A North East animal rescue centre is set to build a puppy creche as part of investment plans.
The Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter opened a new cat maternity suite and kitten crèche last year at its Benton North Farm shelter, one of its two bases which was originally established in 1896.
Now the firm is set to create an equivalent facility for puppies this year, as well as a new ‘quiet kennel’ where older and more nervous dogs can live while the charity works to re-home them.
It is also putting new resources in place to support and advise customers who adopt animals from the shelter and get used to having them at home.
The plans have been drawn up after the organisation took advice from RMT Accountants to help support its planned investment in new facilities.
Judith Longmore, head of charities at Gosforth-based RMT, is now working with the shelter’s management team on developing and implementing its growth plans.
The Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter helps thousands of lost, unwanted, neglected, abused and abandoned animals every year and covers the whole of the North East from its Benton, North Tyneside, and Claremont Road facilities in Newcastle.
It aims to reunite lost animals with their owners and find loving new homes for those which, for whatever reason, are no longer wanted, and needs to raise around £1.5m every year to cover running costs.
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The shelter also looks after rabbits and other small animals, and has a number of other larger animals, including horses, ponies, donkeys, pigs and sheep, living in retirement at Benton North Farm, where there is also a coffee shop.
All of the animals it rehomes are neutered, vaccinated and microchipped and come with four weeks’ free pet insurance and a free veterinary health check.
The Shelter hosted a TV broadcast with Channel Four’s Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick two years ago which led to a substantial increase in re-homing rates. It has remained busy ever since.
Leyla Rutter, chief executive at Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter, said: “We had almost 200 kittens either born here or brought in to us in 2019 and the new facilities that we’ve developed so far are essential in ensuring we can look after all the animals that need our help.
“Being able to enhance the support we can provide to families that take animals from us is central in helping to ensure that as many of our adoptions as possible are successful, but there’s naturally a cost attached for us in making this additional resource available.
“We’ve taken steps over the last couple of years to enhance the ways in which we manage our finances and raise the money we need to meet our day-to-day costs, including opening a coffee shop at the Benton site which is proving very popular.
“Bringing in a local firm with RMT’s financial and business expertise is the next stage of this process, and their advice and guidance will underpin the improvements and progress that we want to make in 2020 and beyond.”
Ms Longmore added: “The staff at the Newcastle Dog and Cat Shelter do an amazing job in looking after and rehoming hundreds of animals in need and it’s fantastic to be working with an organisation that delivers such positive results to both its human and animal clients every day.”