Emma’s home from home for dogs is a real winner
EIT’S time to meet our next winner of the Mirror People’s Pet Awards with Webbox. Our team went through thousands of nominations to produce a shortlist for the judging panel, who chose which incredible animals and animal lovers should receive a trophy.
We’ve been revealing them every week on this page, and today it’s animal hero Emma Billington. mma’s sanctuaries for dogs are not your average rescue centres. Complete with kitchen areas and lounges as well as secure gardens for dogs to play in, Emma makes sure the telly is even on in some of the rooms.
“We’ve very intentionally set things up to mimic an ordinary home environment, as far as we can,” says Emma, who launched her revolutionary Dogs 4 Rescue facility in Worsley, Greater Manchester, in 2013.
“While a typical rescue will house dogs in kennels, we don’t do that. We’re completely kennel-free, and it feels like a home. I love it. There are sofas for the dogs to lie on, there are TVS on in some rooms. The dogs have the most enormous playground outside with tunnels and sandpits too.
“The intention is that they don’t feel like they’re in a rescue because we want them to find homes in the future – and we want them to settle in quickly when they get there.”
Last year, Emma and her team, who believe they’ve helped rehome 2,000 dogs since 2013, opened a second site, Rescue World, a sanctuary and rehabilitation retreat for dogs no one wants.
“It was an ambition for a long time to open a second site where we can focus on the animals who need that extra bit of care,” says Emma. “The dogs have a range of challenges with health from incontinence to problems with their mobility.
“Having a dedicated space for them means it really doesn’t matter to us how long it takes them to get a home, or if they ever get one. We’ll continue to work with them and care for them as long as it takes.”
Emma’s inspiration to launch her kennel-free rescue came after she visited a centre in Turkey during a holiday in the early 2000s.
“It was incredible to see all these dogs living together in a wood,” says Emma. “They didn’t know they were rescue dogs, they were just living. I’d helped out at rescues at home before, but this was a totally different world. When I got back, I knew I wanted to set up something similar.”
She quickly got to work, starting out with a dog walking company in 2005.
By 2007, she’d raised enough cash to start an animal daycare centre and in 2013 had enough funds to open her kennel-free rescue.
“It took a long time, but the work is so important I’m glad I persevered,” says Emma.
“We’ve also kept on the daycare side of things at the original site to support the rescue aspect – and incredibly some of the dogs we’ve helped to rehome now come to us in the daycare facility.
“It’s amazing to see them come back through the doors in daycare, knowing they’ve come so far and found loving homes.”
As well as caring for unwanted animals from the UK, Emma and her team bring dogs in need to England from overseas.
Emma, who hopes the Dogs 4 Rescue model will inspire others to adopt a kennel-free environment, adds: “We’re in our 10th year now, and I’m so happy with how far we’ve come. Our dogs from overseas are important to our set-up, they help us rehabilitate dogs from the UK, as they help teach them how to be more social.
“I think we’ve made a real case for how well kennel-free environments work for rescue dogs, and I’d love more people to follow suit.
“I’m over the moon to have won an Animal Hero award with the Mirror People’s Pet
Awards and hope it shines a light on the important work we do.”
WINNER