Petplan Charitable Trust supports NAWT’s quest for Foster Volunteers

This month at the National Animal Welfare Trust, we are on a mission to recruit new volunteers who are willing to open their homes to homeless pets in need. So, we were thrilled when Petplan Charitable Trust got in touch recently to tell us they would like to support our efforts with a £3,000 grant. This will help us recruit and train new foster volunteers, as well as provide them with necessary equipment.

Fostering a dog, cat, rabbit or guinea pig is a wonderful way to help multiple animals who are down on their luck. For example, when you foster a dog for NAWT, not only do you offer a wonderful home environment for that dog, but you also create a new space in the rescue centre for the next homeless dog who needs our help.

Without the help of foster carers, the number of unwanted pets we can help is limited to the space we have available across our five rescue centres. However, with the support of foster volunteers, the number of homeless animals we support can be limitless.

 In some instances, foster carers save lives. This was the case for Riley.

Riley was originally rehomed by NAWT but sadly, many years later, his owner became poorly and had to return Riley. By that point Riley was in his senior years and being a very large dog on top of that, he was the kind of dog who typically has a longer wait in rescue before finding a new home.

During his first night in kennels, Riley became so distressed that he broke one of his teeth on the kennel, which led to emergency dental treatment that required the vet to break his jaw. This created significant welfare concerns for us as it highlighted Riley’s inability to cope in a kennel environment and we knew returning him to such an environment was likely to lead to him harming himself further.

The only hope Riley had of securing a safe future was if we could find him a foster home. Thankfully, a wonderful foster volunteer stepped forward and took Riley into his care for 7 months until Riley finally found a forever home. In the space Riley left behind, our foster volunteer is now caring for another dog who found themselves down on their luck.

That’s the incredible difference you can make to the lives of more homeless dogs, cats, rabbits or guinea pigs, just like Riley, if you choose to foster an animal for NAWT.

We are so grateful to the Petplan Charitable Trust for supporting us in our mission to be able to help more homeless pets in need.