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Trustees' Annual Report for the period
Period start date Period end date Day 1[st] Month Year 2023 Day 31st Month Year 2023 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
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 |
Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole **year ** |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trudie James | Chair 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) |
|---|---|---|
| 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. The pandemic and the national animal welfare crisis which has ensued in its aftermath has massively increased the demand for our life saving services and placed an overwhelming burden on our Charity. We are more needed now than ever before. 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 communitybased 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
It is very hard to find the words to describe the devastating effects that the pandemic and its aftermath have had on the world of rescue. The present animal welfare crisis which continues to rage unabated has overwhelmed the capacities of the vast majority of rescues leaving them broken, disillusioned and struggling to survive. Many excellent rescues have succombed and closed leaving an even greater burden on those like Doris Banham Dog Rescue who are continuing the fight but being tested to our limits. We have always been a small rescue stepping up to a huge task but the present situation means that the task is a gargantuan one which if not addressed threatens to transform the rescue world into a more rigid and ruthless one where the meaning of true rescue has been extinguished forever.
The situation has been particularly overwhelming for our rescue as we are at the very front line and are known as ‘Their Last Chance to Live’ and a rare retraining facility known to save the lives of the larger and more difficult to home cases particularly those needing retraining and now since the pandemic 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 are beyond the skillset of many rescues. We have been literally inundated and overwhelmed with requests from such homes or from vets where the dogs have 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
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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.
Dogs are being taken to be put to sleep or literally abandoned in increasing numbers, tied up in fields and woods including young puppies left to wander and the number of emaciated and physically and mentally abused dogs needing rescue spaces has sharply increased.
We have always been dedicated to working alongside the pounds to improve ethos and reduce destruction rates and pre the pandemic things were greatly improved as compared to the situation when our Charity began in 2004. However since the pandemic as rescue spaces have become scarcer and scarcer and abandonment increases multiple euthanasia, which if not checked will soon become tragically commonplace in the pounds, is sadly increasing beginning to undo all the painstaking work we have carried out over the years.
We used to say that dogs failed to get rescue spaces for many reasons. They may simply be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some may need veterinary treatment or retraining and many are the exploited popular breeds - victims of irresponsible overbreeding. This is all still true but the overriding reason that dogs are dying now is because there are simply too many being abandoned and too few rescue spaces available to save them. 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.
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. The present situation, where the rescue world is overwhelmed with untrained abandoned covid pups, means we are now flooded with requests to take on dogs imminently due to die who need skilled rehabilitation and retraining.
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
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sleep. We are proud to say that despite the relentless pressure we have continued to fight on frontline and have through it all stayed rigidly steadfast to our founding principles of non destruct 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 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 however hard our path becomes. 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. 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. 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. Before the pandemic this breed was little known in rescue. The number of these coming into rescue since the pandemic has meant that some rescues have excluded intake of them. As a rescue who has the skillset to retrain them and find them experienced homes we have taken many of them into our care and retraining rescues like ours have borne the financial burden of the greed of lockdown breeders and importers and the lack
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of sense of the homes who bought puppies without researching the needs of the breed. As these homes have abandoned these dogs in increasing numbers it is rescues such as ours who have borne the final brunt. 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 and its aftermath 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 until we manage to rehome them. We also undertake, and have continued to do so throughout the pandemic and its aftermath, 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 and exacerbated by a world in chaos. 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 can be saved. We do not charge for our compassionate work and update the owners of any dogs we take into our care regularly with videos and photographs to try to ease their pain. The pandemic has ushered in an era 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
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is needed simply because the dogs need us to be brave. We had to rush to rescue Poppy who was hidden in a shed. She had been given to a man high on drugs who had decided to kill her and was looking for her. Poppy is now in foster and soon to be adopted by her fosterers. Blossom was rescued from a cocaine dealer.
We take many dogs who are imminently due to be put to sleep or are already on the vets’ tables. With the large numbers of dogs now being taken to be put to sleep vets need our help even more than ever. Examples of our assistance to vets are: We were asked by the vets to help Remi who had been mated with a much larger bullbreed and it was thought that the pups had died inside her. The owner was not prepared to fund any veterinary care and was threatening to just let her go. She needed a scan and an emergency spay if the puppies were dead which was indeed the case. The Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals who support our work very kindly funded her spay. Remi has now been rehomed. We rescued 2 year old Billy a few hours before his pts appointment at the vets. The vets had been ringing rescues in the hope that they would not have to put this young Kelpie to sleep who was the victim of his owners’ inexperience of the Kelpie breed.
