NEWS AND COMMENT: You may have heard that in the UK there is a cost-of-living crisis due to various reasons one of which is high inflation. And it is having a dramatically negative impact on charities relied upon donations one of which is Rescue Kitties in Manchester. There are many reasons for high inflation one of which is government incompetence in printing and giving away too much money during Covid. They flooded the country with easy money which increased demand for products which could not be met. This forced up prices. The war in Ukraine and oil and gas problems is another factor but that issue has abated.
Rescue Kitties is going to close their doors to new patients (rescued cats) because they can’t afford to keep the rescue running.
News media tells us that Rescue Kitties has an outstanding veterinary bill of £4,000. Over the past two years we are told that they have rehomed 1,200 rescued animals. Clearly, they are doing a good service in Manchester and apparently, they are contacted regularly to help animals in need of their support and rehoming.
However, the owner of the rescue, Amy Lee, has decided to close the doors after pleading for donations online.
There are 75 cats to be fed and rehomed at present. They are determined to rehome them but they won’t be taking in new cats.
This must be distressing for many local people who rely upon her rescue. Lee said:
“We always agreed that if finances ever got in the way of medical needs then we would close the doors, as we wouldn’t be helping anymore. Today that day came, we have less than £300 in the bank, and vet bills of £4000, and over 75 mouths to feed.”
It appears that they’ve reached pretty well rock bottom in terms of their finances. They’ve got a cat with a broken jaw to deal with and that operation will cost £2,500. They have no money in the bank and have to raise £6,500 to deal with the operation and break even. They feel that it is hopeless to try and raise that sort of money under the current circumstances and therefore, as mentioned, they intend to close the shelter.
They simply need to raise enough money to clear their veterinary bills and rehome the cats before closing the doors.
Rescue Kitties rescued and rehomed 751 cats and kittens in 2021 and 505 in 2022. Veterinary bills appear to have sunk this rescue.
They are entirely dependent upon the generosity of people who want to donate as there is no support from local government.
They are currently selling their assets such as a van and other small items within the shelter in order to raise some money. And Amy and the volunteers are taking money from their income in order to maintain the rescue until it is closed.
Although if there is a windfall donation of some sort, perhaps through crowdfunding, they might be able to keep it open. That’s my understanding.
There are some foster cats and they’ve decided it will take about a year to wrap up all that needs to be done before ending the rescue.
Amy seems to have been struggling anyway with the running the rescue. She posted this on Facebook on Jan 30th:
“Things with us are still incredibly bleak, we are just treading water from week to week, the team of volunteers is now down to a handful of fosterers, and even less helpers. The admin/paperwork team is again just me, which with 3 children and working 2 jobs on top its physically impossible to do. The small team we do have are all amazing and everyone tries their best but it’s just not enough to maintain a registered charity.”
In tears, a Ukrainian man hands over his dog to a Polish rescue so he can fight the Russians
Source: Manchester Evening News.
