Trustees' Annual Report for the period
From
Period start date Day 1[st] Month Year 2024 January
Period end date
Day 31st Month Year 2024 To December
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
| Trustee name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for whole **year ** |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany) |
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| 1 Trudie James | Chair Trustee | ||
| 2 Paul Davis | Trustee | ||
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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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| 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 operates with a superb team of extremely dedicated volunteers who pay their own expenses. 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 This year is our Charity’s 20th Anniversary year but words cannot fully achievements of the charity describe how terrible it has been for our frontline rescue during this worst during the year year of the worst national animal welfare crisis that we have ever experienced.
This crisis at present shows no signs of abating and our life-saving services are more vitally important now than they ever have been before. Despite this we have continued to work frontline saving as many lives and ending pain and suffering for as many dogs as possible.
This year has been even harder than when we were working front-line during the pandemic helping the national services who were struggling with so many rescues having closed their doors. In 2020 we were awarded the Amplifon Awards for Brave Britons - Charity Champion Award.
We truly believe that our greatest achievement during this year has been simply to be operating our life saving Charity successfully. We have never once strayed from our ethos of non-destruct, unconditional rescue of the most needy dogs regardless of age, breed, veterinary condition or retraining needs, however devastating the task has become.
Our Charity was set up in 2004 in dedication to Doris Banham, the founder’s mother, and has throughout our 20 years of existence stayed steadfast to her unconditional ethos. Our only criteria is still always the need of the dog and always will be.
100% of funds are spent on rescuing the dogs and we strive to rescue as many dogs as finances permit. We just see ourselves as a hub through which the funds pass enabling them to be changed into what the dogs need. We are run by a team of volunteers who pay their own expenses, have no administration costs and hold no reserves. We are open to help a dog in need 365 days a year, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
Every life counts to us and it has been horrendous to witness so many lives being needlessly lost this year without ever having the chance to save them, all because there are unbelievable numbers of dogs now in need of rescue and facing being put to sleep. As our rescue is ‘their last chance to live’ we have been inundated with requests to save them.
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. If not addressed it threatens to transform the rescue world into a more rigid and ruthless one, where mass destruction of surplus dogs becomes acceptable and the meaning of true rescue is extinguished forever.
Dogs continue to be taken to be put to sleep or literally abandoned in ever increasing numbers, tied up in fields and woods including young puppies left to wander and even being put to sleep on the day they are born and the situations and people we have to deal with to save the dogs are becoming even more extreme and testing.
The cases of cruelty and emaciation are more and more frequent and it appears that prior to making the final decision to abandon a dog they fail to feed them.
Because the dogs are coming into rescue in increasingly piteous states of emaciation and physical and mental abuse, rehabilitating them ready
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for rehoming takes so much longer and places their retraining and rehabilitation beyond the skillset of many rescue charities. We however have the behavioural and retraining abilities that these dogs need but all that takes time, especially when the first course of action is to get them through their veterinary treatment and/or physical recovery period.
These are just some examples of our intake: the pound asked us to save Holly needing cherry eye ops in both eyes; we saved Bear on the morning of his euthanasia at the pound and then found out he was only 6 months old; Sue had been abandoned at the vets with entropion in both eyes on both top and bottom lids and Noel was found wandering by a member of public and handed into the pound. He was believed to have been used for baiting and had a badly torn face and paw which had not been treated for over a week. Neo escaped from his home and his piteous condition was thus exposed to the community who contacted us to help him. He was very underweight and his skin was ravaged by an untreated flea infestation and he had many deep incisions into his body of unknown origin. This gentle boy cried continually until we could ease his suffering with pain killers and antibiotics. Although it was touch and go because of his deep incisions he has pulled through beautifully, he has regained his weight, his skin is healed and a cancerous tumour was successfully removed from his toe. Holly has had a successful cherry eye operation; Noel’s wounds have been operated on and are healing beautifully. There was half a tooth embedded in his foot. We managed to save the toe which the pound considered was irreparable and the torn flesh on his face has been sewn back into place. Sue’s entropion operation has been carried out successfully. All have been assessed and individual retraining schedules prepared but all seem to be lovely dogs. Bear is starting his puppy training from scratch.
