When a litter of 11 dane-cross pups came into her care, Ms Pavy’s  and a friend’s children gave them foster names.

One of the boys, a 10-year-old with Down syndrome, wanted to call a pup Syndrome, and no one batted an eyelid until it was advertised for adoption on the website of Hunter Animal Rescue.

Ms Pavy and the animal welfare group were flooded with emails of complaint, mostly from people saying the name was insensitive. One mother of a Down syndrome child said the name was ‘‘disgusting and in poor taste’’.

‘‘When you take the dog out in public and give it the command ‘down’, you want everyone to have a giggle,’’ she wrote.

‘‘Why not call the other ones aspergers or cancer?

‘‘I am totally disgusted and outraged ... that you would give the pup a nasty name so you can get your jollies.’’

Ms Pavy, from Lake Macquarie, said she never questioned the name because it was suggested by the boy with Down syndrome.

‘‘All the kids were naming the pups and he just wanted to be part of that,’’ she said. ‘‘He was happy just to be involved and give a name to one of the pups. The pups generally get new names when they are adopted so we didn’t worry about it.’’

Ms Pavy was caring for all 11 pups and their mother, along with a menagerie of other animals, when the fur flew. The pup’s mother had been picked up by a ranger and left with the RSPCA. While there, she had the 11 pups. All  were taken in by Hunter Animal Rescue, where volunteer carers look after and feed them until they’ve been vaccinated and microchipped and are old enough to be adopted out through the group’s website.

Hunter Animal Rescue president Jaimie Abbott said the group was aware of the background to Syndrome’s name when it was posted online and on Gumtree for adoption. She said Syndrome’s profile was taken down from the site when the complaints started coming in.

‘‘We genuinely didn’t expect a problem, probably because we knew the background and how Syndrome got his name, but we had to take him offline,’’ Ms Abbott said. ‘‘Jenny is one of Hunter Animal Rescue’s fantastic and highly valued foster carers, and I was more concerned for her because she was getting angry phone calls from people who didn’t know the background.

‘‘We’re always crying out for foster carers – I wish some of those people complaining would spend as much time helping us find homes for these animals.’’

In light of the furore, Syndrome has been renamed Sid because it was the only name he would respond to and at least sounded like the start of his former name.

‘‘I can’t believe the fuss it’s created,’’ Ms Pavy said. 

‘‘I really just want to look after the animals and get on with it. One of the other pups is called Polar because he’s all white and he looked like a little polar bear when he was a baby. But now I’m worried that it’s too close to bipolar.’’

Originally published as Puppy's name causes kerfuffle by Newcastle Herald.