Examples of our work with the pounds include: Gus who was just about to go on a van to be pts at the pound but instead the van brought him to our emergency boarding kennels as we agreed to take him at the very last minute to save his life. Gus is still under a training programme. Ludo who had been crated and witnessed frequent domestic violence and who was brought to the pound by the police. In the pound he had shut down and come up in lumps through the stress. He is doing really well and is now up for rehoming. We only had a few hours to rescue Frank who was terrified and would not come out of the corner of his kennel at the pound. The pound said if we could come and get him out they would release him to us which we did under tremendous time pressure. He is doing really well in a retraining and confidence boosting programme with us. Elderly Teddy and Rio came into the pound when their owners died and were considered too old to be rehomed by the pound. Rio has been rehomed and we are still looking for the perfect home for Teddy. Dave had been found tethered and emaciated. He had such a bad skin condition that it was thought he might have an underlying veterinary condition and none of the rescues wanted to risk the financial implications of taking him on. He had already been moved to the final kennel in the block which was the one which held the dogs due to be euthanased next. We took Dave unconditionally and with careful and experienced welfare he has been returned to full condition and is ready for rehoming.
Our work in the community include GSD Trevor who had been rescued by a man from a gang of youths who were about to
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throw him out of a car but only had a shed to keep him in. Chained and in great distress, his cries meant that the neighbours sought our help and we travelled over to get him out of the shed. He has now been happily rehomed. Hunter, Harvey and Leo are just three examples of untrained covid pups who were due for pts because their families could not cope with them as the grew. Leo has now been rehomed. We go above and beyond in our mission to save lives and we spent all night talking down Tom’s owner who had only had him a couple of days since his original owner died. He was threatening to dump him, shoot him etc and we finally got him to bring him to our kennels.
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. Alfie came into our care at the age of 17 years because his owner was suffering domestic abuse and had been taken to a refuge.
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. A very bad rescue closed down and the owner went to prison and we were asked to take traumatised Carly who would not come out of one of the kennels of the closed rescue. She has now been rehomed. We later rescued George from the same rescue who had been abandoned in the forest with two other dogs before the owner of the rescue was imprisoned. They were taken to the pound but there were no offers for George so he was due to be put to sleep. He is now in retraining with us.
We have taken in a large number of dogs directly 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 since the pandemic and places an extreme burden on us. 13 year old Stanley had been alone with his dead owner’s body for 5 days before he was discovered and taken to the pound and then taken on by a rescue. He was then placed in foster with them. Stanley was in pain from his teeth and traumatised by his experiences and he did not settle in foster. The volunteers of that rescue asked us to take him and we
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took him on the morning he was due to be put to sleep. He has now had a full dental and is settled in long term foster with a fosterer who adores him. Patch the spaniel was due to be put to sleep by another rescue. He has come on in leaps and bounds with retraining starting from scratch and will soon be ready for rehoming. This of course has substantially increased the number of dogs in our care at our main kennels and in emergency boarding which is putting a tremendous strain on us. 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 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 highlight of the year was the honour of being chosen to receive one of the prestigious 40[th] Anniversary awards from the amazing Jean Sainsburys Animal Welfare Trust in the form of a beautiful thermal 10 kennel block which has allowed us to move 10 dogs from emergency boarding to our main kennels on a rolling basis as each dog is rehomed and thus lessens our financial load. We have always had to repair and maintain our kennels so brand new kennels has been such a wonderful thing to experience and we are so very grateful to this wonderful Trust for the amazing support they give us. Rehoming has been constant with each rehoming a minor miracle as every dog in our kennels would have died if we had not taken them 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. 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 because of the uncertainties of the pandemic. Our other two shops are now open again and doing well. We tragically lost the manageress of our Conisbrough shop who was the heart and soul of the shop and is greatly missed.
