Could you make them waggy ever after?
They’re the rescue mutts facing their own Covid crisis as charity cash dries up. So...
STARING out with their soulful eyes, all they are longing for is a loving owner. Some are the latest canine victims of the Covid crisis, which has seen scores of dogs abandoned after people bought them to be companions, then discovered they could not look after them properly.
Others were rescued from a miserable existence in puppy breeding farms. All have been taken in by Many Tears rescue centre near Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, in the past two months, and are desperately seeking new homes.
The charity, co-founded by Sylvia Van Atta, 62, is facing financial disaster and does not know how long it can afford to keep on looking after the dogs.
She says the rescue centre has been ‘limping through day by day trying to keep open’ for months already and is now reaching crisis point.
‘All these dogs deserve a good home because they’ve already been through hell,’ she adds.
‘But at the same time we’re running out of cash — and dogs will certainly die if we can’t help them.
‘Once they’re with us, they’re safe — but we only have the money for five or six months’ running costs.
‘We’re already tapping into savings. All our fund-raising events have been cancelled because of Covid.
‘ It’s desperate. I’ve even stayed up at nights writing a book about our struggle — Red, White And True — to try to raise money.’
She said the charity’s policy is that they ‘never put the dogs to sleep’ but she is extremely worried how long they will be able to afford to keep the rescue centre running.
As well as donations, the centre is funded by income from Mrs Van Atta’s husband Bill’s boarding kennels, but thousands of pounds were lost because of cancelled bookings during lockdown.
If you want to give one of these adorable dogs a ‘forever home’, visit manytearsrescue.org to make an online application.