Trustees' Annual Report for the period
Period start date Period end date Day 1[st] Month Year 2022 Day 31st Month Year 2022 January To December
From
Section A Reference and administration details
Charity name Doris Banham Dog Rescue Other names charity is known by The Doris Banham Sanctuary Registered charity number (if any) 1103372 Charity's principal address Doris Banham Dog Rescue, Wells Lane Cottage, Wells Lane, Cottam.
Postcode DN22 0EZ
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
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Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole **year ** |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trudie James | Chairman Trustee | |||
| Paul Davis | Trustee | |||
Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
Name Dates acted if not for whole year
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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
| Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) | Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) |
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| Type of adviser Name Address |
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| Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information) | ||
Section B Structure, governance and management
Description of the charity’s trusts
Trust
Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Trust Deed How the charity is constituted
- (eg. trust, association, company)
Appointed by Trustees Trustee selection methods
- (eg. appointed by, elected by)
Additional governance issues (Optional information)
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:
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policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
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the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
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relationship with any related parties;
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trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
Section C Objectives and activities
Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document
To relieve the suffering of abandoned dogs who are in need by reason of being unwanted, unhealthy, sick, old, abused, maltreated, disturbed, unpredictable, in poor circumstances or similar causes by the provision of a home, care, medication and veterinary attention with the aim of rehabilitation and rehoming or enabling the dogs to live out their lives in a comfortable and caring environment
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Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)
Our Charity is always vigilant in adhering to the Charity Commission’s Guidelines on public benefit. We provide a service to society by saving the lives and alleviating the suffering of society’s lost, stolen and abandoned dogs which have been placed in council pounds and have not been claimed by their owners within the statutory seven days and other dogs in life threatening situations. We actively seek to locate original owners, working with dog lost sites. We also provide healthy and homeable dogs to the qualifying public who are looking for a loving pet. All our rehomed dogs are neutered and vaccinated and re-educated if necessary. Our full lifelong rescue back up provides the public with peace when taking on a canine companion. We also provide help and advice for dog owners. We co-ordinate rescue placements for lost and abandoned dogs with appropriate rescue centres. Over-breeding of puppies for profit has caused a significant problem within our society particularly as a large proportion of the dogs bred by non-reputable breeders are homed without proper care and responsibility. This has led to a large number of dogs being abandoned and ultimately ending up as stray dogs in council pounds. We extend our compassionate ethos to and provide a flexible people friendly service to those in tragic and unfortunate circumstances such as the homeless and evicted, terminally ill, those going into care and prison etc who have to give up loved pets and we ease human pain by keeping in contact with original owners and providing updates, pictures etc. We are often the last port of call for vets, the police and social services who do not wish to euthanase an animal. Alongside our frontline active rescue work, we also strive to highlight the stray situation in order to seek solutions. We work with dog wardens and councils to seek improved pound conditions and animal welfare standards. Our work within the pounds enhances compassion and changes ethos thus improving the position of the stray dog. We also helped to promote compulsory micro chipping. Our volunteers are trained to microchip and microchip our own dogs. We also use our community-based shops as centres to promote awareness of the stray situation and as education centres giving advice on pet welfare.
Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
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You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:
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policy on grantmaking;
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policy programme related investment;
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contribution made by volunteers.
Front line pound rescue where lives are at stake and euthanasia deadlines have to be beaten is a very painful task and can only be carried out by those who truly believe in what they are doing. Our Charity seeks to operate as an animal welfare rescue operation saving the lives and alleviating the suffering of dogs who are due to die because they have not been reclaimed by their owners within the 7 statutory days that the law gives an owner to find and reclaim their dogs. We also save the lives of: at the request of the police, dogs who had been released from police kennels; at the request of vets, dogs who had been brought in by their owners for euthanasia; at the request of social services, the dogs of people who are in dire circumstances or had contracted covid - (fear of infection from covid made these dogs at risk due to the reluctance to go in to pick them up and what they might carry on their fur); dogs at risk because their rescues had been forced to close down or they were unable to manage the dog; dogs in dangerous life-threatening situations such as those at risk of being used for baiting and fighting, owned by drug gangs or back street breeders.
We are always the dogs’ ‘Last Chance to Live and we exhaust all alternative options for a dog before we take them into our care. All the dogs in our kennels would have died if we had not rescued them. The post pandemic animal welfare crisis has massively magnified our workload.
The Charity has no defined hierarchy but is run by a superb team of extremely dedicated volunteers who give their services free of charge. In this way 100% of the donations and grants are spent on rescuing and rehoming the dogs thus enabling us to maximise the service we can provide on the funds received. We are dependent on the dedication of these volunteers who believe in what we do to enable us to continue our work.
Through their shared love of dogs, their sense of injustice at what is happening to them and their belief in the value of all life they perform an exceptional service to animals and to the society. So very much is demanded of them as they may be called upon to save a life at any time day or night. Journey times are long and the work within the pounds is very harrowing.
