How not to keep dogs

Fortuitously (I sincerely hope it is not a portent of more of the same!) this week's calls could have been used as case studies to illustrate what is wrong with the dog situation in this country.

1. Request for help with the cost of "cherry eye" surgery for a young bulldog. The owner had spent £300 on surgery on one eye and couldn't afford to get the other one done. Sadly this isn't something we can afford to help with.
2. Request to help with first aid for a young dog passing copious diarrhoea with blood. He'd been adopted from an organisation which rescues dogs from Romania by someone eligible to use our clinic, but unfortunately as he'd been vaccinated by the rescue the owner hadn't made it a priority to get him registered with us. Typically it was a Sunday when most vets charge extra and the owner couldn't afford the cost.
3. Last, and saddest, an 8 week old puppy, bought at a car boot sale and now with probable internal injuries. After spending all her money on buying the puppy, his owner had none to pay for treatment. We covered this, but the pup is probably not going to make it. 

"Fire fighting" like this is essential because these individual animals need our help, but it is only putting a patch on a broken system.