Meet the amazing Liverpool woman saving hundreds of abandoned and stray dogs

An incredible Scouser has changed the lives of hundreds of dogs, after leaving her hairdressing career behind and jetting off to a new life in Europe. Linda Shock formerly owned Headmasters hair salon in Bootle, however, she decided to move to Bulgaria in 2008, after her divorce.

After seeing a large number of abandoned dogs on the streets, Linda founded Dobrich Dog Rescue, alongside co-founder, Karen Cale, and has done phenemonal work to rehome the pups. Often, these dogs find homes in the UK, and the charity has a huge scouse following.

Linda, who houses the abandoned dogs in her own kennels until they find suitable homes, told LiverpoolWorld: “New born pups were being thrown away for the jackles to eat. We send the dogs over to the UK fully vaccinated - they have a chip and passport and if old enough, they are neutered.”

She added: “I set the charity up because the situation for dogs in Bulgaria is dreadful. We rescue sick dogs and puppies that have been thrown out onto the street.

“We have seen a rise in the number of dogs being abandoned and have been told there are many dogs that were bred during the covid outbreak that are now being taken to rescue centres.

“The dogs are mostly abandoned, we now have proper kennel. I’ve been here 15 years and I’ve just done a fund raiser to help pay for the local dogs to be neutered. We rely a lot on monthly donations and fundraising and charge £130 in adoption fees, however, these fees rarely cover our costs.”

Dobrich Dog Rescue is a registered charity and in 2020, Linda invested her own money into building a kennel block to house the dogs as they recover and prepare for the transport to their new forever homes. The charity has gone from strength to strength, managing to re-home over 100 dogs per year,

The charity also has a Doggy Donor system, allowing those who want to help to donate as little as £1 a month. The money goes towards feeding abandoned dogs, as well as providing warmth, shelter and thorough health checks by trusted vets.