Section D Achievements and performance
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Section D Achievements and performance
Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year
Our Charity was set up in dedication to the founder’s Mother Doris Banham and will always rigidly reflect the compassionate ethos by which she lived her life. We are proud to say that we have stayed rigidly steadfast to our founding principles of unconditional rescue of the most needy dogs regardless of breed, age or veterinary condition, giving them whatever they need and finding them the forever homes that they always deserved.
Our Charity works at the very front line of dog rescue. Our path is a very hard one as we have almost totally always rescued dogs from pounds and secondly, we unconditionally take into our care those who have not received any other rescue offers and are due for destruction. We have never ever selected a dog – we are always informed which ones need us. We seek other rescue spaces right up to the day the destruction is due to ensure that there are no other avenues available to save the dog’s life. Dogs fail to get rescue spaces for many reasons. They may simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even young dogs under a year with no problems sometimes are due to die needlessly simply because a rescue space is not available at that point in time to save them. Some may need veterinary treatment or retraining and many are the exploited popular breeds - victims of irresponsible overbreeding. Our mission is to save their lives and then turn them around into loving rehomeable dogs ready for forever homes. We consider every homing is a minor triumph in righting the wrongs our throwaway society has caused and we are so very proud of our constant rehoming rate.
We worked actively and front line throughout the pandemic as it quickly became evident that dogs were also its victims and that they were suffering an acute welfare crisis. Seeing other services such as vets, the police, pounds, social services etc were struggling to operate without the normal full back up of dog rescue services we felt it was our duty to step up and play our part so we did not close to survive but actively worked to try to help. The homeless, those suffering from covid and people in other dire circumstances were even more in need of help with their dogs and we are proud of what we achieved during this time but the work was exhausting for our Charity.
However no-one was prepared for the overwhelming animal welfare crisis which was to hit rescue as the pandemic receded and people began to resume their busy lives. A crisis arose that we have not seen the like of in the 20 years of our existence and has tested our survival to its limits as young dogs have been thrown out of their homes in unprecedented numbers and rescues have been overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. We have tried in every way to be there to catch as many dogs as they fall but the strain and the workload has been overwhelming.
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Section D Achievements and performance
In response to the crazed surge in demand for dogs during covid many including those from pounds have been rehomed without checks. Puppies have been in high demand and many have been shipped into the country as small fluffy easy dogs who have now grown into large adolescent dogs. Puppies bought as companions and ‘time fillers’ during the lock downs were suddenly unwanted. Some because the family could not cope with the growing dog and some because the dogs had been bought as companions and distractions during lockdown and now that life was resuming and people were free to do what they wanted they simply didn’t want them any more.
These dogs, back street bred or shipped into the country to feed the demand, have been homed without checks to families often unsuitable for the dogs. In addition to the covid throw-outs the present financial situation in the country has meant that many people are desperately struggling to make ends meet and whilst for some families the pet is the first to go, in others people have literally been forced to give up a much loved family member because their finances are rock bottom or they have lost their homes and can’t take their pets with them to the new accommodation or are actually living on the streets which is a heartbreaking situation. We have tried to help as many of these cases as we are able. The specific problems caused by today’s difficult financial times have hit our Charity massively because we take many of the type of dogs that the hard times have threatened the lives of and made homeless. The current difficult financial situation also continues to make people more reluctant to make charitable donations or commit to standing orders etc. This has made the task of raising funds to carry on our vital life-saving work substantially harder. Rescues have collapsed through lack of funds and those rescues who would have taken complex dogs have become overwhelmed and closed their doors. To make the situation even harder the crazed demand for puppies during the pandemic meant that breeders had supplied any breed they could to make money. An example of this is the specialised breed of Cane Corso who make adorable pups but need experienced owners as they grow into adolescence. The number of these coming into rescue has meant that some rescues have excluded intake of them. One of our adolescent Cane Corsos called Vincent is now ready for rehoming but we had to restart his retraining from scratch as if he was a young
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Section D Achievements and performance
puppy. When he came into our care as he was due to be put to sleep he was totally out of control and his stomach and intestines were full of chewed up children’s toys. The situation has been particularly difficult for our rescue as we are known as ‘Their Last Chance to Live’ and a retraining facility known to save the lives of the larger and more difficult to home cases particularly those needing retraining and now the UK is filled with them. As the abandoned ‘covid pups’ have been for the vast majority unsocialised and untrained requests for our help have exploded. This has been particularly exacerbated because so many of the abandoned dogs have also been of very large breeds and specialised breeds who need experienced and specialised owners and beyond the skillset of many rescues. We have been literally inundated and overwhelmed with requests from such homes or from vets where the dogs had been taken to be put to sleep.
We have had to try to deal with this onslaught in addition to the areas we usually rescue from i.e. death row pound dogs who have been unclaimed following their 7 days in a council pound; at the request of the police, dogs who had been released from police kennels; at the request of vets, dogs who had been brought in by their owners for euthanasia; at the request of social services, the dogs of people who are in dire circumstances or had contracted covid - (fear of infection from covid made these dogs at risk due to the reluctance to go in to pick them up and what they might carry on their fur); dogs at risk because their rescues had been forced to close down; dogs in dangerous life-threatening situations such as those at risk of being used for baiting and fighting, owned by drug gangs or back street breeders.
