ANIMAL welfare workers have criticised the RSPCA for taking in dogs from abroad when there is capacity crisis in the UK.

On Thursday night BBC Panorama revealed that the Brighton branch of the RSPCA had re-homed around 150 dogs from Spain and Portugal despite a national policy against such action.

Stacey McSpirit, who runs Paws Animal Sanctuary in Findon, said: “They should obviously be focused first of all on dogs from this country, but they’re a good charity they’re doing their best to help.

“I often get calls from people saying that the RSPCA won’t take in a dog or a cat or a rabbit. They’ve got so much money but sometimes I don’t know what animals they’re taking in.”

A spokeswoman for the Dogs Trust Shoreham, said: “Whilst Dogs Trust understands the instinctive desire to bring street dogs from overseas back to the UK, we have concerns that this could increase the risk of disease coming into the UK and rarely have a positive impact on the stray dog population in the country of origin.”

In Thursday’s BBC One broadcast, Panorama reporter John Sweeney said dogs imported from Spain and Portugal by another animal welfare organisation were re-homed by the RSPCA Brighton branch over a period of three years until 2016.

Nationally the RSPCA has a policy against the importation of dogs for commercial purposes, although the RSPCA said the dogs were not re-homed for commercial purposes.

The decision to accept the overseas dogs was made at a time when the Brighton branch had lots of Staffordshire Terriers which can be difficult to re-home.

The branch was said to be keen to offer a mix of breeds to would-be owners.

Panorama said RSPCA staff raised concerns about accepting dogs from abroad when there were British dogs they could help.

The RSPCA said the dogs were not being imported for commercial purposes, the Brighton branch did not make a profit from re-homing these animals and the movement of the dogs complied with the relevant legislation.

The charity said the Brighton branch was trying to help as many unwanted dogs as it could, and the main focus of the branch’s work remains on helping local animals.

The RSPCA revised its policy six months later so that the Brighton branch had to get permission to take in these animals on a case by case basis.