hmm weird ours are open abt the fact they are importing strays, even with puppies, I think they even use it as a marketing strategy, how they nobly rescue these poor emaciated street dogs that would've been killed otherwise or whatnot. Friends of mine got their dog this way, but they suspect she was an abandoned pet an didn't live as a stray for long bc she was housebroken already, knew basic commands and has basically no behavioural or health issues. castration, rabies vaccine and testing for heartworn and typical southern dog infections (like leishmaniasis) are mandatory here too, the dogs are still cheaper than local shelter dogs
Norway doesn't have a shelter system, so everything was happening through private volunteers. There was no oversight and no real control, and doing it properly would've required more resources and organization than what was there. Despite some semi-scammy fundraisers, I assume most people did everything with the best of intentions, thinking they could save more dogs more efficiently by skimping on vaccines and quarantine.
I do remember ads being honest about the dogs' origins (and for a while there were FB groups devoted to rehoming Spanish and Turkish shelter dogs in Norway) but as vets and regulators started issuing warnings about the risks involved, people became more critical. And instead of getting more organized, they became more secretive. For a while there was this live guessing game about which dogs were southern or easter euro street dogs and if you were part of the dog owning community and conversations you could spot them - but if you were a regular fella just looking for a dog to keep your mum company you probably couldn't. Which is a bad cycle to sit in, you know?
Anyway, after several messes involving lacking antibodies and falsified papers and dogs full of heartworm and echinococcus, MT cracked down and banned importing street dogs and foreign shelter dogs pretty much outright.