As we are their ‘last chance to live’ all the dogs we take in have received no other rescue offers and are facing pts and will definitely die if we do not save them. They are almost always in need of urgent veterinary treatment or retraining which has stopped other rescues from wanting to take them into their care – hence their desperate plight. Thus our job has always been a harder one as our kennels are filled with dogs who would have died without our help and who are undergoing retraining, rehabilitation, veterinary treatment, recuperation and tlc before they are ready for rehoming. Since the pandemic the number of dogs needing this type of help has sky rocketed.
The task of raising funds to continue our life saving work is getting harder and harder whilst the burden of what we are being asked to deal with is getting heavier and heavier. The rescue world continues to be placed in this impossible position which seems to have as yet no ending.
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Section D Achievements and performance
Because we are one of the very few rescues offering retraining, rehabilitation, socialisation and recuperation, we have always been the final chance for dogs who have suffered abuse, neglect and mismanagement. Rescuers have always tried to keep our rescue spaces for the most demanding dogs but come to us for help if the dog is imminently due to be put to sleep and there are no other rescue offers for them.
Also the number of requests from other rescues who have taken in dogs whom they are unable to cope with is greatly accelerating and placing a massive pressure on us as we are the last chance for these dogs before their rescues put them to sleep.
At the same time there has been a surplus of emergency boarding kennels available at private boarding kennels because of the pandemic affecting the taking of foreign holidays and reducing private boarders. These emergency boarding kennels are a means of saving lives for rescues desperate to save a dog and totally full at their own kennels but even at charity rates the costs can strain rescues’ finances to the limit causing collapse.
Because our main kennels have been continually refilled during the pandemic we have taken a large of number of emergency boarding kennels as it was the only way to save a dog’s life but the cost of this has put us under very considerable financial strain.
We also undertake, and have continued to do so throughout the pandemic, many miscellaneous welfare actions such as checking the chips of dogs picked up by members of the public and returning the dogs to their owners; working with organisations trying to locate stolen dogs by going out to check the chips of suspected stolen dogs and then transporting them back to their owners; giving free training advice to owners to enable them to keep their dogs; holding dogs whilst owners are temporarily unable to look after them.
Our ‘social service’ function has been overwhelming. We are increasingly inundated daily with desperate calls from the public who are in trouble with their dogs and thinking of putting them to sleep as they have tried every rescue and everyone has said no. We never turn our backs on the humans and we try to help in every way we can to attempt to keep the dogs in their homes if it is a good home. We do this with free retraining advice, advice to get their dogs checked at the vets in case the problems they are experiencing are due to veterinary issues, emotional support and back up in every way we can. This is a very emotionally exhausting process but it is a means that lives
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Section D Achievements and performance
can be saved. We do not charge for our compassionate work and update the owners regularly with videos and photographs to try to ease their pain. The pandemic has been a time when rules have been rewritten and a whole new way of working to the optimum to save as many lives as possible has had to be devised. We have tried in every way to be there to catch as many dogs as they fall but the strain and the workload has been overwhelming. Working truly on the front line of rescue we are known for flexibly going where others fear to tread. We rescue dogs abandoned in empty houses, gardens and where people have been taken to hospital with covid. We go out at night and enter undesirable areas. We do whatever is needed simply because the dogs need us to be brave. We had to go into an empty drugs flat to rescue Rolo who was in a crate. His owner was in hospital and those left in the flat were intent on doing Rolo harm We take many dogs who are imminently due to be put to sleep or are already on the vets’ tables. This is a review from a man who was actually outside the vets waiting for his euthanasia appointment for his dog Mikka who is an akita cross. He was being forced to put his dog to sleep by other family members and he was desperate “I found out about Doris Banham at literally the last minute waiting outside the vets. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and at given where I was and what was about to happen, they were literally a life saver. From my experience with Doris Banham, you can really tell that these people love dogs and have a true passion in what they do. This charity needs more funding, recognition and more people need to know about the great work they do. Thanks so much to everyone at DBDR, you are a great bunch of people Examples of our work include: Rocky from police kennels a 12year-old staffy who is underweight and has some arthritis in his legs. He is in emergency boarding at the moment but we are actively searching for a foster home. Tragic mastiff cross Nova’s time had run out at the pound after the pound had searched for months to find a space for her. Bred from and dumped in an emaciated state, Nova had suffered from Entropion and although young her eyesight was poor. She is recuperating with us at the moment and we are trying to build her weight and condition. Other examples of death row pound dogs are beautiful soft Daisy who is a mastiff and Oreo, also a mastiff, who needs retraining. Both dogs had suffered intense abuse with Daisy regularly being beaten up by her owner who invited his friends to join in and Oreo who was kept in a shed where the family would regularly come to beat him with brooms and mops including the children. Che a rotty cross came from a