Holly is the only dog who is chipped of the above mentioned dogs and has had several homes, all of whom when contacted showed no interest in helping her. Although micro chipping is now mandatory and will definitely help loved dogs to be identified and returned to their owners, the dogs we rescue from such dire conditions are very rarely chipped. Most have never received any veterinary care in their lives so their owners will definitely not be inclined to spend money on getting them micro-chipped.
Every day we are asked to save a huge number of dogs from death. We are sent their pictures and stories, along with the date and time of their destruction. We then have to evaluate the urgency of each case, which one might get a reprieve or a few more days, which one is going to die first. Often we are dealing with dogs in the pounds into the early hours the day before a destruction day as we cannot waste one of our precious places on a dog who will get a last-minute offer from another rescue and if we step in too early that other rescue space will not materialise so it is a constant painful process of trying to evaluate the odds.
The dogs we rescue are always in desperately urgent situations where if we do not move quickly they will lose their lives and every dog in our care would have died without our help. We have always worked front line and we can sometimes have as little as a couple of hours’ notice by telephone that a dog is due to die (sometimes minutes if a dog is on the table at a vets) and it is vital to us to know that we have a kennel available immediately that we can fund to be a safe haven 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.
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Section D Achievements and performance
However we had until this point in our 20-year history, even throughout the pandemic never failed a dog by saying no. But this terrible year has instigated the heartbreaking task for our rescue, who has never ever chosen a dog, of choosing a dog to save thus deciding who lives and who will definitely die because we could not offer them a rescue space. It is a terrible emotional burden on us when all the dogs presented to us are of equal urgency and we are their very last chance for all of them but we do not have the funds to save them all. The whole process is literally soul destroying. because if you get it wrong and another dog was more urgent than the one you estimated to be the most urgent then you are the last one in the whole chain of humans who let them down and the responsibility for that is overwhelming. Our use of emergency boarding kennels means that we can usually source a safe kennel to save the dog’s life but we have to have the funds available to finance that kennel. However the national financial situation and the chaos in society that exists at the moment means that our overall donations are down and we are constantly faced with multiple dogs of equal urgency when we can for example only afford to finance one kennel. No words can describe the pain of this burden. Our ethos drives us to saving those dogs that society has betrayed the most and now we are being forced to be the ones who deny them their last chance to live because there are so many of them and we do not have the funds to save them all. Even with our policy of 100% of all funds received being spent directly on rescuing the dogs, volunteers paying their own expenses and no administration costs, there are not enough funds to cope with the tsunami of dogs seeking our help. It has been a slow disillusioning realisation and ultimate painful acceptance of something that was previously totally unacceptable to us. The pain of seeing a dog’s pleading eyes and not being able to save them has been an agonising and breaking process which has rocked our Charity to the core. The one thing that we will never accept though is not trying with all our might and all the funds we have available to save that life. With our main kennels full, the only way to save a life has been to take on an emergency boarding kennel. These emergency kennels save lives when the rescue’s main kennels are full but even at charity rates can strain rescues’ finances to the breaking point. However our Charity felt it was their duty to do everything in their power during a national animal welfare crisis. We had desperately hoped to return to a more normal modus operandi but this year has meant that we are not able to do this without letting dog after dog die so we have saved as many as our finances have permitted. The vast majority of ‘throw-outs’ are untrained and unsocialised adding to the reasons why the owners no longer wanted them. Rescues have collapsed through lack of funds and those rescues who would have taken complex dogs have become overwhelmed or increased the rate at which they put to sleep and many have closed their doors. With rescue unable to cope with the onslaught, dog after dog is being taken to the vets to be put to sleep who have desperately sought our help to avoid having to euthanise young healthy dogs. The situation has been particularly difficult for our rescue as we are a rare retraining facility used by the courts and used by the police to release dogs from their kennels they do not want to have euthanise. We are known to save the lives of the larger and more difficult to home cases