Under the expert guidance of our kennels team our dogs are placed into
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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. 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. We were this year nominated for the Petplan & ADCH Animal Charity Award and received an award from SEIB in recognition of our inspiring work. Social media and all administration is carried out by our volunteers who are also front line and we have a thriving facebook - dorisbanhamuk with 28,000 likes which is gathering support and momentum every day. We have a 5-star rating on facebook. 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
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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 started this year and is growing in momentum. We are still being supported with some of our food by Jack Robinson a Sheffield United footballer who approached us during the pandemic and who has agreed to become a patron. We continually promote Easy Fundraising. 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 and a contribution from another 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 Crossbreeds Trike Club have held rallies for us which has been brilliant and the wonderful Lush has held a Charity Pot event for us. We are so very grateful to the dog food manufacturers, dog food banks and food support organisations etc who have donated pallets of dog food to us. With so many dogs from such poor and abusive circumstances in our care a constant supply of nutritious food is one of the vital tools we have to mend and rehabilitate them and such wonderful support in this aspect of their rehabilitation and recuperation is so very appreciated. This has become even more vitally important during the present national animal welfare crisis when the number of emaciated dogs coming into our care is sharply increasing. We are also very grateful to other rescues who donate to us their surplus food because of the work that we do. We owe so much to our thousands of supporters whom we call ‘our army of animal angels’ who together rise to the challenge time and time again to help to fund desperate dogs who need to come into our care to save their lives. Many of these wonderful supporters have little but give whatever they can through their compassion and generosity to save a dog’s life and many drops can make an ocean. Many give us monthly standing orders which allows us to plan our life saving activities. Many supporters have sponsored kennels for a year through our kennel sponsorship scheme which is a Godsend to us and we have had some large donations from amazing animal lovers which have made such a difference and saved many lives during times when the burden upon us has been at its greatest. 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. As always we owe so very much to the wonderful support of the amazing animal welfare trusts and organisations who have awarded us grants and we have been so privileged to received their support. Without these
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amazing organisations Charities would not be able to survive and their generosity and compassion have given us the means to save countless lives for which we are eternally grateful.
We are so very grateful for the wonderful support of the The Pets Foundation with the donated pallets scheme, grants and our warm and rewarding community partnership with Grantham Pets at Home store.
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. 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. Thus, we can never relax 24 hours a day 365 days a year as we never know when the next urgent dog will come in.
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 main 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. At our kennels the dogs thrive and become happy dogs again and are found stable loving
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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 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.
Our main kennels where Doris Banham occupies all the kennels on site operates in 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 this way we are able to give each dog a complete care, recuperation and retraining package at the minimal cost of £3.80 per dog per night.
In fact at this cost we 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 a dog ready in every way for their forever home. If we had to outsource 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. Our volunteers 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 and 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.
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 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
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Section D Achievements and performance
demanding work and we are really proud of our brave and dedicated volunteers who make many personal sacrifices to carry out their life 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 have 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 one 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 sanctuary and attempts to find them the right home are continued from that foster home/sanctuary place.
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.
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Section D Achievements and performance
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 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. Volunteers and supporters are particularly attracted to our strict policy that 100% donations are spent directly on the dogs themselves as we
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Section D Achievements and performance
have no administration costs. Volunteers know they are giving their precious time directly to the dogs and that encourages and motivates them. 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. It is our belief that education of the young is at the roots of improving animal welfare into the future.
