Adopt me, Love me.
During the summer months, we will be spreading an adoption message through our Adopt me, Love me campaign which, features ex-Mayhew residents Labrador Dolly Labrador Dolly and Tabby cat Tink. The key message behind this campaign is don't shop -adopt!
We hope to encourage people to reconsider buying an animal and visit their local rescue centre instead to adopt one of many of the dogs and cats waiting for a second chance at happiness.
The Mayhew has a constant flow of animals all desperate to find their forever home and a waiting list of hundreds of animals wanting to come in from owners who can no longer care for them, or simply don't want to.
Whilst our work spreads across many areas of animal welfare, re homing is a key focus of our work where we can clearly see the need is growing due to:
- the recession and people no longer being able to afford to care for their animals
- pet owners viewing animals as disposable items which they can dump on a whim when they become tired of the responsibility
- strict 'no pet' policies from private landlords
- unregulated breeding, which sees more people breeding litters that they can't find good homes for
- unregulated pet sales which means more people can by a cat or dog cheap and easily through online, or classified adverts
In any one year over 100,000 dogs will become homeless and we have over 2.5 million stray cats in the UK at any one time - so please help us spread the word of adoption being the only option when considering bringing a pet in to your life. If people continue to buy animals from breeders rather than rescue centres the cycle will continue and the homeless animal figures will continue to escalate and more dogs and cats will suffer.
The Mayhew is also proactively trying to get to the root of this crisis by offering low-cost neutering (and FREE bull breed neutering), low cost vaccinations and education programmes for all.
Both Dolly and Tink have now been happily homed thanks to compassionate people realising the importance of giving a rescue animal a second chance.
Please click here to read about celebrities supporting our campaign, click here to read Dolly's story, click here to find out more about Tink or click the following links to meet cats and dogs looking for new homes.