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Section D Achievements and performance domestic violence situation where the mother and young children were put into a hostel which would not take the dog. This was a very sad situation. We are keeping the owner up to date. Mason and Rio were untrained unsocialised covid puppies whose owners could not cope with them. We also undertake many miscellaneous welfare actions such as checking the chips of dogs picked up by members of the public and returning the dogs to their owners; working with organisations trying to locate stolen dogs by going out to check the chips of suspected stolen dogs and then transporting them back to their owners; giving free training advice to owners to enable them to keep their dogs; holding dogs whilst owners are temporarily unable to look after them. We do not charge for our compassionate work and update the owners regularly with videos and photographs to try to ease their pain. We extend our compassionate ethos to humans in pain because through circumstances beyond their control they have to give up much loved pets. Hence we have taken in dogs owned by people with serious or terminal illnesses and suffering with covid who are no longer able to care for them; dogs belonging to the homeless and those who have been evicted, been imprisoned, suffered family breakdowns and domestic violence. Those unable to afford to keep their dog because of the current financial situation has greatly added to the number of requests for help. An example is 8-month-old Simba whose owner had lost his flat and was on the streets with Simba. He rang us for desperate help as a gang of boys were trying to steal Simba from him. He had got away but he didn’t know how long he could keep him safe. We immediately drove to his location and took Simba into our care. We are working with the owner with regard to Simba’s rehoming. We were contacted by the social services to help little Memphis as no other rescue would help him and he was due to be put to sleep – his owner wrote “For taking a chance on my boy when no-one else would, I owe you the world”. We held Dexter in our care whilst one of his original family found accommodation suitable for them to be reunited. Vets contact us when a dog has been booked in for euthanasia or is actually on their table. This was the case for 2-year-old terrified Coco who came into our care just before Christmas Kuba had been alone in the flat for 4 weeks after his owner died. Two Pressa Canarias Magic and Luna had been scrap yard dogs for 9 years living in dire conditions sleeping on wooden pallets exposed to the elements. The present scrap yard no longer wanted them and they were in a very dangerous situation. One of the men who visited the yard begged us to help them and
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they are now in our care.
Because we are one of the very few rescues offering retraining, rehabilitation, socialisation and recuperation, we are often the first port of call for rescuers trying help dogs who have suffered abuse, neglect and mismanagement and other rescues who have taken in dogs whom they are unable to cope with because they do not have their own retraining facilities. Tragic mastiff cross Butch is an example of this. Butch had been working in a yard when he was attacked by 6 men. He was beaten and then hung on a fence, his throat sliced and repeatedly stabbed and his eye came out of the socket. Butch had survived but was naturally terrified of the world and needed confidence building retraining. Butch is doing brilliantly in our care. Little JJ is an emaciated staffy rescued from baiting. He is extremely frightened and has scars all over his body and legs.
We have taken in a large number of dogs from other rescues who would have put them to sleep if we did not help or were closing down because of the pressure that the pandemic had placed upon them. The number of dogs taken from other rescues has increased substantially over the past year and places an extreme burden on us. Jed who is a deaf bulldog came from another rescue who had decided to put him to sleep if we could not help. Retraining with Jed is going well and he is a lovely boy. It is a slow process but he will be given as long as he needs to be ready to go into the experienced home he needs. The rescue owning Bernard a rottweiler who had been starved and abused in the past had mismanaged him and begged us for help. Bernard is with us now and doing really well. Caramel and Prince both Mastiffs had been abandoned and had literally nowhere to go when their kennels closed down. The majority of dogs that rescues ask us to take are large breeds and our rescue is weighed down with a preponderance of these breeds who need careful rehoming in experienced homes.
These are just a few examples of the dogs who are alive today because we continued our vital work during and post the pandemic.
