Money too tight to mention for centres

This weeks pet of the week is our lovely Lola. Lola is 1 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier and is a very loving and friendly girl. The beautiful Lola came into our care through no fault of her own. It was discovered she was pregnant so Lola went to a foster home to have her puppies and has now left them, with this she is now looking for a new home of her own. If you can offer Lola the home she deserves please contact the rescue centre on 01896 849090 thanks.

Whilst it is most certainly true that there is a case to answer that much of the work carried out by animal welfare charities, such as ourselves, should be the responsibility of departments in government, the fact is that we have to carry the brunt of services, and the costs, involved,

I am sure that Borders Pet Rescue is no different to other rescue and rehoming charities in having to fund operating costs through a combination of fundraising, donations and good will. We receive no centralised funding of any kind and the vast majority of available grants are heavily weighted to people oriented causes, equally worthy though they are.

Of the limited number of grants that we are eligible to apply for the majority have to be used for material improvements to facilities and as such cannot be used to cover regular daily costs. These costs include the same areas that any other business would incur but with the added issue that the rehoming fees we can charge in no way cover the costs involved in getting an animal to a rehomeable position.

If we charged what it actually cost us to get to this nobody would ever come to us to offer a home to any of our residents. So whilst a real world business exists to sell their goods or services for more than it costs to produce them (and in so doing creates a profit margin) rescue centres ‘sell’ for far less than the costs involved.

For this reason most animal charities develop fundraising strategies in an attempt to maximise income for the minimal outlay. Clearly this means that we all have to rely on the help of dedicated volunteers to help raise money through events such as bag packing, awareness days etc; but also to reduce costs such as helping at the centres, becoming foster homes or helping in the charity shops if applicable in order to keep the wage bill down.

Fundraising groups, regular donors along with our charity shops are the lifeblood of our particular charity and most welfare groups will be in the same position. To this end we all rely on the general public to give of their time, efforts and/or hard earned cash. If you speak to your local animal charity they would be delighted to run through with you all the ways you could help them.