PAWS is a work in progress, we started out in Feb 1997 with the intention to
rehome unwanted dogs from their current homes. However, we soon realised the
huge amount of abuse, neglect and abandonment of dogs throughout the County
and we started to give them shelter and veterinary care... News spread fast
and soon we were dealing with cases from Cork and Kerry to Sligo and
Donegal... Since that time PAWS, has rescued, vaccinated, neutered and
rehomed thousands of Dogs and Cats and as 70% of these were adults, our
neutering programme has prevented millions of unwanted puppies being born
and consequently dumped in ditches, dustbins and dog pounds.
Sometimes we feel like 'giving up and giving in' but then somebody says a kind word or calls to visit, with a happy, healthy adored pet, which when it originally came in to our care was a quivering, ravenous, petrified mess.
Days like those give you the strength to carry on that extra mile.
The animal rescue business, and believe me it is a business, can only be run on the generosity of true animal lovers. All dogs rehomed from PAWS are neutered, vaccinated, wormed and micro chipped before adoption and given all necessary veterinary care.
As you may know, we at PAWS depend totally on the public to help us to keep our doors open to abandoned and abused animals. The National Lottery have
thus far ignored pleas from Animal Welfare groups to grant aid our work and the Dept of Agriculture very kindly give a small grant each year to rescue
centers Sadly, however, this covers only a minute portion of the running
costs, which ran to over 300 thousand euro last year. The rest is made up from
flag days, fundraisers and donations. We, at PAWS now find ourselves under
serious pressure. Our biggest expense being veterinary fees... we never
seem to reduce the debt because of the vast volume of dogs coming through
our doors, for a rescue our size to handle an average of ten dogs a week for
vaccination, worming, neutering and micro chipping is extremely difficult
financially
If you can help in any way please visit
http://paws.ie/fundraisingideas.html for fundraising ideas. |
