Sleeping Ruff

Sleeping Ruff, a 30 minute documentary film about Edinburgh street dogs and their people was shown as part of the Saltire Society Grierson Award for Short Documentary at the 2004 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The project was conceived by Stephen Blakeway, of Vetwork UK and Susi Arnott of Walking Pictures as a way to capture the relationship between street pets and their people and offered a fascinating insight into the human/animal bond.

The film demonstrates the important role companion animals play in giving street people a sense of purpose and some love in their lives. Indeed, the experiences of vets working at the hostel vet clinics has been that many of these pet owners take considerably better care of their pets than they do themselves.

While many people might assume street pets have a much tougher life than domestic pets, the film-makers found this was not necessarily the case.  Susi Arnott says: “The way homeless people have such close attachments to animals was something I hadn't considered. It seemed like a lot of people were prejudiced, myself included, when it came to homeless people and animals.”

Sadly, of course, not all street pets can be said to enjoy a positive experience, and this is where the work of organisations like Vetwork, pet-friendly hostels and OneKind plays a vital role in ensuring that the same level of care and attention is available to all pets regardless of their circumstances.

The legacy of Sleeping Ruff can be seen in our OneKind Christmas appeal to highlight the needs of homeless pets, especially during the winter, and to support free vet clinics for homeless pets.

Dr Andrew Gardiner, a vet with the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in Edinburgh, will give a talk on the work of the vet clinics at a OneKind event at the Augustine Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh on Wednesday 14 December 2011. Doors open at 6pm. “Sleeping Ruff” will be shown, followed by a Q&A and refreshments. The event is not ticketed and those wishing to find out more should email communities@onekind.org

OneKind would like to thank Stephen, Susi and everyone at Vetwork for their continuing efforts to raise awareness of this issue.