Battersea Dogs & Cats Home Awarded £200,000
For its vital community work benefiting local animals
Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has been awarded £200,000 in funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery to help fund its vital community engagement work, which provides free dog microchipping, dog tag engraving and responsible dog ownership workshops around London.
The money will pay for two new full-time members of staff to do this work, as well as buying new uniforms and a fully liveried van for the Community Engagement team to microchip dogs in.
Sharon Sealey, Community Engagement Manager at Battersea, said: “This incredible funding will help us speak to more adults, children and young people about responsible dog ownership, as well as offering microchipping and advice within the community. Dog microchipping means a lost dog can be quickly reunited with its owner, greatly reducing the number of stray dogs coming into Battersea. We’re very grateful to players of People’s Postcode Lottery for helping us make a real difference to dogs.”
Battersea’s Community Engagement team delivers workshops and events across London and the South East, working with local communities, schools, youth groups and young offenders institutes. As well as addressing issues such as the use of dogs as weapons and the overbreeding of dogs, the team educate dog owners on how to keep their pet safe and healthy. Last year 65 per cent of all dogs arriving at Battersea were not microchipped, a simple measure that could save a lot of distress for owners and their dogs.
Nicola Clapham from Leatherhead lost her Shar Pei Humphrey one evening in March. Nicola says: “I went to feed him and he was gone. After a very sleepless night, I phoned the microchip agency again and found out his microchip had been scanned at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. If it hadn’t been for the chip, I don’t know what might have happened to him. I got Humphrey microchipped eight years ago, as a puppy. I’m so pleased that I did, I would recommend it to every dog owner.”
Between 3 and 10 April, People’s Postcode Lottery will be celebrating some of the work Battersea does on its website, showing why they have chosen to make this tremendous grant to the charity. Click here to visit their website and find out more.
April 6, 2015