Oak Tree Animals’ Charity, Wetheral, has been awarded the accolade of NW Best Animal Charity 2018, for the second year in the 2018 NW Enterprise Awards hosted by SME News. Oak Tree was recognised for its innovative and proactive approach to animal welfare not only rehoming dogs, cats and horses who need to find loving forever homes, but also for it’s extensive community programme in the Border region.
Oak Tree’s community work recognises the amazing benefit that pet ownership brings to both owner and animal and aims, where possible and appropriate, to keep pets and owners together in lifelong relationships, preventing unnecessary suffering or animal welfare concerns.
This includes working alongside partners such as Carlisle Foodbank, NHS service providers, Social Services, Carlisle City Council and the Op Shops to ensure pets get adequate nutrition and veterinary care and also help in a range of animal welfare issues including animal hoarding and feral cat colonies to ensure animals receive the right care. So far this year, the Charity has helped over 1300 animals.
Caroline Johnson, General Manager at Oak Tree said: “We are completely delighted to have received this award in the NW Enterprise Awards in recognition of our work and approach. As a Charity we are committed to do our best with our limited resources to support animals and their owners in our region. We are proud to have a proactive approach to animal welfare issues, not just rehoming when things go wrong, but working hard to prevent the need for animal relinquishment and unnecessary suffering and stress to the animal or their owner.
“We would like to thank all our supporters, partner organisations and volunteers who so generously give their expertise, time and money to enable us to make such a difference to animals in our region. Thank you so much.
“The journey doesn’t stop here, we need to continue responding to the need we see throughout our community. 40% of our intake calls are related to behaviour and training issues and in January 2019, Oak Tree has partnered with Richard Rose Morton Academy to offer training classes to support those who are struggling with their relationship with their dog.
“We are also currently recruiting fosterers to enable us to start a fostering service to provide support to individuals who are homeless or those fleeing domestic violence, but are currently not able to do so due to their pet ownership. Next year our Charity is 110 years old and as a proactive animal charity we are committed to building on the strong foundations created by Francis Cox, Alfred Brisco and Frank Tebbutt and continue to improve the welfare of animals and their owners in our community for the next 110 years.”
For more information about how you about the work of Oak Tree Animals’ Charity and how you can help, please visit www.oaktreeanimals.org.uk, contact the team on 01228 560082 or visit the Charity’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages.
