Up until 2004, Sandie Bissett, one of our founding members had been rescuing Golden Retrievers single-handedly in Ireland and bringing them to the UK. 

But as the volume grew it became obvious that help was needed. 

Having spoken with a group of like-minded Goldie lovers in the UK, it was decided to set up a UK based not-for-profit organization called Irish Retriever Rescue UK and adopt as their mission statement a “commitment to safeguarding the futures of abused, abandoned, neglected or simply unwanted Golden Retrievers”. 

In January 2013 this same organisation became a fully recognised UK based registered charity. 

IRR currently rehomes over 100 Golden Retrievers each year.

The goals of the charity
• To assess, rehabilitate and rehome all the dogs in our care to loving forever homes.
• To raise funds to allow us to continue rescuing these dogs and transporting them to the UK.
• To fully homecheck any potential forever home.
• To carefully match each individual dog to a prospective adopter.

Giving Every Dog a Second Chance

Dogs come into our Rescue for a variety of reasons. Quite often dogs are surrendered by their owners because of changes in family circumstances. Others are abandoned and collected by dog wardens to be taken to the pounds.

All dogs that come into our care are examined, spayed or neutered and microchipped. Those dogs arriving from Eire or other parts of Europe are also given mandatory vaccinations and necessary legal documentation before travelling with registered dog transporters to the UK.

On arrival, the dogs are placed in foster care for a short period. This allows the fosterer to assess the dog who may need time to settle into their new environment before their true personality fully emerges. Where possible, it is important that their interaction with children and other animals, especially cats, is fully evaluated. This helps ensure that all our dogs are placed in the most appropriate forever home.

You can read more about the history of IRR and read about our dogs rehomed from 2005-2021 at our archive site www.irishretrieverrescue.com.

Meet our Team of Volunteers.

Everyone involved in Irish Retriever Rescue are volunteers and every penny donated or raised goes towards helping dogs have a better life.

Lorraine Johnston
Trustee, founding member, UK coordinator, fundraising & Facebook administrator.

Jackie Juffkins
Trustee, Treasurer, Fundraising & Facebook administrator.

Jackie Adams
Trustee, Fostering Coordinator.

Kathryn Crofton
Ireland Co-ordinator.

Paula Hughes
Rehoming Coordinator and Homecheck Coordinator.

Louise Wright
Fostering Coordinator.

Sue Edgley
Fostering & Adoption administrator.

Barb Hughes
Fundraising & Facebook administrator.

Kerrie Prentice
Fundraising & Facebook administrator. Merchandise sales.

Lesley Mattos
Fundraising & Facebook administrator.

Jenny Mackenzie
Fundraising & Facebook administrator.

Lynn Whytock
Volunteer Residental Behaviourist.


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