In light of the International Day of Charity (or World Charity Day), The Great Projects paid a visit to the National Animal Welfare Trust in Watford to capture a day in the life of all the hard working volunteers at the centre. On Tuesday 5th September, we implore you all to get involved with charity work, either by donating to your favourite charity or taking part in a volunteer activity at your local sanctuary or rescue centre! See how our time at the National Animal Welfare Trust went down by reading our interview with Jackie, the manager of the Watford centre.
On…the history of the National Animal Welfare Trust
The National Animal Welfare Trust was originally a boarding facility for evacuated pets during the Second World War. We started rescuing animals and rehoming them on this site, and the rescue-rehoming took such priority that it just become a rescue-rehoming centre, and we actually stopped boarding completely.
We’ve been here over 40 years, and for us the most important thing is to take in unwanted animals for whatever reason, and find them forever homes.
On…the aims of NAWT
The aims of the National Animal Welfare Trust is to promote responsible pet ownership. For us, it’s really important that we do everything possible when we rehome an animal, to ensure that it stays in its forever home; that it’s the right match, and the owner has the full support before they take the animal, and after they’ve taken the animal, because we still maintain a relationship with them.
On…the message the NAWT would like to share
So, one of the things about us…because we promote responsible pet ownership, is that we welcome people to contact us when they can’t look after an animal. For whatever reason, we think that it’s an important, responsible thing for people to contact rescues, and bring them in for rehoming. We’d like to take away that stigma, because it’s unfair on the person whose circumstances have changed; who’re then forced to give up their beloved pet. We also want to encourage people to come to rescues. You get support with us, you get a relationship with us that maybe you wouldn’t get from an individual or a pet shop, and I just think rescues are such a positive, fantastic place. Come down and see us; we’re an Open Paw centre, and we hand out an open paw to everyone to come round and feed the animals, and just see what rescue is about. It’s a really lovely place, and if you came and saw it, you’d fall in love with it as well.
We would like to say a big thank you to the National Animal Welfare Trust (NAWT) for letting us pay them a visit, and we would like to take this chance to remind you that if you are looking to bring a pet into your home, then do consider rehoming an animal in need from a centre such as NAWT. If you are unable to adopt but you would still like to help the animals, please visit www.nawt.org.uk/ to find out more.
