Well, what can we say about 2014….
It was a year full of ups and downs.
A lot more cruelty cases landed on our doorstep from all parts of the country. Thankfully, they all recovered and were rehomed.
There seems to be an endless pit of abandoned lurchers and unwanted greyhounds in the last twelve months and less and less rescues willing to take them.
Our veterinary fees have almost doubled from 2013 and a large amount of this is due to sighthounds.
We have been in talks with the RGT since August 15th last and are still awaiting a decision.
Despite the fact that the powers that be assure us that things have turned around, there has been an increase in people losing their homes,
people emigrating and families splitting under financial strain.
Due to the despairing situation many families find themselves in, pets become overlooked and transparent.
The enforcement of the Rabies laws by DEFRA in the UK was a double edged sword, on one hand, a lot more of our dogs are being rehomed in Ireland. But on the other hand, the turnover of dogs is much slower, which causes a bottleneck and prevents us from saving more.
On the upside, we have gained a lot more support, both through donations and moral support, than last year.
We were fortunate enough to secure the voluntary services of Sharon and her team at Plunkett PR, who have lots of good ideas for 2015.
With their help, we revived The PAW Trek, our annual sponsored walk, which was held in Clondalkin last August.
Lots of adopters and supporters turned up, as did Amanda Brunker and Gillian Quinn and her lovely daughter Ash.
We hope to hold our next one in May and plans for that will be getting underway soon.
We now have an email newsletter which goes out monthly (If you want to be on the list let us know) and two newspaper columns and another in the pipeline.
As an Organisation, we are still hoping to acquire a premises in Leinster (Dublin, Kildare, West Wicklow) to expand our services and increase our work with donkeys. So if anyone has a lucky lotto win, we will be delighted to hear from you
But for now, we can only do what we can do. We must go on… Together……. we are making a MASSIVE difference.
HUGE THANK YOU’s to everyone who helped make 2014 a better year and hopefully 2015 will be better again.
Fundraisers, supporters, volunteers, dog walkers, patient suppliers, very patient vets, NNL in Sweden, SOS in Italy, GHIN in Czech and of course our donors.
Because without YOU, we would be unable to continue to keep our doors open to those in need.
We will leave you with an oldie. But a goodie:
“Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.
One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer.
As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all.
The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.
He came closer and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”
“Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the wise man.
The young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”
The wise man said, “But, young man, do you not realise that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile?
You can’t possibly make a difference!”
The young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference for that one.”
On behalf of all the Starfish at PAWS, we THANK YOU. Xx