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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, grants from animal welfare organisations and sponsorships. The funds have been spent on veterinary fees, kennelling and care, 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. The present national animal welfare crisis which has ensued in the aftermath of the pandemic has overwhelmed us with the demand to rescue abandoned ‘covid pups’ to save them from being put to sleep. This additional massive workload has been placed on us in addition to our normal excessively heavy rescue workload. 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)
==> picture [121 x 23] intentionally omitted <==
Full name(s) Trudie Elizabeth James Position (eg Secretary, Chair, Chair Trustee etc)
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Date 3011012024 TAR 20 Mar¢h 2012
==> picture [141 x 27] intentionally omitted <==
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 01/01/2023 31/12/2023
Section A Receipts and payments
| A1 Receipts | Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 404,425 - 12,751 30,601 - - - - 447,777 - - - 447,777 7,738 294,201 67,238 2,710 7,877 1,592 35,137 - - 416,494 - - - 416,494 31,283 - - 3,933 27,350 |
Restricted funds to the nearest £ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Endowment funds to the nearest £ |
Total funds to the nearest £ 404,425 - 12,751 30,601 - - - - 447,777 - - - 447,777 7,738 294,201 67,238 2,710 7,877 1,592 35,137 - - 416,494 - - - 416,494 31,283 |
Total funds to the nearest £ 404,425 - 12,751 30,601 - - - - 447,777 - - - 447,777 7,738 294,201 67,238 2,710 7,877 1,592 35,137 - - 416,494 - - - 416,494 31,283 |
Last year to the nearest £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voluntary | 404,425 | - - - - - - - - - |
404,425 | 301,980 | ||
| PayPal | - | - | 7,378 | |||
| Kennels | 12,751 | 12,751 | 9,212 | |||
| Other TradingActivities | 30,601 | 30,601 | - | |||
| - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
447,777 | 447,777 | 318,570 | |||
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). |
||||||
| - | - - - |
- | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| Sub total | - | - | - | |||
| Total receipts A3 Payments |
||||||
| - | 447,777 | 318,570 | ||||
| Transport | 7,738 | - - - - - - - - - - |
7,738 | 14,171 | ||
| Kenneling | 294,201 | 294,201 | 208,373 | |||
| Veterinary | 67,238 | 67,238 | 78,536 | |||
| Misc | 2,710 | 2,710 | 1,318 | |||
| CharityShops | 7,877 | 7,877 | 5,815 | |||
| Fundraising | 1,592 | 1,592 | 2,348 | |||
| Bank | 35,137 | 35,137 | 353 | |||
| - | - | - | ||||
| - | - | - | ||||
| **Sub total ** | 416,494 | 416,494 | 310,914 | |||
| 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 |
||||||
| - | 416,494 | 310,914 | ||||
| 31,283 | - | - | 31,283 |
7,656 | ||
| - | - | - - |
- | - | ||
| - 3,933 | - | - 3,933 | - 11,589 | |||
| 27,350 | - | - | 27,350 | - 3,933 |
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
30/10/2024
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 £ 27,350 - - - - - 27,350 - 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 | 30/10/2024 | ||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
30/10/2024
2
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examine¢s Report Report to tho trusteesl members of On accounts for thè ar ended Chlrlty no Ilf any} 31 [)M6E£ a3 la3£72 Sèt out on pages Re$FXCtivo charity's trustges are responsible for the preparab'on of thg accounts in re¥ponslblllties of accordance wth the requirements of the Chariti'ès Act 2011 rthe Acf). truste0$ and examinèr The charitls trustees consider that an audit is not required for Ihls yaar under section 144 of the Act and that an independgnt examination is needed. 11 is my responsibility lo.. examino tha accounts under sgclion 145 of th6 Chariti63 Act. to follow the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission (under seetion 14515llbl of the Ad, and to stale ether particular mattors have come to my attention Basis of Indgpendent My examination was carried out in accordance th general Directions given 8xaminef s statement by the Charty Commission. An examination includes a rgview of the accounting e0rd$ kgpt by the charty and a comparison of the accounts prèsented with those records. 11 also indudes consideration of any unusual items or dis¢losur8s in the accounts, and seeking explar*ations from the trustees conceming any su¢h matters. The procedu$ undertaken do not provide all t evidgnce that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts pro$enl 8 and fair. view and the report is limited to thos$ matters sel out in the statement below. Independent In connection with my examinatton, no material matters have come lo my oxamlnetrs statement attention10th6r than that disclosed below.) whth gives m& Cause to believe that in, any material rgspecl.. accounting records wera not kgpt in accordance wtth section 130 of the Charities Act or the accounts do not accttd with the acwunting records I have no coneerns and have ¢omo across no other matters in conneciion with the examination to which attents'on should be drawn in order to enablè prpper understsnding of the accounts lo be reachod. 188se del8te the words in the brackets if they do not 8ppIy. Signed: Date: IIC) Izo Name: nicc i trk Relevant professlonal qualificationls} or body lif any): IAL tE(24JicES CftAE IV eb-CiilEIJ IER May 2018
Address: Lod£D bal £ Of*KKJa ol) eNFIEL Sectton B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters ol ncern {se6 CC32, Independent examination of charity aeeounls.. direth'ons and guidance for examiners). Give hern brtef details of any items that the examin8rwlshes to disclose. IER May 2018