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particularly those needing retraining and often beyond the skillset of many rescues and now the UK is filled with this type of dog. The onslaught is relentless and shows no signs of abating at the moment and those rescues that are fighting to survive, and still follow their ethos to save as many dogs as is possible like Doris Banham Dog Rescue, are exhausted and suffering mentally, financially and physically from the battle. We have had to try to deal with this massively increased 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; 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. We always do an exhaustive search for another rescue space before we take any dog into our care but now finding rescue spaces for them is an almost impossible task as the rescue world is full. 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 anyway – 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. Many dogs need thorough and complete retraining before they can be rehomed and also need us to find experienced adopters. The retraining and the rehoming consume long periods of time and therefore slow down our total rehoming process as our kennel spaces are filled with dogs at various stages of retraining and the search for the correct homes for them is a lengthy and difficult task. However at no point do we ever give up on finding a home for our long term dogs. Dogs who have been abused heal and make breakthroughs at various stages and we have had wonderful success stories with dogs whom the vast majority of rescues would have given up on just because they took longer to heal and become whole again. We are proud to say that although reduced by the national situation our rehoming rate has been constant and a testimony to the fact that the dogs we rescue had been failed by society and just needed time and a chance to find the loving home they always deserved. Society itself is very sadly now in even greater general chaos with financial difficulties, evictions, increased domestic abuse, homelessness, food banks, drug addiction and families moving in together etc. A society in upheaval always equates to dangerous situations for its pets and we are overwhelmed with people in desperate situations with their pets telling us we are the only rescue of the 100s they have rung who has listened to them. We have recently helped a desperate man who had been evicted and had barricaded himself into his flat because the accommodation he had been offered did not allow him to take his dog. The police had been called and if no one would help him his only choice was to put his
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beloved dog to sleep. We feel greatly for owners who are losing their pets through no fault of their own and we try our hardest to be there for them if needed. We are very proud that we have always extended our compassionate ethos to people in trouble with their pets but this side of our work is accelerating rapidly and is very time consuming and terribly draining. We hear the same story over and over again that they have contacted umpteen rescues and ours was the only one who actually cared enough to try to help. Recently a family rang who had inherited a dog following a death in the family. The dog was in great distress pacing and itching all over and they had tried everyone for help. They would not have the funds for a vets visit until the end of the month when they were paid. Because we could not leave the dog to suffer, we arranged for the dog to be taken to the vets and his condition treated to prevent his further suffering. The family have repaid the vets fees and say they will never forget what we did for them when no-one else would help. They are now giving the dog a forever home with them. Sometimes just being there for owners at their time of greatest need means that a dog gets to stay in a home they would have otherwise lost. We always try everything to keep the pets with their owners if they love them and care for them properly, giving free training sessions, advising them to get health checks or approaching their landlords for them etc. If we can’t we seek alternative rescue spaces for them and, if a decision has been taken to put the dog to sleep, we try to step in to help if funds allow us. We play a very unique role in only taking in dogs who will die without our help and are now needed more than ever. Because we only take in dogs who are definitely due to die and for whom there are no other rescue offers despite our exhaustive search, we know that we were without doubt ‘the last chance to live’ for every one of our dogs and that every dog in our kennels would be dead if we had not rescued them. Here are a few representative samples of this year’s extremely challenging workload: Our compassionate work with owners We always go above and beyond what would be expected of us as a dog rescue because we feel it our duty not only to get the dog safe but also to try to ease the suffering of the owners. We have taken in dogs owned by people with serious or terminal illnesses 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 also greatly added to the number of requests for help. We update loving owners regularly with videos and photographs to try to ease their pain. Owners such as Chicco’s dad who had rescued him as a young dog and loved him very much. Sadly his family was made homeless and were moved into a hotel which did not take dogs. He had entrusted the care of Chicco to an acquaintance who had reassured him that Chicco was doing fine. One day worried about Chicco he walked to the flat to do a spot
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check and was appalled to find Chicco tied to a table leg, starved and with multiple gashes on his face where the other dogs in the flat had attacked him. He grabbed his dog and rang us in absolute despair as he had nowhere to take him. We told him to take him to the local vets and we had his wounds treated and stapled. We then sent a transporter to pick him up. The man was so grateful and broke down in tears as we drove away.
