About the Saluki

Saluki Welfare Fund

The Saluki or Gazelle Hound Club, the Northern Saluki Club, and the Welfare Fund are the organisations to which most Saluki owners in the UK belong. The breed clubs organise shows, run seminars, produce publications, and generally promote the Saluki as a sporting and show hound as well as a fine companion.

The Welfare Fund is a Trust set up to care for and rehome Salukis which in some way fall on hard times, whether from cruelty or plain misfortune.

It is the concern of the two clubs and the Welfare Fund that all salukis should have a comfortable, caring home and that no healthy dog should be destroyed through lack of a good owner.

Most Salukis are registered with the Kennel Club and each year around 140 puppies are bred, most of which are booked to a suitable home before birth. Saluki Welfare is the safety net for those Salukis in trouble and like all rescue organisations depends on help for maintaining, fostering and rehoming unlucky or mistreated hounds.

In 1993 The Saluki Welfare Fund gained Charity status. It's main object is primarily to care for the ever increasing number of Salukis that require re-homing. As well as the Charity's own fundraising activities both Clubs help to raise funds.

You may be considering adopting a saluki. If so, there follows a short resumé of what that would entail.

The initial stages of the adoption process begin with you contacting one of the two rescue officers. For the south, contact Ann Blake on 01727 823360 or, for the north, Denise Rogers on 01302 771143. If you are unable to contact the officer for your own area of the country please try the other number, as we liase daily. The officer will then discuss with your over the phone your specific situation, i.e. whether you have had a saluki before, why you feel a saluki would be right for you, what your work hours are and what other pets you may have. If, after talking it through with us, you decide you would still like to be considered for a saluki, we will arrange a home visit. This will usually be carried out by a saluki owner and is an informal, friendly meeting.

If all goes well and we are satisfied that you can offer a secure and loving home to one of our hounds, we will then talk to you about any salukis that are currently in our care. If we have something that would seem to be suitable, you will be invited to go and meet the saluki, and you may be asked to take with you any other dog that you own so that they can meet on neutral territory. You will typically get the chance to have a chat, over a cup of tea, with the dog’s foster carer, when you will have an opportunity to ask questions and to learn as much as possible of what is known about your chosen saluki. If all parties are happy you will then be allowed to take the saluki home. We ask for a set adoption fee, which enables us to continue our work. If at any stage in the saluki’s life it should become necessary to part with the dog, Saluki Welfare must be consulted.

Should you have a saluki that you can no longer keep, please do not hesitate to contact us. Also, should you be having health or behavioural problems with your saluki, we will assist if we possibly can.

Contacts are:

(Chief Warden South):      Anne Blake 01727 823360
(Chief Warden North):       Denise Rogers 01302 771143
Welfare Fund Secretary:    Alan Lucas 01425 472286