“Rehome the Hounds is trying to show people that hounds can be rehabilitated, can become pets, can come into families, can find homes with the right support, the right guidance, the right framework, and finding the right adopters for them,” said Laura Walker on our podcast.

She is a co-founder of the campaign that challenges the hunters’ narrative that hunting hounds cannot be placed in homes. Laura is joined in the campaign – and on our podcast – by dog trainer and behaviourist Amelia Steele and Protect the Wild campaigner Charlotte Smith. Together, they are lining up dog charities to help with a potential influx of dogs should trail hunting finally be outlawed, and they are working to educate the public as well as MPs about the hunters’ last-ditch arguments.

Charlotte told our podcast: “The welfare of hounds is not good anyway. Hounds are obviously already shot, which is a big, big thing that hunting industry narratives tend to leave out. They’re shooting thousands of hounds a year.”

Dog trainer Amelia is not worried about the hunters’ argument that these scent-trained dogs cannot live in normal homes. “I think overall it’s a case of one understanding and accepting the dog and those traits and then helping them to live a fulfilling life. You can give them the things that they love, like chasing things and following sense and working with you without the downsides of getting stuck in barbed wire or running in front of a train or getting shot. I think that’s a really, really important thing to get out there.”

In this short episode, the trio lays out their arguments. We are planning on full-length episodes with Charlotte, Amelia and Laura individually, once trail hunting is banned.

Until then, here is how you can help:

1. Share the Rehome the Hounds campaign information with your MPs, friends and family to challenge the hunting lobby’s narrative.

2. Respond to the Defra consultation on trail hunting here. You need to do so by 18 June the latest.

3. If you work for a dog charity and can take in one (or more) hounds once the ban comes in, please pledge your support here.

Further contacts:

Charlotte Smith: protectthewild.org.uk, Instagram: @protectthewild__

Amelia Steele: Instagram @ameliathedogtrainer

Laura Walker: thepackproject.org, Instagram @thepackprojectuk

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Years of knitwear and knitting books later, both started branching out into other creative ventures – Joanna is doing ceramics, and Sally became a fine artist who now specialises in dog portraits.

I interviewed Sally for issue 4 of Wunderdog Magazine, and I met both Sally and Joanna a couple of years ago when we attended the Free the Galgo and Podenco march in London. Their friendship is such a joy to watch, and both are talented, knowledgable artists as well life-long dog lovers.

Dogs and art are also the topic of this special episode. We are talking about the upcoming Dog Show in Joanna’s house in Brighton. It’s on every weekend in May, and if previous shows are anything to go by, hundreds of dogs will once again drag their humans to Joanna’s house for biscuits and a cuddle, while their people check out the more than 200 artworks on display. These include Harriet Lowther, Holy Smoke, Nicky Nunn, Lorraine Corrigan, Lucy Amos, Bridget Baker and many more.

You can visit the Brighton Dog Show every weekend in May. It’s on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th,10th, 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th and 25th May 11am to 5pm. The address is 33 Sillwood Road, Brighton, BN1 2LE. You don’t have to book.

thedogshowbrighton.com

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Pen is a British former Royal Marines commando, although today he is mainly known as a leading dog rescuer. His transformation began around 2007, when he was stationed on a peace-keeping mission in Helmand Province inAfghanistan, where he broke up a street dog fight. One of the dogs adopted him, and eventually he adopted the dog and called him Nowzad, after the town they were stationed in.

That chance meeting turned into a charity: Pen sought to reunite four-legged battle buddies with service personnel who had finished their tour. Often, soldiers returned home wounded or traumatised, and having their Afghan dogs by their side helped their recovery. Over time, Nowzad – the charity – grew into a sizeable operation that included an animal hospital in Kabul.

Then, in the spring of 2021, the US and UK forces suddenly announced they were pulling out of the country. It was clear that neither Pen, as a Westerner, nor the Nowzad staff, as collaborators, would be safe, so Pen arranged to evacuate everyone, including the dogs and cats in their care. He named it Operation Ark, which turned into an almighty political saga.

I met Pen when he had returned to the UK and settled into a home in Devon, for the cover story of issue 5. I still remember the day: the press coverage of the withdrawal from Afghanistan was brutal, yet here he was, sitting in the sunshine, drinking tea and petting his three Afghan dogs. Mission accomplished.

But that calm was never going to last, as Pen contemplated what to do next.

The war in Ukraine would only start five months later, and as Pen said in our podcast, he didn’t have another active war zone on his Bingo card for Nowzad. But the charity has the knowledge to help in these extreme situations, and eventually, Pen headed to Eastern Ukraine to help people with their pets and shelters with the repair works after Russian attacks.

But the situation is getting ever more serious. Yesterday, April 29th, Nowzad announced it was staging a major operation in the town of Kramatorsk, as Russian forces are only 7 kilometres away, and an entire shelter needs to be evacuated.

Please share this podcast episode to help Pen spread the word. And if you can, please donate at nowzad.com.

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Caron also talks about her background in psychology and how working with children with learning disabilities shows parallels in her work with dogs.

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