Our frontline work
We truly work on the front line of rescue and are known for going where others fear to tread. Because we rescue from desperate situations such as from drug gangs, back street breeders, baiters and dog fighters etc we have to deal with the emotional stress of dealing professionally with often abusive and threatening people and hold our ground in the interests of the safety of the dog. It is very emotionally disturbing and frightening to receive violent threats but it is something we have to withstand to keep the dogs safe.
We rescue dogs abandoned in empty houses, gardens and woods etc. We go out at night and enter undesirable areas. However as society becomes rawer and more desperate our work rescuing the dogs is becoming more difficult and dangerous.
We were recently contacted by a man who had been tasked by a gang to ‘dispose’ of a dog. He was reluctant to do this and contacted us but we knew we only had one chance to save this dog’s life and that was to travel over 3 hours on the spur of the moment and trust meeting him in the dark in a wood where he handed us the lead of an unchipped terrified skinny dog. He is a lovely boy who has a brand-new name and life but we had to go above and beyond and take a leap of faith with our safety to make that possible or the dog could have been subjected to an unimaginable death.
Sebastian’s owner had been taken into prison for attempted murder and the dog was abandoned in a hostel where no dogs were allowed and he was being hidden in a room. The hostel manager rang us to say that he could not stay but that he would turn a blind eye to him if we came quickly. We rushed and moved him overnight. He had one chance of a new life and we had to grab that for him.
Our work with communities Communities and neighbours of dogs suffering abuse also constantly ask for our help.
Pepper’s community asked us to help this little starved 14-year-old girl who was being neglected with a terrible flea allergy and scabs all over her body.
Maisie an unneutered young female was being offered on the internet for free and a family contacted us to say they would take the opportunity to get her if we would support them with any training and be there if we were needed to take her into our care.
12-week-old Eva was wandering in the wetlands for over week without anyone picking her up. Finally a lady rescued her and brought her immediately to us. She was emaciated with a stomach full of worms and needed expert nursing and care immediately which we gave her. The
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alternative would have been to put a young emaciated puppy into the pound.
Eva is symptomatic of the more ruthless world that animals are living in at the moment as many people had seen Eva but none had helped her despite her being a puppy.
We were alerted by the community to the plight of 10-year-old King who was kept tied up on an open balcony for the whole of his life in an appalling condition. We changed his name to King because that was how we were going to make sure he lived after everything he had been through.
As we are open to help a dog 24 hours a day 365 days a year, we are often called at night by people who have found the RSPCA emergency line to be closed overnight and we try to help as many of these that are in our power to do so.
Our work with vets
Vets contact us when a dog has been booked in for euthanasia or is actually on their table and they have exhausted all other avenues to prevent the dog being put to sleep.
We were sent a tragic picture of Isabella waiting in the vets to be put to sleep with her emotionless owner. It was suspected that she had been sexually abused. Other rescues were being contacted so we waited but then heard she had been sent to the pound. She was so terrified that the pound had decided to put her to sleep. As she had been sent direct to pound kennels by the owner, destruction can be done immediately, so time was of the essence if we were going to save her. The pound said she was so terrified that if we wanted to take her we would have to come and get her out of the kennel ourselves which we did. Once she knew she was safe Isabella became a different dog and loves playing in a stream whilst on a walk.
We had an urgent text from a vet nurse that Churchill had been brought in for pts. She was so upset that she had slipped off to text us. We spoke with the owners and they agreed to take him home whilst we sought a kennel for him.
Emaciated Gloria had been tied up outside the vets and they contacted us because they needed a rescue with the skill to deal with her emaciation and her retraining needs.
One vets surgery is so grateful to us for sparing them the heartbreak of putting healthy dogs to sleep that they are setting up a GoFundMe page to try to help us to deal with the overwhelming financial consequences of helping their dogs. Their client care manager has also agreed to be one of our referees.
