In 2021 our amazing customers have once again helped us to raise over £2000 for animal welfare charities over the Black Friday weekend. It’s a great total, especially in a year that has been so hard for so many people. The money will be divided equally between six animal welfare charities, chosen by our customers.
We have been working with rabbits and rabbit lovers for many years so it’s no surprise that there were plenty of nominations in the rabbit welfare category including The Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund, the Happy Pants Ranch and Acorn Rabbit Rescue.
The rabbit welfare charity that gained the most votes, and will receive this year’s donation is Berkshire Animal Rescue and this week we’d like to share a little about the work they are doing, and how our donation will help.
Berkshire Animal Rescue
Berkshire Animal Rescue is a small rescue based in Bracknell, Berkshire and working to rescue, care for and rehome rabbits and other small animals in the local area.
The rescue was started by Becky Young and her Nan over 12 years ago when a local pet shop was closing down and homes needed to be found for their guinea pigs, hamsters and bunnies.
Becky, then only 16, and her Nan took the animals in, had them checked over and neutered, before finding new homes for them. More requests for help started coming in and the rescue grew from there.
Becky and her team of 8 currently have more than 70 small animals in care awaiting permanent homes.
Though the rescue usually has seasonal ups and downs Becky and the team have found the work to be non stop since the start of the pandemic. Many more people have taken on rabbits as pets, without fully understanding their needs or being prepared for the commitments of time and money a pet requires.
In addition, breeders had scaled up “production” to meet the increased demand for pets. Now demand is slowing, they find themselves with animals they can’t sell so are surrendering them to the rescue.
Becky would like to find time to focus on education next year. She holds a degree in Animal Behaviour and works in her day job as a biology teacher. She believes that getting better information out there on rabbit care and behaviour would go a long way to improving the lives of rabbits, and ultimately lead to fewer bunnies ending up in rescue. Most problems come from ignorance, not deliberate mistreatment.
In the meantime, our donation will help with ever-present vets bills, and with the renewal of equipment which after a 2 year non-stop busy period it's literally wearing out!
So a big thank you from all of us here at Home and Roost to the team at Berkshire Animal Rescue for all the work you are doing. We look forward to keeping in touch during 2022 and finding out more about your work.
And if you’d like to keep up to date with the work of Brent Lodge you can follow them on Facebook here.