This of course has substantially increased the number of dogs in our care and currently have 150 plus dogs which is putting a tremendous strain on us. 95 dogs at our main kennels and 60 dogs at £8-£9 per night each in charity rates emergency boarding kennels. The pandemic and the post pandemic crisis have meant that in order to save the lives of dogs who had no time to wait for a kennel space and would have died if we had not helped them, we have had to take additional emergency boarding kennels because fewer and fewer dogs are able to find an alternative rescue space because the rescue world is totally
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overwhelmed. Our choice has been either to take another emergency boarding kennel or let the dog die. We are constantly moving dogs from these emergency boarding kennels to our main kennels as dogs are rehomed and spaces become available but it is a slow process due to the retraining needs of the majority of our dogs. The pandemic was a time when rules have been rewritten and during the post pandemic period rules are being rewritten again. A whole new way of working to the optimum to save as many lives as possible has had to be devised. Rehoming has been constant but restricted by the limitations of the pandemic and post pandemic period and we have filled empty kennels with new intake and paired up where possible. Our policy is for potential adopters to meet the dogs as many times as needed before they are able to take the dogs home as we feel that this is an essential part of making sure that the adopters and the dogs themselves are both happy that the match is the right one. We have continued to do this but the pandemic has made this harder to arrange The situation with our charity shops is that we permanently lost our most profitable charity shop in Sheffield. Our lease expired on 1[st] April 2020 and the landlord refused to renew it unless we paid full rent and guaranteed this for three years which was impossible for us. Our second shop is now open again and doing really well. Our third shop was manned by elderly vulnerable volunteers who are not yet happy to risk returning to work. Under the expert guidance of our kennels team our dogs are placed into stable forever homes that are suited to the needs of both the dog and the adopters. These are dogs who without Doris Banham would definitely have died, and it is very motivating what can be achieved through care in our throw-away society and how we can restore to these dogs their rightful importance and value. However, the whole process is a huge and overwhelming challenge but one that we are dedicated to meet. When we take a dog into our care it is impossible to ascertain how long that dog will be with us before they are ready to go into a home or what problems we will have to overcome to make them ready for rehoming In addition to truly unconditional rescue, we also ensure that 100% of funds are spent directly on rescuing the dogs to whom they belong. In this way the more funds we raise equates directly to the number of dogs that we can afford to save. We just see ourselves as a hub through which the funds pass enabling them to be changed into what the dogs need. We are all unpaid volunteers with no administration costs and owning no property. We are open to help a dog in need 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
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Section D Achievements and performance
Our commitment to providing the best possible veterinary treatment for our rescued dogs and the fact that many of them have been abandoned because of an acute or chronic veterinary condition which needs treatment, means we have established excellent relationships with many veterinary practices, whose discounts have enabled us to maximise our veterinary treatment. In 2013 we were awarded the Burgess/Wetnose Best Dog Rescue Centre, in 2019 the IFAW Animal Action Award for Dog Rescue and in 2020 Charity Champion Award – Amplifon Awards for Brave Britons. Our rescue has been featured on Panorama, Inside Out and in newspapers and magazines such as Dog’s Today, and Dog’s World. We were the only small rescue invited to be featured alongside the RSPCA, Battersea Dogs Home and Dog Trust in the Panorama programme entitled Britain’s Unwanted Pets and Tom Heap spent days travelling with us and experienced saving 8 dogs from pounds on just one of those days who would definitely have died without our help Social media and all administration have in the past been carried out by our volunteers who are also front line because of the extent of our frontline work but now with the help of dedicated volunteer administrative volunteers we have a thriving facebook - dorisbanhamuk with 27,000 likes and followers which is gathering support and momentum every day. We have a 5-star rating. We also have an auction and fundraising group and a happy ever afters group for updates on rehomed dogs. Through our facebook, supporters see and become involved with the dogs we rescue from death and witness how they are transformed into lovely homeable dogs. We constantly invite supporters to fund specific dogs and have promoted our kennel sponsorship scheme. Because of the pandemic we replaced our social activities with online fund raising and we are still continuing to operate this high degree of online activities. We have extended our Friends of Doris Banham membership package, held auctions, raffles, sales and continuous appeals on facebook and local media. Our lottery is just about to start. We do appeals which allow supporters to fund specific dogs and have promoted our kennel sponsorship scheme. We are still being supported with some of our food by Jack Robinson a Manchester United footballer who approached us during the pandemic and many rescues and organisations send us their surplus food because of the role we play and we get some amazing food donations from dog food manufacturers which we could not cope without. We are being supported by a couple of brilliant online pet food suppliers and continually promote Easy Fundraising and Amazon Smile. Many fund-raising events, auctions and challenges are organised. Many supporters have dedicated their weddings and birthdays to us and we receive 80% of the proceeds of one holiday chalet. We also have jewellery makers and crafters making goods free of charge to enable us to raise 100% of the proceeds for the Charity. We also have some talented portrait artists who allow us to raffle commissioned portraits of people’s pets. Organisations such as The Trike Club have held rallies for
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us and concerts have been organised by groups like ‘The Devil can Wait’ We are constantly following up any avenues which would produce more income for the charity in our desperate attempt to survive to carry on our life-saving work.
We can sometimes have as little as a couple of hours or less notice by telephone that a dog is due to die and it is vital to us to know that we have a kennel that we can fund available immediately to be a safe house for that dog. If we say yes the dog lives and if we say no the dog dies and that is a terrible burden as we are literally the last chance for that dog to live. We are constantly seeking sponsorship for our kennels so that we know that we have a funded kennel available for a dog due to be pts.
Our quarantine kennels continue to be a Godsend to us and we are constantly searching for increased funding for them. Isolation should always be the first responsible step for any dog coming into rescue especially from the pounds. A two-week isolation period for veterinary treatment including vaccination, worming, defleaing etc. and temperament assessment is of paramount importance to protect the existing dogs in the kennels and also potential adopters and their existing pets.