Our work with pounds
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 in the pounds as compared to the situation when our Charity began in 2004. When we first began working with the pounds we had to instigate pound lists at the pounds we managed which we could circulate to rescues before the seven days were up as pound lists
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did not exist at that time. We also successfully ensured that all breeds were put on the lists as in many pounds bullbreeds were considered to be destined for destruction so it was very important to change that ethos. However, as the national animal welfare crisis accelerates and 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 thus 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, too few rescue spaces available to save them and not enough funds available to care for such large numbers. The alternative to keeping on trying to save them is to accept the concept of mass culling which we will never accept but really fear this could happen if somehow true rescue is not sustained and helped to survive. The stories of Percy, Louis, Azzorro, Blue, Aztec etc are all tragically the same – all lovely friendly young bull breeds on death row and dying simply because there are no rescue spaces to save them. We in all cases stayed in the background hoping against hope that another rescue would come forward, keeping updated late into the night before the destruction day and then being forced to offer before the morning because the dog was imminently due to die. Blue was in the most danger as the rescue who offered for him pulled out at the very last minute and our help was desperately sought to save his life which we did. The pounds also seek our help for elderly dogs or those with chronic veterinary conditions such as diabetes. Tara’s (11 years old) and Dillon’s (14 years old) stories are the same admitted to the pound by the social services when their owners were ill and kept there for long periods and then released to the pound when their owners died and none of the owners relatives would help them. Tara had been in the pound for 2 ½ years before her owner died. They were too old for the pound to home and so were due to be put to sleep. We will never forget the ecstatic smile on Tara’s face as she ran around the paddock when she arrived at our kennels after having been in the pound for such a long time. Dillon’s legs were so stiff when he arrived but with tlc, a lot of warmth and some very good supplements he too is loving his walks again. Both dogs are now in long term foster homes who love them very much. The rescue of Cassie was a very complicated one. She was abandoned terrified tied up in a bus shelter. The police took her to the pound which was a local very well-known rescue who kennel the pound dogs. The dog warden then asked for our desperate help as Cassie was due to be put to sleep in the pound. We met great resistance from the rescue/pound because of their dislike of bullbreeds but with the help of the dog warden they had little choice but to let us pick Cassie up and save her life. Pounds are now constantly crying out for our help for dogs due for euthanasia who have received no other rescue offers and we are dedicated to helping them as we feel it is so very sad that dogs after a lifetime of loyalty find themselves unwanted in the pound and we try to
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rebuild the lives of as many as we can. Our work now with dogs in homes The onslaught of dogs straight from homes, the financial situation and the chaos in society that has ensued, has spiralled out of control. Both Paddy and Ted were lockdown babies who had been showered with attention until a new baby came along and began to toddle and both were then due for pts. The work with both these families was extremely time consuming as we had to delicately convince them that Ted and Paddy deserved the chance of a new life away from them rather than they needing the very selfish closure of putting the dogs to sleep, Ace was brought to our kennels by a distraught lady with autism and her neighbours. She had recently purchased him online and was totally unfit to deal with him and was hysterical. 12-year-old Gigi belonged to an elderly lady who told us that she was getting angry with the dog because she was always under her feet and did not want to continue to pay for her apoquel tablets. Toby’s young female owner was fleeing from a situation in her life which she would not divulge to us but said that if we did not take him immediately she was going to abandon him somewhere tied to a tree. We could not let him go through that trauma and rushed to pick him up. Our intake from other rescues Because we are one of the few rescues offering retraining, rehabilitation, socialisation and recuperation which are trusted by the police and the courts, 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 cannot meet vets bills or do not have their own retraining facilities and whose dogs are imminently due to be put to sleep. The number of requests from other rescues has increased significantly. We were asked to help with Romeo who was a bulldog being kept in a coal shed in Wales The policeman actually took him back to his house to wash off the coal dust. His eyes and skin were deeply affected by how he had lived and he was starving and had a broken tail. Rescue needed to be immediate and he arrived at our kennels in the early hours of the morning. We were also asked to help Ziggy a 6-month-old Husky puppy