Your legacy can save lives

20th October 2019

Whether you are a dog owner, a rescue supporter or a lifelong animal lover, remembering PAWS in your will is an act of kindness that will make a huge difference to rescue dogs long after you’re gone.

As you may already know, PAWS is a charity and relies solely on the generosity of public donations, fundraisers and a small annual government grant to assist with vet fees, bedding, food etc… for the dogs in our care and their rescue and re-homing. In 2018, we cared for 372 dogs. Our Veterinary fees were €66,449 and our annual running cost was €347,184. It is a huge cost but, sadly, an unavoidable one. In recent years quite a lot of injured and sick dogs have come into our care. Thankfully, we can always rely on YOU, our supporters and you never let us down. Your generosity enables us to carry on our work to make sure the dogs in our shelter get the good life they deserve. This involves their rescue, rehabilitation, their necessary vet care and vaccines and the care involved from food and bedding to their vaccination and neutering until they get adopted into their forever homes. As PAWS are a no kill shelter, some dogs can stay a long time at the shelter awaiting adoption (please see our post on info about our special long term dogs).

Raising funds for animal rescue has become increasingly difficult of late with so many charities seeking help. However, one thing that has seen PAWS safely through the last two years is legacies where people have left a donation to PAWS in their will. Without this life saving income, PAWS would not be here today. Due to the assistance of funds from legacies over the last couple of years, PAWS has not only survived some truly rough times but we had the chance to repair and update our animal ambulance, get a shower and grooming area for the dogs, buy a vermin proof container for feed storage among many other things that have vastly improved conditions at our shelter.

For these reasons, we would like to encourage people to think of us when considering their will and leave a legacy gift to PAWS when they are gone. This act of kindness is literally a gift of life to PAWS and the hundreds of dogs that pass through our shelter every year. PAWS would be honoured to accept a legacy and any gift is extremely helpful and you can be sure this act of kindness and compassion will live on long after you’re gone to the benefit of rescue animals.