Bath Cats & Dogs Home is today launching its Hope for Christmas Appeal to help raise £40,000 towards purchasing every-day equipment and care to sustain its rescue dogs, cats and small animals over the festive season.
The animal centre continues to face tough times financially and it hopes its Hope For Christmas Appeal will encourage animal lovers across the region to spare a few pounds to help with the everyday costs involved with caring for its hundreds of rescue animals, including warmth and care; routine injections; vet care; re-habilitation with a behaviourist; food and shelter. £40,000 will sustain all the Home’s animals with all aspects of their care for a month.
Bath Rugby prop and England ace, David Flatman, is supporting the campaign and says: “We rescued one of our dogs from the animal centre a few years ago and you couldn’t meet a bigger softie! He’s great! The centre do a really fantastic job rescuing and re-habilitating local animals, some of which have suffered the most appalling abuse. I am really pleased to be able to lend my support to Bath Cats and Dogs Home and wish them lots of luck with their Hope Appeal.”
Take Flower, pictured below. Flower is a two year-old Lurcher who was attacked by dogs and ran into the path of a car. She was covered in wounds on her feet, legs and flanks, with deep wounds in her neck and back. Flower’s ongoing medical re-habilitation treatment has already cost the Home £2,000. Its in-house veterinary suite has cared for her, using equipment and bandages bought with the public’s donations. She will stay at the shelter for several weeks longer and her warm bed and food will cost around £400.
She is now micro-chipped and her injections, flea and worm treatments are up to date, which cost around £100 (she will also be neutered at a later date costing anywhere in the region of £70-£150). She will spend time with expert canine behaviourists, will have socialisation lessons and gentle training to help her build trust with the staff that care for her and so become more open to potential new owners. These classes would cost £4 each.
When the right person comes in who wants to give her a loving home, we will ask for just a £110 donation. Flower is just one story. Now multiply her case by 800 dogs, 860 cats and 150 rabbits, ferrets and rodents and you have 1,810 stories that we can tell you in one year.
Sarah Thorn, fundraising manager, comments: “We continue to be inundated with hundreds of innocent strays, like Flower, who come to us both injured and abused through no fault of their own. We are facing tough times, with more animals than ever needing our help. Our annual costs have risen over the last three years by almost £200,000 and we are launching our Hope at Christmas Appeal to cover the cost of caring for all our animals during the festive period. We need money for life-saving emergency medicine, intensive rehabilitation, food, warmth and care. Please help us make a difference to the victims of the most appalling suffering and help us give a happy ending to our animals. Give an animal a gift of hope for Christmas.â€
To donate to the Hope Appeal you can give online at www.bcdh.co.uk, or contact the fundraising team on: 01225 787334 or send a cheque made payable to Bath Cats and Dogs Home to The Avenue, Claverton Down. Bath. BA2 7AZ
Alternatively you can visit our website at www.bcdh.org.uk for more information.