who was being beaten and kept in a shed with only grass to eat. The neighbour raised the alarm and we took Ziggy into our care. Ours has always been a vital unique operation that would be impossible to replicate and we are constantly seeking to help it weather the storm of the current emergency situation and to ensure its much needed long-term future with support and stable funding to continue the vital service it provides. We fear for the survival of a rescue with our ethos in the present climate and so many beautiful dogs would needlessly lose their lives into the future if we were not in operation. The dogs we have in our care did not receive any other rescue offers even though they were imminently due to die and we were their only chance of safe haven in their hour of greatest need. These dogs are in various stages of retraining so their survival totally depends on our survival. They need us to complete their training and rehabilitation to be able to find the loving homes they all deserve. We fight every day with all our might to continue our life saving work. Because we are all front-line volunteers with a massive workload, we have no dedicated PR or fund-raising people who can take over the burden of fund-raising. We have to balance it all at the same time and it
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is a constant battle. The ongoing difficult financial situation makes many people more reluctant to give charitable donations or commit to standing orders. This has made the task of raising funds substantially harder and our income has reduced this year. Our volunteers have to cope with a great deal of emotional and physical strain It really has been a very hard year on so many levels. Despite all this we are really proud of the massive frontline work we have achieved and the lives we have saved against all the odds. We recently help I have taken a call from a vet with a 5-year-old dog actually on the table for euthanasia The vet gave the woman my number and her first words were (when I said we would help) ‘I didn’t know rescues like you existed any more’. The woman has sent me a text saying they will be lifelong supporters of our charity and that we have no idea what a miracle this has been. Their dog is one of the lucky ones. Inspired by the Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust 40th Anniversary 10 kennel block, we have recently been donated the building of a second identical block by a long-term supporter who had left us a legacy in their will. However they decided to help us whilst they were alive rather than wait until they had died so that they could see their legacy in action. We are constantly following up any avenues which would produce more income for the charity in our desire to carry on our life-saving work. Our supporters have been totally amazing during this crisis which has motivated us and inspired us and they have responded as brilliantly as they are now able to our appeals with what they have available to donate but the vast majority of our supporters are normal average animal lovers who are progressively being able to afford less and less as the consequences of the financial situation impinges on their finances. We call them our ‘army of animal angels’ and they are very aware of the role that their donations play. Through Facebook we try to raise a pot for a particular dog to pay their emergency boarding fees and also to cover their veterinary needs. We cannot take a dog into emergency boarding without doing this as we simply cannot take on the cost of another life saving emergency boarding kennel without doing this. This has been very successful. Our supporters have commented how wonderful they feel that they have been part of that rescue. Our lottery, although in its infancy, is increasing in support all the time. We are constantly following up any avenues which would produce more income. We have been promised a sponsorship by a renewable energy company which will be wonderful and we are waiting to sign this up. We also get many excellent food donations from dog food companies and dog food manufacturers organised by amazing volunteers and supporters. Food donations have been a life saver, with tremendous support from the Pets Foundation and food manufacturers such as Tails, allowing us to pick up pallets of food at a time. Several other rescue charities send us their surplus food because of the role we play. We are paired and have a wonderful relationship with the Pets at Home store in Grantham who give us much appreciated support. We continually promote Easy Fundraising. Some events are being dedicated to us such as another trike rally, dog walk, medium night, pub event etc. We are working on extending our Friends of Doris Banham membership package, held auctions, raffles, sales and continuous appeals on facebook and local media. Our two small charity shops are doing well and operate not only as charity shops but also community hubs providing the public with help and
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Section D Achievements and performance
