Hornchurch pet rescue centre faces closure
RESCUED pets like Legs, Dotty and Bob could be put to sleep if their over-worked rescue centre is closed by spiralling debt, volunteers claim.
Hornchurch Pet Services is being swamped with large numbers of pets being made homeless as evictions in Havering grow in the recession.
And now unpaid veterinary bills totalling �1,000 are pushing the vital operation, which started 18 months ago, to the brink of closure.
Donna Evans, who set up the charity, is urging animal lovers everywhere to organise charity events and do street collections to help raise funds to keep it going and save lives.
She said: “We are getting calls every day from people asking us to house their pets and saying they’ve have tried everywhere. So most of them would just be put to sleep if we didn’t help.”
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The service is currently looking after around 30 unwanted and often badly treated pets, from dogs, cats and gerbils to a hamster found in Romford market, many of them are kept in temporary accomodation by volunteers.
But when one gets re-housed at least another two are queuing up waiting to be rescued and costs and the case-load is mounting.
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Donna said: “We had a call saying there 15 dogs in a pound that are going to be put down and everyone was just running around trying to find places for them.
“It is really bad at the moment with people losing their houses and calling us up and saying they have to give up the pets”
Donna urges people to adopt rather than buy a puppy for Christmas and says the centre also needs volunteers to temporarily house the animals while a permanent home is found.
A recent effort to save a malnourished cat called Twinkle ended with her dying and the charity being left with a �400 bill.
She added: “We’ve started a campaign encouraging people to subscribe just �2 per month to sponsor our longer term residents. The details are on our website and Facebook page, which has over 1,500 supporters. We started a Facebook group pushing for a nationwide ad campaign to make the public aware of how disastrous the situation is.”
