Cats
- Petplan Lends A Hand At Our New Mitcham Homing Centre
In July employees from our partner Petplan and the wider Allianz community kindly spent the day helping prepare our new Mitcham Homing Centre for its grand opening. This was an opportunity for staff from their different offices to meet and work...
- Behind The Scenes At Our Mitcham Homing Centre Opening Event
On Saturday 25 July our Mitcham Homing Centre opened its doors to the public. London is home to an estimated 1.5million cats and the Mitcham Homing Centre is our first step in targeting urban areas identified as being of high need. The new centre is...
- Petplan & Adch Animal Charity Awards – An Invaluable Event
On 22 April Petplan and the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH) joined forces for the third year to host their Animal Charity Awards. The event celebrates outstanding animal charities and not-for-profit organisations across the UK who go that extra...
- National Cat Adoption Centre Helps Dumped Kittens
Staff at Cats Protection’s National Cat Adoption Centre are caring for three kittens left for dead nearby. The five-month-old cats were discovered by walkers on Sunday 29 October. They’d been dumped in a filthy holdall among bracken near...
- Life As A Volunteer At Derby Adoption Centre And Why I Do It
Gail Newport explains why she volunteers at our Derby Adoption Centre... I have helped on a Saturday for about two years now, following in the footsteps of my Mum and have always been made to feel part of the team. I see the Cats Protection...
Cats
A new concept – Gildersome Homing Centre
On 12 November 2014, Peter Hepburn, CEO of Cats Protection, hosted an Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH) meeting and gave a talk about our Homing Centre at Gildersome, Leeds.
The ADCH has a membership of all of the large and many smaller rescue charities. The ADCH aims to share good practice and raise standards in rescue and rehoming work.
Cats Protection’s new Homing Centre at Gildersome is a totally new concept in rescue.
The model is as follows:
- The Homing Centre has just 12 pens
- Fosterers initially care for cats in their own homes and when the cats are ready to find new owners they move to the centre
- Volunteers get them ready by vet checking, neutering, chipping, etc
- We do all we can to home our cats. We homed 430 in our first year at Gildersome
- Our new site is on good communications routes and we give it lots of publicity
- We have volunteers to feed cats seven days a week, morning and evening, with three staff posts to manage the centre, including volunteers
- We subsidise the net cost (building, staff and running costs, less adoption fee) from two local shops and fundraised income, especially legacies
- Our nearby shops not only raise funds but also promote the cat work at the centre
It’s very different to our typical centre which has between 35 and 200 pens, and some of our centres are old, legacy sites which can be hidden away (and so require lots of publicity so people know we’re there). We subsidise the net loss (building, staff and running costs, less the adoption fee) from fundraised income, especially legacies.
The development and opening of a small, low net cost homing centre with strong volunteer involvement was seen to be a likely way to increase homing while minimising the extra net cost to the charity. Against these aims the centre has delivered very well!
In its first 12 months, from opening at the end of October 2013 to October 2014 Gildersome Homing Centre homed 421 cats and kittens from 12 homing pens.
To read Peter Hepburn’s full speaking notes – click here.
- Petplan Lends A Hand At Our New Mitcham Homing Centre
In July employees from our partner Petplan and the wider Allianz community kindly spent the day helping prepare our new Mitcham Homing Centre for its grand opening. This was an opportunity for staff from their different offices to meet and work...
- Behind The Scenes At Our Mitcham Homing Centre Opening Event
On Saturday 25 July our Mitcham Homing Centre opened its doors to the public. London is home to an estimated 1.5million cats and the Mitcham Homing Centre is our first step in targeting urban areas identified as being of high need. The new centre is...
- Petplan & Adch Animal Charity Awards – An Invaluable Event
On 22 April Petplan and the Association of Dogs and Cats Homes (ADCH) joined forces for the third year to host their Animal Charity Awards. The event celebrates outstanding animal charities and not-for-profit organisations across the UK who go that extra...
- National Cat Adoption Centre Helps Dumped Kittens
Staff at Cats Protection’s National Cat Adoption Centre are caring for three kittens left for dead nearby. The five-month-old cats were discovered by walkers on Sunday 29 October. They’d been dumped in a filthy holdall among bracken near...
- Life As A Volunteer At Derby Adoption Centre And Why I Do It
Gail Newport explains why she volunteers at our Derby Adoption Centre... I have helped on a Saturday for about two years now, following in the footsteps of my Mum and have always been made to feel part of the team. I see the Cats Protection...