lurcherdan Posted December 22, 2007 Report Share Posted December 22, 2007 Well it’s certainly been a very busy 2007 for Sighthound Welfare Trust. We’ve been very busy raising funds and awareness and now is a great time to look back over what we’ve been up to this year: In the first couple of months we saw our Emergency Fund swinging into action to help sighthounds in need in UK, Eire and Spain: Tigre - Kimba (Spain) Tigre, a 5 month old galgo, had been found in a very desperate condition after being involved in a road traffic accident on the outskirts of Cadiz in Spain. People ignored his plight, leaving him to suffer in agony. A volunteer from Kimba Refuge took him straight to a veterinary surgeon who operated on him immediately. The full impact of his injuries became clear. He had a tibial fracture and severe wounds to his hind quarters. SWT was able to send £200 immediately from the emergency fund to assist with the initial veterinary costs. We followed up with an Appeal through our forum, sending a further £600. Miraculously little Tigre healed well and was flown to Germany where Greyhounds in Not would find him a suitably loving home. Rose - Dog Rescue Ireland (Eire) Rose is a young fawn greyhound. She was found sheltering in a shed having been abandoned. Mange had stripped her of most of her fur, leaving her skin itchy, sore and bleeding. She was malnourished and in need of veterinary treatment to combat infection that had taken hold of her. In this condition she was taken in by Bernie of Dog Rescue, Ireland. When SWT heard about Rose, we responded immediately and sent £200 from our emergency fund to help pay the veterinary bills for Rose. Happily she made a full recovery and has been found a loving home in the UK. Toby - Greyhound and Lurcher Welfare Rescue (UK) Toby, a very young lurcher pup, was found abandoned in a field in Somerset. A trustee for GLWR discovered him, emaciated and very poorly and she took him straight to her local veterinary surgeon. He was so dehydrated he was immediately put on a drip. He was taken under the wing of GLWR. SWT stepped in with a payment of £250 from our emergency fund to help ease the burden for GLWR. Toby has made a full recovery and now lives on a farm with his new family. Then there are the grants we’ve made thanks to our successful auctions over the year: Valentine Auction = £750 to Greyhound and Lurcher Welfare and Rescue Summer Auction = £920 to Orchard Greyhound Sanctuary Winter Auction = £810 to Tailends There were certainly some sad stories with sighthounds that really tugged at the heartstrings: Scarlett Scarlett was a 6 week old puppy, the sole survivor in her litter. She was taken into the care of Greyhound Gap where she could be kept warm and comfortable while her problems were investigated. She had a very severe flea infestation causing anaemia. Her belly was so full of worms, it resembled a hernia. Her most dangerous problem, was threatening her life. She could not keep her food down. The diagnosis was either a congenital fault that had caused a tear in her oesophagus or trachea or these problems had been caused by compression. She needed to be seen by a specialist vet immediately if she was to be saved. It was also found that she had two broken ribs and another cracked. The specialist vet diagnosed vascular ring anomaly. She was put on a critical care plan. This meant her feed was closely monitored intravenously and tests were carried out for liver and kidney damage. Once nourishment could get through, Scarlett’s oesophagus began repairing itself, a miracle in itself. After many scary weeks, where Scarlett had to be repeatedly wormed, she is at last starting to grow and behave as a normal puppy. Her growth rate has been severely stinted but it remains to be seen if she will become a full size greyhound. Her veterinary treatment costs were in excess of £2,000. Sighthound Welfare Trust immediately granted £500 towards her bill. Scarlett still has a few problems but she is now putting on weight and happily socialising with other sighthounds in her foster home. Cassie Cassie, a young greyhound was discovered in July 2007, at the edge of a railway track in Castleford, suffering from horrific injuries. It is thought she had lain there for at least 24 hours before being discovered. Veterinarians were unsure if she was able to survive an operation initially but after rest and rehydration they decided to try to save her. Amongst other injuries she had a compound fracture to the front left leg and cuts to the body and had to undergo an operation to have the leg pinned. She also required lots of TLC. Whitehall Dog Rescue was concerned that they might not be able to afford the total cost of treatment, over £1,500. SWT stepped in and granted £250 to help this poor girl. Cassie has made a full recovery. With all the other grants, our total of grant funding this year is £5379.50 We had some great message of thanks for all our work and generosity of supporters: “Thank you for your wonderful donation to help with veterinary treatments. I can not tell you what a difference this will make to us. Please pass our thanks to everyone involved. We are very grateful.†– Angela, Tailends “Your grant will pay for the average veterinary cost of rescue and rehoming of one dog through GRWE. This will include; kennelling and transport, neutering, dental and general health check, microchipping and muzzle and post homing support. Many thanks for your support†– Tony, GRWE “How kind of you to support GALA. £300 makes a big difference to a very small organisation like me . GALA is virtually a ‘one man band’. I take the dogs and organise their well being…Once again thank you very much for £300 which is a lovely boost to our funds and enables me to help other greyhounds needing a safe future.†– Sue, GALA “One behalf of all at Greyhound Gap, thank you to everyone at the Trust for their generosity. The money will go towards our kennelling bills, helping us get dogs out of danger and into safety. The support of people like yourselves goes a very long way to helping Gap continue its work and the generosity of your members is much appreciated.†– Angela, Greyhound Gap Now we look ahead to 2008: We hope that we can rely on all your continued support for 2008 to make it our most successful year yet. There will be a review of the Emergency Fund will take place to ensure that we can respond even more swiftly to help some of the most needy sighthounds and their rescuers. A review of the charity’s Governing Document will also take place to ensure that it continues to be relevant to our work and allows the charity to develop. New avenues for fundraising and raising the profile of the charity will be explored. Changes will take place to the forums to ensure that we are streamlined with the new website that will be launched with much more content, to become a one stop site for all things sighthound! But all our work this year and progress we hope to make next year is/will be only possible due to the generosity of supporters who give their time, money and skills in a whole range of ways. Many thanks to all here on the Refuge who have supported the charity. So SWT would like to say: A very Merry Christmas to all our Supporters & Best Wishes for 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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