Our dedicated kennels are manned by an amazing team of animal lovers who provide a complete care, retraining and rehoming package. Their loyalty and love of our charity’s dogs has driven this level of support. Our kennels need to be experienced and dedicated enough to care for dogs direct from the pound who are frightened, traumatized and may have ailments or veterinary conditions. It is vital that they should be admitted to an experienced kennels where the level of care, skill and dedication is amply sufficient to meet the needs of these dogs. Our kennels allow us to securely house, care for, nurse, medicate, retrain, socialize, walk, exercise, and rehome the dogs rescued by the Charity. The kennels need to be able to deal with all variety of dogs - x breeding bitches, abused dogs, x bait dogs, dogs in need of veterinary treatment, emaciated dogs needing multiple small feeds, untrained young dogs, frail elderly dogs, dogs who have lived in sheds, gardens and alleys and provide them with everything they need to make them well, happy dogs ready for rehoming. Our care package for each dog includes in addition to the services normally provided by a kennels a complete welfare package: positive reward-based retraining, socialisation, logging and organising neutering, vaccination, worming and microchipping, visits to the vets, administration of medication and special diets, nursing and recuperation, collection of dogs from the pounds, rehoming, home checking and administration of all these services etc. - all this is included in the daily rate. At our kennels the dogs thrive and become happy dogs again and are found stable loving forever homes. People often remark how shiny and waggy-tailed the dogs are and how amazed they are, when walking our dogs, that the dogs pull back to kennels so keen are they to get home! Rarely does a dog have to come back into our care and then it is usually because family circumstances have changed rather
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than any fault on the part of the dog. We offer every dog whom we home a lifelong guarantee to come back into our care should they need to so that they never end up in the pound again.
The two weeks they spend in the isolation kennels is the vital starting point both for veterinary treatment and retraining needs. Each dog is different and will be with us as long as it takes for us to complete the final piece of the jigsaw of saving their lives and that is finding them a forever home. During this time an individual tailored plan is devised which is suited to the needs of that particular dog.
We have calculated that this is the most cost-effective way for us to give the maximum benefit to the maximum number of rescued dogs. The expert services the kennels provide and the dedication they exhibit to the dogs in their care is outstanding and this combined with their professional skills means that we can offer to our dogs a service which far outweighs anything we could afford to provide at a centre run by volunteers and also at a cheaper cost than it would cost to run a centre providing the same facilities and funding the extra services provided. In fact our kennels operate a complete service from collection and newly admitted dog (who is unknown territory when they arrive as to what we will have to deal with) to dog ready in every way for their forever home. If we had to pay separately for all these included additional services, we would not be able to save the lives of so many dogs. Retraining is undertaken daily by the same people thereby building trust and consistency. The trainers are producing fantastic results with the dogs with positive reward based training methods and turning dogs around and giving them a fresh new start in life. The kennels also welcome our team of volunteers to visit the kennels to walk and interact with the dogs giving the dogs extra exercise, lead training and human interaction. The kennels can when required offer 24 hr care for a poorly or traumatised dog. They are also happy to be on call 24 hour a day 365 days a year to go out and pick up or admit a dog in need.
Our rescue are the last people who are contacted to save the life of a dog before they are destroyed. This means that we daily carry the burden of knowing that if we say yes the dog lives and if we say no the dog dies. Thus, we can never relax 24 hours a day 365 days a year as we never know when the next urgent dog will come. We sometimes have very short notice by telephone that a dog is due to die.
There are no dogs in our kennels who would not be dead if we had not taken them into our care, as they had no options left to save their lives and no time left to search for any as we seek other rescue spaces right up to the day the destruction is due to ensure that there are no other avenues available to save the dog’s life. Our kennel team of trainers and carers is second to none and work tirelessly to mend the dogs in body and spirit and we are very proud of our rehoming rate.
Front line dog rescue is extremely physically hard and emotionally demanding work and we are really proud of our brave and dedicated volunteers who make many personal sacrifices to carry out their life
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Section D Achievements and performance
saving work. Often witnessing the condition of dogs arriving from the pound is very painful but being able to help them and seeing these dogs, who suffered and definitely would have died, thriving and finding loving homes reinforces and heartens them. The pandemic and the post pandemic period have added an additional challenge to the challenges we were already facing – saving dogs from being put to sleep in the pounds. The UK has a serious and heartbreaking stray problem that still needs to be addressed simultaneously with the crisis caused by the pandemic. UK strays are kennelled away from the public eye and their desperate plight is not always appreciated by the public in general as the dogs and their condition are not visible on the streets. We continue to strive to highlight their plight with the goal of improving their dire situation. We also seek to raise public awareness of the dangers of irresponsible over-breeding and promote high standards of animal welfare, neutering and the adoption of rescue dogs We are proud of what we do, as we are successfully rehoming dogs who may not be immediately rehomeable when they first come from the pounds and need veterinary