War Paws

From War Paws’ Facebook:

War Paws is asking for donations.

  *𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄* 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 £𝟏𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐢𝐟 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 £𝟏𝟓𝟎𝟎.  𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐮𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 £𝟏𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐚𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 £𝟑𝟎𝟎𝟎!!  𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐮𝐬!

Even though we have water pools in the driveway we still need to fill plastic bowls every single day so that all of the dogs can access the water including small puppies and dogs that are not part of any established pack yet so find it difficult to access the pools.

We are really struggling now, our monthly water bill is now in excess of $1500 and is only going to rise as it gets hotter and the water doesn't last as long...in just a week we have had 33 deliveries of water because we have no access to a well so we rely on trucks to bring water in.

The money worries never go away and we are at a critical time now....last week we ran out of dry dog food and we are now having to feed the dogs on just rice and pulses with a bit of chicken.  We cannot afford to buy dog food in country.  The dogs are not starving but those dogs who were on just a kibble diet for varying reasons now have to go to the rice diet and we just have to hope they manage on it.  We have access to dry food in the UK but we don't have money to ship it, we are doing a small shipment this week but then it is likely we will not be able to send anything else from the UK because we need to cut the budget and the shipping budget is the only place we have left to cut funds from.   We feel like monsters because whilst the dogs didn't get a lot of kibble in their diet they at least got come and now they get none.

We are in a hole that we did not dig........we never asked to be taking care of so many dogs, truth be known we never asked to be running the shelter but the irresponsible individual that started the shelter all those years ago abandoned it during covid so we had no choice but to step up and take it on.  We never asked for people to dump dogs in our driveway but we also cannot ignore those dogs and focus only on the dogs inside, we are not monsters.

We have tried everything we can to broaden our reach and donor base but month after month the same donors are digging deep to help us but we get very few completely new donors and very few shares of our social media to try and broaden our reach.  Something has got to give...we cannot continue this way, we have begged for match funding opportunities but haven't had one for over a year, we apply for grant funding every single day but so do thousands of other rescues across the world, some UK grant funders that we have applied to have told us they will only help UK based, born and bred dogs so it is clear that dogs from places other than the UK are not considered to be as deserving.  

We have a very small staff of just Louise in the UK, 1 full time vet, 1 part time vet, 8 kennel staff, a general worker and a country manager in Iraq, that small team is working 24/7 to ensure that over 700 dogs and 7 donkeys are cared for and the wage bill for our team is pitiful.  In the last 2 months we have lost our clinic assistant and operations assistant at the shelter because we could not afford to increase their meagre salaries which were way below what they should have been and they needed more money to live and support their families with.  We are feeling the loss of them massively, if you have wondered why we are not posting as many pics and videos the last few weeks it is because we have lost 2 members of staff that were integral in helping us gather the images we need for social media and we cannot pile any more onto our remaining staff.

We need a minimum of $15,000 (approx £12,000) to run the shelter each month, we need a minimum of $6000 (approx £5000) to run operations in the UK and we are not coming close to meeting those commitments.    We are deeply worried that the day is rapidly approaching when we will no longer be able to provide for the outside/driveway dogs and we will have no choice but to just hope they can fend for themselves from what little waste food and water is available on the surrounding land and we will have no choice but to euthanise any dogs that get sick.

We hate having to admit we are in such dire straits, every other time we have struggled you guys have rallied and dug us out of the hole but we need to get to a stage where we are not in this hole any more and can actually get enough people donating a few $ or £ a month so that we actually meet an amount of $25,000 (approx £20,000) a month in donations so we can not only manage the normal running costs but also handle the extra things that have a habit of biting us on the ass (the generator breakdowns, the burst water tanks, the electrical fires etc)

Please help us to help them.  If you haven't signed up to a monthly donation of £2 please do it today and please encourage friends and family to do it as well.  If you are unable to donate then please at least share our posts and ask others to donate when you share.  If we are going to survive then we need more people donating just a few $ or £ a month.

We need to raise £20,000 to make it through to the end of July, will you help us?

^ They help 700 dogs and 7 donkeys in the UK, in Iraq and from Ukraine. I have donated to them many times and hope others Donate and/or Share this.

Here is the link to their Website:

https://warpaws.org/donate/

^