous aspects of dog care, at the end of chapters - the advice at the end of each chapter being on a different aspect or theme of care.

There are of course the upsides to the cases, which are nice to read the book also features photos of the various dogs, with some pages of glossy colour photos present half way through the book. Its interesting to read about things but its a bit depressing to read about how badly people treat pet animals and if your like me then that might frustrate you. Its not an awful read but I feel if you try to read it particularly quickly then it might be a bit too sobering a read perhaps.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

While these tails are ultimately heart warming they are also incredibly heart breaking as each one covers what happened to these animals before and when the RSPCA rescued them. But this is an important thing to understand as without public understanding and support the RSPCA and many other rescue charities wouldn't be able to do the work that they do. Each story shows not only the best of humanity as so many people go out of their way to help and support the animals rescued but they also show how cruel, sadistic, and downright evil people can be and how often they can get away with it too, which is an indictment on all of us. This is an important read for everyone in this country of animal lovers.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is good — a solid 3.5 stars for me. It's essentially a collection of well-told, heartbreaking stories of dogs abandoned, abused and neglected in Britain along with their subsequent rescue by the RSPCA. The main character in the book is/was an RSPCA Inspector and these stories are all cases he worked.

Unlike the last book I read on this topic ("Rescuing Penny Jane"), this book is not flashy or flamboyant or trying to make a name for itself by breaking up the stories with cliffhangers mid-tale and then coming back to them after it started readers down the path of another story about a different dog. This book is very straightforward. It simply tells the stories of several dogs, how they were found and then cared for by the RSPCA, including what, if anything, happened to the people who abused or neglected the dogs.

It doesn't even list an author's name, just the RSPCA as far as I can tell. It's written 3rd person by someone who doesn't make themselves part of the story. I call that a very selfless act by the writer/s, especially when writing about a topic as emotionally charged as animal rescue. To me, this book is the reserved, traditional, thoughtful, professional adult to the more emotional, brash teenager that some other books on this topic are. It's not an edge-of-your-seat page-turner, but this stories this book tells shine a light on how some people treat animals that I haven't read about before.

Definitely worth a read for animal rescuers, but not for the faint of heart.

[Jorgen Lundgren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart breaking and heart warming stories throughout the book. I can't understand why people are cruel to animals specially to dogs.

We adopted a 6 year old Romanian rescue dog 5 months ago. She is making progress step by step, she is still very frightened. She spent 4 months at Mayflower rescue centre in Doncaster and before that 4 months in a rescue centre in Romania. Before that is anyone's guess.. most likely a street dog. We do not know and will never find out.

[Kellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This book has a mixture of stories and facts on how to care for your dog (admititly I skipped as I don't and currently not intersted in owning a dog) I enjoyed the stories and the was nice to see each one had a happy ending despite everything the animals went tough also nice to see the pictures at the end of the story too.

[Emma Mccallum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed meeting the dogs and the fact that we got to see pictures of them before and after their rescue I feel as though the book would been better if it had 2 main stories instead of 8 smaller ones.