Burgess Pet Care

Wood Green, The Animal Charity Presents Story time – Guinea pig Adventures

Are you attenting the London Pet Show 2012?

Wood Green, The Animal Charity invite you and your children to come and listen to the adventures of wise Peggy and her nine friends.  The two chapters presented on both Saturday and Sunday at this years London Pet Show will follow the guinea pigs’ first few days at the Charity and the adventures they have during their quest to find a new family to love them.

Wood Green, The Animals Charity is also offering the opportunity for 10 children at each story time to interact with wise Peggy and her friends whilst they listen to the teacher reading the story.

To be in with a chance of taking part in story time visit the Wood Green stand to register, 10 names will be drawn at random 30 minutes before the story.

For further information about the charity and the opportunities available visit www.woodgreen.org.uk or follow them on Facebook www.facebook.com/woodgreentheanimalscharity

Hope Rescue Dog Centre from Caerphilly were awarded Best Dog Rescue

New Life Parrot Rescue were awarded Best Welfare Achievement Award 2012

Caring for Cats from Yorkshire were awarded Best Cat Rescue at the 2012 Burgess Wetnose Animal Awards.

Lumpy Lodge were awarded Best Rabbit Rescue Centre at the 2012 Burgess Wetnose Animal Awards 2012

Basil is a beautiful French Lop rabbit who, according to specialists at a local small animal rescue hospital, survived one of the worst cases of neglect they have ever seen.

Basil was taken to Paws Here Animal Shelter after being treated badly in his previous home. He had been kept outside in a tiny covered hutch that was too small for him to even move properly and caused several problems for Basil. The hutch was just covered enough to keep him warm and survive, but Basil suffered from scalded and raw feet from standing on urine-soaked ground for too long. His lungs were also badly affected from the ammonia in the air, which eventually lead to chronic pneumonia.

Basil, with his Burgess Wetnose Award

When Basil was first rescued, his eyes could not cope with natural sunlight after so long in the dark. He needed extensive veterinary treatment costing over £1500, including three hours in surgery to remove part of his damaged jaw and teeth from years of a poor diet. Basil will continue to need this kind of care for the rest of his life, and is considered a permanent resident of Paws Here Animal Shelter living with foster carers Marie and Andy.

Basil’s health problems could all have been avoided if he had been cared for correctly. Luckily, his story is now a happy one full of hope and love. He is now thriving in his new home and gradually recovering from the bad experiences of his past, touching people’s lives and with Facebook fans around the world.

Robbie, a Staffordshire bull terrier, was found by All Dogs Matter at a London dog pound in February last year. He had been found by a dog warden in North London as a stray and immediately taken to a vet, where he was diagnosed with severe burns and from the pattern left by the burns. By the time All Dogs Matter discovered Robbie, he had seven days left to be claimed. If he was not claimed he could be ‘legally disposed of’, which for many stray dogs means being killed despite being perfectly healthy and ‘homeable’.

Robbie was not reclaimed, so All Dogs Matter removed him from the pound and placed him with a foster carer. Robbie’s transformation upon leaving the pound was instantaneous, on the short car journey from the pound to Jackie, his new foster carer’s house, Robbie was acting like a different dog, wagging his tail and making eye contact.

Jackie is one of the foster carers All Dogs Matter rely on instead of leaving dogs in kennels where they suffer from stress and boredom.  As soon as meeting Jackie, Robbie made himself at home instantly, starting to eat again and playing with toys. He became one of the best behaved dogs on his walks and was flying the flag for Staffordshire bull terriers that have received such bad press.

Robbie was rehomed by All Dogs Matter, but sadly he passed away as a result of his injuries only a few weeks ago.

Mojo from All Dogs Matter took Robbie’s place and received his Burgess Wetnose Rescue Award today.

Stuart Winter with Peter Egan from All Dogs Matter, receiving a kiss from Mojo

Sadly there are many stray dogs like Robbie in dog pounds all over the UK, with recent statistics showing numbers have reached an all time eleven per cent high. Numbers are at crisis point in most areas of the UK, and thousands of dogs aren’t as lucky as Robbie to have been rescued.  Many are put down each year but All Dogs Matter work with two London councils and the local RSPCA to help find homes for the capital’s stray dogs.  They also help members of the public who need to rehome their dogs and have recently seen a sharp increase in calls.

Celebrity animal lovers attended the annual Burgess Wetnose Animal Rescue Awards in Knightsbridge on 9th March 2012, to award, applaud and acknowledge animal rescue centres across the UK.

Hosted by Wendy Turner-Webster for the third year, the awards were held at the Jumeriah Carlton Tower Hotel, Knightsbridge with Dame Judi Dench, Anthea Turner, Sam Fox and Michelle Collins among those who attended.

Founded by not-for-profit organisation Wetnose Animal Aid, the annual Burgess Wetnose Animal Rescue Awards, recognise the valuable and endless work of small, independent rescue centres do in caring for and rehoming abandoned and unwanted animals in the UK and overseas.

