SHAK: If we fail to survive it will be the dogs that will suffer

Both of our shops are closed, depriving us of the daily income which we need to survive and, after a Christmas where sales were affected in the build up by the November’s lockdown, our takings were below what we had anticipated before the Government put the country at a standstill.

Your incredible support helped massively during the second lockdown, whilst the amazing amount of money donated during the first one saved us and has gotten us this far. We genuinely would not be here today if you all hadn’t gotten behind us the way you have. But what do we do now?

Behind the scenes the trustees are working frantically looking at the latest news of grants and schemes offered by the Government and other funding organisations; remember as an animal charity we get no normal funding from the council or the Government for the work we do; every penny we receive is self-generated: there are no pots of gold we can turn to.

The finance team is relooking at our monthly cash flow forecasts, to see just how we stand and for how long we can go on. With over 60,000 new Covid-19 infections per day we are having to restrict volunteer access to try and reduce the risk of infection and the virus entering our kennels. I cannot put into words the devastation that would cause.

Our dogs are still just happy to see us and looking at them makes me sad, it brings home the fact innocent lives are at stake of both human and canine kind. I know animal charities across the world are suffering, some haven’t been able to make it as far as we have.

I feel this lockdown puts everything at risk. So, today we find ourselves up against it with no funds coming in.

I am not asking you for money again, I just wanted to share with you all the position we find ourselves in.

As I said the team whic h help me run the charity are looking at ways we can get through this and we will do everything we can to survive.

People may lose their jobs, the charity may cease to exist, but it is the dogs who will suffer the most if we fail.