information on animal welfare. We tragically lost the manageress of our Connisbrough shop who was the heart and soul of the shop and is greatly missed. Her team is dedicated to keeping the shop flourishing in her memory and the proceeds from her funeral have allowed us to sponsor a kennel at Cottam in her name. Our thriving facebook page dorisbanhamuk has 28,000 likes and 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 and witness how they are transformed into lovely homeable dogs. Many supporters have dedicated their weddings and birthdays to us and we receive 80% of the proceeds of one holiday chalet and 50% of another from the owners. We also have jewellery makers and crafters making goods free of charge. During these very difficult times supporters seem to find motivation in being part of something which is pure and good. It makes them hopeful that it is possible to change things if we all work together. Seeing a dog that no-one else would help have their life saved and flourishing and finding a lovely home is enriching and they want to be part of it. We are forever grateful to them. The multiple trials of the worst year of our Charity’s existence continues to keep us in emergency mode. Our dedicated main and long-term kennels at Cottam are manned by an amazing team of animal lovers. The extraordinarily low cost of £3.80 per dog per night includes a complete care, retraining and rehoming package. This rate has been maintained for over 10 years because the team at the kennels already meet many of the bills themselves such as the heating and all maintenance etc. Their loyalty and love of our Charity’s dogs has driven this level of support. Doris Banham Dog Rescue occupies every kennel at Cottam and we have been operating out of these kennels for over 10 years now. They are our registered office and act as a centre for our Charity. The team 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. The vastly reduced daily cost per night per dog at our kennels 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 forever homes. Many of the walkers have commented that the dogs pull back to kennels when on the way back from their walks and it is lovely to think that the dogs consider our kennels their 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
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Section D Achievements and performance
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. 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. When dogs first come into our care they are usually understandably very stressed so we always give them a 28 day chilling out period. During this very important time we allow them to just be themselves and observe them whilst they walk, play and interact with us. We do not ask anything from them or put any pressure on them as they learn to relax and trust their new environment. We feel very strongly about the stringent assessments that dogs are subjected to in the pounds when they have just arrived and are understandably frightened and traumatised. Many nice dogs lose their lives unnecessarily in the pounds because they are too rigidly assessed immediately before their fear has been calmed and they have become acclimatised to their surroundings. In fact our kennel team and kennel volunteers 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. Fantastic results are achieved with positive reward based training methods and turning dogs around and giving them a fresh new start in life. Depending on what various stage of retraining a dog is at we usually rotate dogs between main kennels and emergency boarding kennels for our volunteers there to carry on with the positive enforcement training. We never rush the dogs’ rehabilitation process because dogs recover at different rates and never give up on finding them the home they truly deserve. Our loyal team of rotered loyal volunteers walk and interact with the dogs giving the dogs extra exercise, lead training and human interaction. The kennels provide 24 hr care for a poorly or traumatised dog. Designated members of the team are also happy to be on call 24 hour a day 365 days to a year to go out and pick up or admit a dog in need. We are proud that rehoming has been constant but it is nationally reduced by the financial situation in the UK with people unable to take on a pet because they cannot make ends meet any more and also the time the abandoned dogs have had to remain in our care because of their extensive retraining needs and the difficulty in finding them the experienced homes they need. 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 and we have written articles for Animalwatch, the magazine produced by the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals who support us. The poem about backstreet breeders called ‘Remember Me’ written by Trudie James was shared on facebook internationally on and received massive coverage and was set to music by a supporter. 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
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of those days who would definitely have died without our help.
Nobody’s Dog written by the founder was circulated to MPs to advocate micro-chipping and was also used by John Hobhouse in his own pro micro-chipping campaign.
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.
.
The ultimate goal of everything we do is to either reunite dogs with their owners if they have been lost or stolen and have found themselves in the pound system or under the expert guidance of our kennels team place the dogs 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. As our intake is unconditional it is impossible when we take a dog into our care 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 but during their time with us, however long, we make sure they have the best time we can give them surrounded by love and care and whatever they need to find the home they so deserve. The whole process is a huge and overwhelming challenge but one that we are dedicated to meet.