Boris, a police horse, was recognised for his outstanding dedication in serving the City of London during the London riots in August 2011 and received the Hero Award. A spokesperson for the police force commented: “Boris is truly an outstanding Police Horse and a real hero, whether leading Her Majesty the Queen’s state processions, meeting and greeting children from deprived backgrounds, patrolling the streets providing reassurance to London’s population or dealing with outbreaks of serious public disorder like the devastating riots of 2011, Boris can be relied upon day in day out to act above and beyond his duty.”

The awards also honour the ‘Best Rescue Centre’ for categories such as small animals (rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas), cats, dogs, horses and wildlife. Headline sponsor Burgess Pet Care, one of the UK’s leading producers of pet food, also gave out awards for the Best Rescue Story and the Best Rescue Pet.

The Celia Cross Greyhound Rescue won Best Greyhound Rescue Centre. Jane Thompson accepts the awards from Annette Crosbie CBE

Andrea Gamby-Boulger, director of Wetnose Animal Aid, said: “In a time of recession, rescue centres are under even more pressure due to an influx of animals and a huge drop in donations. The work these small, independent rescue centres do is vital for many animals, but we must remember these animals are the lucky ones, many thousands are not.

“The Burgess Wetnose Animal Rescue Awards aim to highlight the work of these passionate individuals, who selflessly devote their time to helping animals in need. Recognition of this hard work can mean the difference between them carrying on or giving up.”

John Altman with the team from Hope Dog Rescue in Caerphilly - winners of Best Dog Rescue Centre

Naomi Chatterley, marketing manager at Burgess Pet Care, headline sponsors of the awards, said: “We are delighted to support the annual Burgess Wetnose Animal Rescue Awards once again this year, the awards recognise the valuable and endless work of small independent rescue centres whose work often goes unnoticed so it is fantastic to reward them for their dedication. Burgess is committed to helping and supporting rescue centres through our ‘Forever Promise’. Consisting of a number of initiatives, this promise includes our rescue loyalty scheme which aims to help rescues with food so that they can spend money on other essentials in helping pets find their forever homes.”

Winners at the event included:

- Best dog rescue centre – Hope Rescue Dog Centre from Caerphilly

- Best cat rescue centre – Caring for Cats from Yorkshire

- Best greyhound rescue centre – Celia Cross Greyhound Rescue in Surrey

Best Rabbit Rescue Centre – Lumpy Lodge

- Best horse & donkey rescue centre – Equine Marketwatch Sanctuaries UK from Herefordshire

- Best rescue pet – Basil the french lop rabbit – case study below

- Best rescue story – Robbie the Staffordshire bull terrier– case study below.

- Hero Award- Boris the Police Horse, shown below with Ingrid Tarrant

Hi, my name is Steph, and I’m the latest member of the Burgess Pet Care online marketing team.  I’m a huge animal lover and the proud owner of a 5 year old Siberian husky named Codi.  Siberian huskies’ are renowned for their huge personalities and Codi is no exception. He spends a large amount of time playing (most of the time getting up to mischief) being groomed (Oh! to have the life of a dog!) and begging for dog treats. Puppy dog eyes are surely familiar to anyone who owns a dog!

Making a Dog a new addition the family wasn’t a decision that could be made over night, as there are so many things that we needed to take into consideration first. For example, would we able to give the dog plenty of exercise? Could we figure out a schedule around our working lives so that the dog wouldn’t be left alone for long periods of time? We knew from past experience that a new dog would need time to settle in to our home and we wanted to ensure the experience was completely stress-free.  Fortunately for my family there is someone at home during the day, so we could be confident that our new four legged friend would not be left for prolonged periods of time.

After a lot of planning we decided that we wanted to rescue a Siberian husky, as there are many huskies that are abandoned or given away because people don’t realise how much hard work goes into looking after them. As a family we are very familiar with dogs and felt confident that this breed was right for us.

Huskies like being part of a pack and this is what we love about this particular breed of dog; being part of the pack means being part of the family. Huskies need loads of exercise as they are big dogs but this is fine because all of my family are extremely active and love going on long walks and runs all over Yorkshire. This ensures that we have plenty of time and energy as a family to exercise such a high maintenance dog.

After doing our research into the huskie’s behaviour we discovered that they make ‘scrapes’ which are shallow holes that they dig in the wild to keep themselves warm. We had to prepare ourselves for Codi doing this in our garden, so we expected holes to be dug out all over the place! We also had to take into consideration the cost of owning such a breed; we wanted to get him micro chipped and had to think about the cost of vets bills, food, toys and grooming.

When we rescued Codi he was just over a year old, and he was quite a reserved and quiet dog. We expected it to take quite a while for him settle into our family, but it was surprising that it only took a few days for him to feel comfortable. Before long we had a content and happy companion.

Codi has been with us for four years now and is a real part of the family. We get up to some fantastic adventures and every week I will update you with some of the highlights.

So for this week “Goodbye” from myself and Codi!