In the summer of 2022, my parents were making preparations for their annual summer holiday, part of these preparations was to find someone to care for their loving Golden Retrievers Jess and Dolly, while they were out of the country.

Like thousands of others, they used the services of rover.com, a search engine and listings website specialised in connecting dog and pet owners to home boarders in the UK, to which rover receive commission on each pet boarded.

After successfully finding what they thought would be the right family and home to look after Jess and Dolly, they found this to be far from the case when my wife and I received an alarming phonecall from my parents over a week into their holiday.

The family boarding Jess and Dolly had been in touch with my parents, telling them that Jess had not been herself for a few days and thay they were concerned, prompting my wife to go to the boarders home to check on Jess while I stayed in the house with our young son.

When my wife arrived at the boarders home she was confronted by a pungent ammonia smell and poor Jess laying in a pool of her own urine and unable to stand, clearly in a lot of distress. 

The boarder claimed that Jess hadn't been right from the first day and was reluctant to eat food and go for walks, which was very unlike her. When asked by my wife if they had been in contact with a vet, they hadn't...

Jess was taken by my wife to my parents registered vet where Jess was sadly and tragically put to sleep after the vet discovered Jess was paralysed and had a very faint heartbeat. Aside this was horrific burns and blisters covering her underbelly, caused by urine that been there a very long time. Had Jess been taken to a vet sooner, she may have been been saved or at the very least, not made to suffer for over 7 days.

After giving the devastating news to my parents regarding Jess, we later discovered that the boarders were not licenced to board dogs by their local authority (West Lothian Council) and had in fact been rejected a licence previously as they did not meet the criteria.

We have since discovered that the boarders tried to once again board dogs at their new home in South Lanarkshire via another similar website pawshake.co.uk. Once again, they didn't have a license from the Local Authority.

It transpires that websites such as these claim to verify all boarders, when in fact they only verify the boarders address and contact details. They state on their website that it is the boarders responsibility to obtain the relevant authority and licence in their local area.

So what this really means is absolutely ANYONE can register as a pet sitter on these websites regardless of experience or facilities to care for animals. This is simply not good enough! 

These websites need to be taking the responsibility to ensure their patrons are fit to care for animals, by liaising with the boarders local authority or at the very least making sure the boarder sends proof of licence.

Animal Welfare bodies such as the RSPCA and the SSPCA could be a massive help in this area, by perhaps creating a register of approved boarders in the UK.

PLEASE SHARE THIS PETITION FAR AND WIDE SO THE SAME THING THAT HAPPENED TO JESS, DOESN'T HAPPEN TO YOUR BELOVED PET!