treatment, patience, expert positive rewardbased retraining, skill and TLC after the bad start in life they have experienced. Under the expert guidance of our kennels team our dogs are placed into stable forever homes that are suited to the needs of both the dog and the adopters. These are dogs who without Doris Banham would have died, who often had only numbers not names and whose death would only have been marked by a log in a book and it is very motivating what can be achieved through care in our throw-away society and how we can restore to these dogs their rightful importance and value. However, the whole process is a huge but one that we are dedicated to meet. Our policy of giving lifelong backup to our rehomed dogs , should their circumstances change in their new homes, is one of the cornerstones of our Charity. It is our greatest desire that the dogs should have us as a safety net for the rest of their lives, being able always to come back into our care so that they never re-enter the pound system again. We are totally non-destruct whilst quality of life can be achieved and we are relentless in our pursuit of this. Dogs with manageable veterinary conditions who do not receive homing offers are moved to long term foster and attempts to find them the right home are continued from that foster home. The ultimate and overriding goal of everything that we do is to reunite the dogs with their original owners who had not been able to locate them in time to save their lives in our complicated pound system. But if this is not possible, we strive to find the dogs the loving forever homes that they deserve providing them with whatever veterinary treatment, rehabilitation, socialization or retraining they need to make this possible. All our dogs are neutered vaccinated and micro-chipped. In addition to our work rescuing dogs already in the pound system, we also continue to work to reduce the number of dogs entering the pound
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Section D Achievements and performance
system in the first place. To this end we have put in place some specialist volunteers who respond to owners who have tried every avenue to place the dog that they feel unable to keep and have come to us as a last resort before they hand their dog into the pound. First establishing if this is a loving and stable home that they would want the dog to stay in, these volunteers discuss with the owners the problems that have led to the situation where they feel they are forced to give up their loved pet - be they social or behavioural and attempt to assist them to keep their pet in their family. This can entail giving free behaviourist training for problems such as barking or chewing or training a puppy or if the problem is a social one such as the owner having to go away to care for a relative for a while or is searching for housing that will permit animals, organising for the dog to be cared for in the meantime. Every case is different and is always managed with the dog’s well-being of paramount importance. Many owners have responded very positively to this, grateful to have found a way to keep a pet they did not really want to lose but could not see a way around their problems. Many owners have gone on to become volunteers for the charity themselves. We continue to work in cooperation with pounds, councils and dog wardens believing that building up a stable working relationship is the most beneficial means of saving the dogs’ lives and encourage them to approach us if they are going to destroy a dog with a treatable or manageable veterinary condition merely because of the cost Despite concentrating our efforts on saving the lives of the dogs at present in the pounds and working to improve pound conditions and ethos, Doris Banham Dog Rescue also wishes to play a meaningful role in attempting to stem the problem at its source. We also actively seek to educate the public on the pound system in the UK and promote high standards of animal welfare and the principle that sentient animals are not disposable commodities to be exploited. Our rehoming volunteers are continuing to work tirelessly to find stable and loving forever homes for our rescue dogs. The volunteers from breed rescues continue to be a very important asset for us and we are also being helped by breed welfare rescues themselves when we take into our care one of their breed dogs which they are unable to help themselves. We stress to the public the unfair connotations of the term “stray” simply because pound dogs are merely lost, abandoned and stolen pets unclaimed by their owners within the 7 statutory days allocated before the council is empowered to destroy them. We continually strive to promote responsible dog ownership stressing the importance of neutering, micro chipping, vaccination and socialisation. We are constantly grateful to our supporters who respond to our appeals, do challenges and runs and endurance events, donate their portraits etc. and to other rescues who donate food because of the contribution that we make in the rescue world. Volunteers are particularly attracted to our strict policy that 100% donations are spent
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Section D Achievements and performance
directly on the dogs themselves as we have no administration costs. Volunteers know they are giving their precious time directly to the dogs and that encourages and motivates them. We operate a kennel sponsorship scheme whereby individuals or companies can sponsor a kennel for 6 months or a year giving a safe haven for dog after dog due for imminent destruction.
We encourage young people to take an active part in taking responsibility for the dogs. Many will save their pocket money or do sales to raise funds for a particular dog and follow that dog through until they are homed.
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Section E Financial review
It is not the policy of the Trustees to maintain significant reserves.
Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves
Details of any funds materially in deficit
Further financial review details (Optional information)
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
The Charity’s principal sources of funds are donations, fund-raising online, grants from animal welfare organisations and sponsorships. The funds have been spent on veterinary fees, emergency kennelling and transport which support the Charity’s key objectives of saving lives and alleviating suffering.
