Public meeting on pet rescue service in Donegal

TWO founding members of Donegal Pet Rescue are to host a public meeting later this month in a bid to find new foster homes and volunteers to help run the charity, the Donegal News has learned.
It comes less than two months after DPR announced it was winding down.
In a message posted on its Facebook page, the organisation said it was unable find a new foster co-ordinator, and as a result, the organisation would be unable to accept any more dogs or cats.
In the meantime, the group says it will spend the next number of months re-homing the remaining animals in its care and contacting its creditors and affiliated organisations.
Mr Gary Cooney, proprietor of Gary’s Pet World, and Mickey Forde who runs Lakeside Boarding Kennels in Dungloe believe that the work of DPR is not yet finished.
“There’s still a need for it – for the welfare of animals – and we need as much energy and commitment as we can get from the public to ensure that its legacy continues.
“We need people who are willing to set up foster homes for these animals as the work that DPR was set up for in the first place is far from complete,” Mr Cooney said.
“There’s also an education side to all this and it’s important that we make people aware of animal cruelty and neglect issues too,” he added.
Agreeing, Mr Forde said it was a ‘big undertaking’ and he stressed the need for the right structures to be in place to allow it to thrive.
Public meeting
“Our plan would be to roll out the service across the whole county and we’re having a public meeting in the coming weeks to gauge the level of support there is out there,” Mr Forde said.
Donegal Pet Rescue had been a successful charity that has helped re-home and rescue thousands of animals over the past fifteen years.
When contacted this week Mrs Patricia Nash, chairperson, DPR, confirmed the decision that they are to wind down their services.
“Over the next number of months we will continue to rehabilitate and re-home the animals in our care. We will begin the process of contacting all our creditors and affiliated organisation to inform them of our decision. We will continue to advertise lost and found pets on our Facebook page,” Mrs Nash said.
‘Our good name’
“We’re winding it down. We’re more than happy if someone else is willing to come on board but we don’t want to give away our good name,” she added.
In reply, Mr Forde said that in an ideal world they would like to retain the Donegal Pet Rescue name. However, he did say that the name issue would not be the deal-breaker.
“The most important thing here is that the service continues and, hopefully, things will become much clearer after the meeting. It’s going to take time but this is something that we feel passionate about and it’s something that we want to get right,” Mr Forde said.
A date, time and venue for the meeting will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

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