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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 The Charity’s principal sources of funds are donations, fund-raising, additional information, where grants from animal welfare organisations and sponsorships. The funds relevant about: have been spent on veterinary fees, kennelling and care, emergency • the charity’s principal kennelling and transport which support the Charity’s key objectives of saving lives and alleviating suffering. sources of funds (including any fundraising); • 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 ~~a~~ 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, Chair Trustee etc)
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Date 28th October 2025 TAR 19 March 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 01/01/2024 31/12/2024 ~~fF |~~
Section A Receipts and payments
| Unrestricted funds |
Restricted funds |
Restricted | Endowment funds |
Endowment funds |
Total funds | Last year | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| to the nearest £ |
to the nearest | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | to the nearest £ | ||||
| A1 Receipts | ||||||||||||
| Donations and legacies | 367,703 | - | - | - | - | 367,703 | 404,425 | |||||
| Kennels | - | - | - | - | - | - | 12,751 | |||||
| Other TradingActivities | 21,945 | - | - | - | - | 21,945 | 30,601 | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | |||||
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Sub total(Gross income for AR) |
389,648 | - | - | 389,648 | 447,777 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table). - - - - - - - - - Sub total - - - - - Total receipts 389,648 - - 389,648 447,777 ~~——————~~ |
|||||||||
| A3 Payments | |||||||||
| Transport | 7,023 | - | - | 7,023 | 7,738 | ||||
| Kenneling | 303,484 | - | - | 303,484 | 294,201 | ||||
| Veterinary | 58,744 | - | - | 58,744 | 67,238 | ||||
| Misc | 711 | - | - | 711 | 2,710 | ||||
| CharityShops | 8,444 | - | - | 8,444 | 7,877 | ||||
| Fundraising | 175 | - | - | 175 | 1,592 | ||||
| Bank | 430 | - | - | 430 | 35,137 | ||||
| New Kennel Build | 29,385 | - | - | 29,385 | - | ||||
| - | - | - | - | - |
Sub total [ 408,396 ] - - 408,396 416,494 A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table) - - - - - - - - Sub total [ - ] - - - - ~~—~~ Total payments ~~————~~ 408,396 - - 408,396 416,494 Net of receipts/(payments) - 18,748 - - - 18,748 31,283 A5 Transfers between funds - - - - - A6 Cash funds last year end - 3,933 - - - 3,933 - 3,933 Cash funds this year end ~~SS~~ - 22,681 - ~~S45]~~ - - 22,681 27,350
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
28/10/2025
1
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Unrestricted Restricted |
Endowment | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Categories | Details | funds funds |
funds | |||
| to nearest £ to nearest £ |
to nearest £ | |||||
| B1 Cash funds | - 22,681 - - - - - - - - - 22,681 - - Total cash funds ~~—====~~ |
|||||
| (agree balances with receipts and payments | (agree balances with receipts and payments | |||||
| account(s)) | OK OK |
OK | ||||
| Unrestricted Restricted |
Endowment | |||||
| funds funds |
funds | |||||
| Details | to nearest £ to nearest £ |
to nearest £ | ||||
| B2 Other monetary assets | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ~~—==—~~ |
|||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) |
Current value (optional) |
||||
| B3 Investment assets | - - - - - - - - - - ~~1~~ |
|||||
| Details | Fund to which asset belongs Cost (optional) |
Current value (optional) |
||||
| B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use |
Restricted Income - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - New Kennels ~~iss~~ |
|||||
| Fund to which Amount due |
When due | |||||
| Details | liability relates (optional) |
(optional) | ||||
| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B5 Liabilities CCXX R2 accounts (SS) |
- - - - - Date of approval 28/10/2025 Print Name TrudieEJames Signature 2 28/10/2025 ~~——~~ |
CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A ;'%£'.7è,IX't', Independent Examinerfs Report Report to the trusteesl members of On accounts for the year ended Charity no (if any) 1(03S72 Set out on pages L LztrLcI 2 Respective The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in responsibllities of accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ("the Act"). trustees and examiner The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Act and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility to: examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act, to follow the applicable Direcb'ons given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5){b) of the Act, and to state whether particular matters have come to my attention Basis of independent My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given examinerfs statement by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair, view and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below. Independent In connection with my examination, no material matters have come to my examlnerfs statement attention (other than that disclosed below.) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. ease delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Slgned: Date: 102 Name: Relevant professlonal qualification{s) or body (if any): Cpfog rnprNFlf IER May 2018
Address: Lfftfxl PIE 7Le Section B . Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examinerwishes to disclose. IER May 2018