-
how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
-
investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
Section F Other optional information
100% of funds raised are used to save the lives and alleviate the suffering of unclaimed dogs due for destruction in council pounds or other life threatening situations who are imminently due to die. We work with veterinary surgeries, the police, social service and other organisations and owners in tragic circumstances. As the pandemic recedes we are overwhelmed with rescuing the abandoned ‘covid pups’ to save them from being put to sleep. We are all unpaid volunteers who believe in what we do. We offer a lifelong guarantee to dogs homed by us to take them back into our care to ensure they never enter the pound system again. We are also unique in that every single dog that is taken into our care would definitely have died without our intervention as we exhaust all other rescue options and often wait until the day that the destruction is due to take place to take the dog in. We believe that the criteria for rescue should be the need of the dog and not its breed or immediate homeability and take great pride in finding a loving home for a once traumatised dog who with our help and care has learnt to trust and find his place in the world again
Section G Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
Signature(s) Full name(s) Trudie Elizabeth James Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Trustee etc) Date 01/10/2023
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TAR 20 Mar¢h 2012
Charity Name No (if any) DORIS BANHAM DOG RESCUE 1103372 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Period start date Period end date To from 01/01/2022 31/12/2022
Section A Receipts and payments
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 301,980 - 7,378 9,212 - - - - 318,570 - - - 318,570 14,171 208,373 78,536 1,318 5,815 2,348 - - 353 310,914 - - - 310,914 7,656 - - 11,589 - 3,933 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ 301,980 - 7,378 9,212 - - - - 318,570 - - - 318,570 14,171 208,373 78,536 1,318 5,815 2,348 - - 353 310,914 - - - 310,914 7,656 |
Total funds to the nearest £ 301,980 - 7,378 9,212 - - - - 318,570 - - - 318,570 14,171 208,373 78,536 1,318 5,815 2,348 - - 353 310,914 - - - 310,914 7,656 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voluntary | 301,980 | - - - - - - - - - |
301,980 | 215,223 | ||
| Activities | - | - | 6,841 | |||
| PayPal | 7,378 | 7,378 | - | |||
| Kennels | 9,212 | 9,212 | - | |||
| - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
318,570 | 318,570 | 222,064 | |||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
||||||
| - | - - - |
- | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | |||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
||||||
| - | 318,570 | 222,064 | ||||
| Transport | 14,171 | - - - - - - - - - - |
14,171 | 6,891 | ||
| Kenneling | 208,373 | 208,373 | 159,045 | |||
| Veterinary | 78,536 | 78,536 | 73,674 | |||
| Misc | 1,318 | 1,318 | 275 | |||
| CharityShops | 5,815 | 5,815 | 9,464 | |||
| Fundraising | 2,348 | 2,348 | 1,778 | |||
| RehomingPromotions | - | - | 729 | |||
| Special Needs | - | - | 1,295 | |||
| Bank | 353 | 353 | 973 | |||
| **Sub total ** | 310,914 | 310,914 | 254,124 | |||
| A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) |
||||||
| - | - - - |
- | ||||
| - | - | |||||
| **Sub total ** | - | - | - | |||
| Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end |
||||||
| - | 310,914 | 254,124 | ||||
| 7,656 | - | - | 7,656 |
- 32,060 | ||
| - | - | - - |
- | - | ||
| - 11,589 | - | - 11,589 | 20,471 | |||
| - 3,933 | - | - | - 3,933 | - 11,589 |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
01/10/2023
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities B3 Investment assets |
Signature Details Details Details Details Total cash funds (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Details |
Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - 3,933 - - - - - - 3,933 - OK OK Unrestricted funds Restricted funds to nearest £ to nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) - - - - - - - - - Fund to which liability relates Amount due (optional) - - - - - Print Name TrudieEJames |
Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| OK | |||
| Endowment funds to nearest £ |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| Current value (optional) |
|||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| When due (optional) |
|||
| Date of approval |
|||
| TrudieEJames | 01/10/2023 | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
01/10/2023
2
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLANO AND WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examineff 5 Report Report to the trusteesl members of On accounts forthg year ended Charity no lif any) 31 tJ£CE 202Z Ilo3872 Sot out on page¥ RoSPgCtlve The charitys trustees arg responsible for the pr8paralion of the accounts in responslbilities of accordance with the requirements of the Charitie$ Act 2011 C'lhe Ad'l. trustees and examinor The charlS tnjstees consid&r that an audrt is not requir¢d for this ar under Section 144 of the Act and that an independent examination is needed. It is my rosponsibilily to,. examine the accounts under seth'on 145 of the Charities Act, lo follow Itte applicab18 Dir8clions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145{5){bl of the Act, and lo state whether particular matters have com• to my attention Bas1$ of independont My examination was carried out in aceordance with general DIrelonS given examine5 statement by the Charrty Commission. An examinatson inelude$ a review of the accounting records kept by the charty and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It 8150 includes consideration of any unus¢Jal items or disck)sures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures und¢rtakon do not prgvide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and onSequenY no opinion is givgn as to whether the accounts present a 'lrue and fair, view and the report is limited lo those matters Sot out in the statement below. Independont In connection with my examination. no material matters hav6 come to my examlnoes statement attention lolher than that disclosgd below.) whi¢h gives me cause to telieve that in, any material res¢1.. aceounting records were not képl in accordane8 wth Soction 130 of the Charities Act or the accounts do not accord wth the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which att8ntion should be drawn in order lo onable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. se delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Signed., Dato: i /ic>l 2c)IB Name.. Relevant professlonal qualificationl5) or body (if any): PIL E ICES c*riÉ IER May 2018
Address.. LotrJSE)PtL6 7L Section B Disc105ure Only complete il the examiner needs lo highlight matlefs ol concern (see CG32, Independent examination of charity accounts.. 1CtiOnS and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examinorwlshes to disGlose. IER May 2018