Help save our animal rescue! Help save our dogs!

Hi, I'm Sharon Williams and I’m a vet and the founder of Celandine Wood Animal Rescue in Wirral. Our shelter is facing closure unless we raise £500,000 to set up new premises urgently.

Our rescue – run entirely by volunteers – currently has 50 dogs in its care and also takes in cats and wildlife from Merseyside and beyond.

Over the last six months, we have kindly been allowed to use some land for free which meant we have able to save many animals’ lives. But now it’s being sold and we need to vacate on June 14.

When I began my career, back in 2013, I realised with horror that many animals are brought into the vets for euthanasia completely unnecessarily. Change of circumstances, not properly training animals and an inability or unwillingness to pay for treatment are common reasons. I began taking them home.

Then in recent years, animal abandonment levels have soared to a record high, with the pandemic, cost-of-living and the XL bully ban all creating a perfect storm. Merseyside is especially hard hit.

Friends and volunteers joined me to help and this is where Celandine Wood began last year. Myself and now my helpers have over the years saved around 1,000 animals.

With a team of vets, nurses and other professionals volunteering their time for the rescue, we have a unique skill set that enables us to cater for animals with a wide array of medical and behavioural needs that many other rescues do not have the capacity to treat.

But we are still a fledgling rescue and it all comes down to money. We get around 10 desperate requests for help every day and it breaks our hearts that we can’t save them all. When we physically don’t have any more kennel space, or funds to pay for care, we have to say no. With so many rescues full to bursting, it means desperate animals are slipping through the cracks.

We need funds for our own land and a purpose-built facility. The dogs need bigger kennel spaces than we currently have to make them more comfortable. And we want to quadruple the amount of kennel space we have so that we never turn down an animal in need again.

The reality of animal rescue is that even when a good chunk of money comes in from a fundraiser, it can quickly go out if we get a litter of very sick puppies coming in who need intense round the clock veterinary care.

Another reality is that we have dogs and cats who are not suitable for rehoming, and we want to create a paradise for them so they can have wonderful, enriched lives in a forever sanctuary.

We are very focussed on supporting the local community, both in terms of being there when people need to relinquish animals and in offering support in other ways. We have looked after animals temporarily while people go into hospital.

We offer support for those struggling with their animal’s behaviour to try to help them keep their pet before they get to the stage of euthanising or dumping them. When we get our permanent home, we want to create a friendly, welcoming community hub with a café and fields, allowing the local community access to dog training sessions and the chance to socialise themselves and their dogs.

The cost-of-living is forcing people to give up their pets. We’ve helped pet owners financially who are struggling with the cost of care and we plan to start a pet food bank to help those in need.

We are exploring and getting advice on various ways to fundraise and create sustainable income streams to become financially secure.

We also plan to campaign on important issues affecting animals, to push for legislation changes to protect them by law.

We have big ambitions to make a real difference to the animals being dumped and abused. We just need the money to make them happen. So please help us to help them.

Read more about us in this news story