Vote for your charity!

jen_23

Sorry guys I couldn't figure out how to add a poll to the other thread!

Anyway I've compiled all the charities into this poll.
So vote for your favourite charity for the proceeds of the fundraiser to go to.

Just take a few mins to go through each one and decide what you want as you only get one vote :P

http://www.animalcaresociety.ie/
http://www.paws.ie/
http://www.dogsaid.ie
http://cottagerescue.ie/
http://www.limerickanimalwelfare.com/
www.dogsindistress.org
http://www.dar.ie/
http://www.lasthope.ie

(P.S just like today votes are annonymous )

homer simpson

hi just a thought there is a charity up here called donegal pet rescue they have to work extremly hard as there is no RSPCA in donegal (although there is a council pound) and the area they need to cover is vast, worth concidering adding?

jen_23

Hi Guys,

This was very kindly given to me by Socket.

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/press/...,16151,en.html

It might be an idea when people are voting to take into consideration the above link which outlines the government grant allocations given out to rescues in 09.

Just to outline quickly what each charity received:

animalcaresociety -18K
Peoples animal welfare society (paws) - 25K
dogsaid - 5K
cottagerescue -5K
limerickanimalwelfare -20K
dogsindistress -5K
Drogheda Animal Rescue -18K
lasthope -5K

jen_23

Well I think we have a clear winner! Dogs in Distress!

kazza90210

Woo! they will be delighted

Sigma Force

Very worthy cause as they all are so good stuff.

However if you put a poll up every time you may be inclined to get the same results as I think more posters would be on the east coast so may not be as familiar with other rescues around the country. So Dublin based charities may get more votes each time.

I could be wrong there could be more posters on here from other counties than Dublin so please don't shoot me lol.

Either way DID are very very worthy cause and should be supported.

Not sure the governement grants come in to it though, some rescues are larger than others or may of had more cruelty cases and taken in more animals and so had larger bills it all depends really and also a bit of luck as well as to how much each one gets.

jen_23

Hey all,

So the fundraiser we are making the calendar for will be dogs in distress!

Now we can start part 2 which is the fun part taking photos!!

The photos can be of any animal of your choosing you may have more than one animal in the pic but please no more than one pic per person.

Just remember that the photos should be of a quality you would like to see in a calendar yourselves so please bear in mind the quality of the pic ie. sharp clear images.

the photos can be submitted to this email boardsanimalfundraiser@yahoo.ie
The closing date for submittal of photos will be
9th August Midnight

So there is plenty of time to take a suitable pic if you haven't one already or chose from all the hundreds of pet pics you may already have

Does anyone have anything to add?

Coppernlucy

Sorry Guys but i voted for one that IS a registered charity and i feel a little cheated that a NON registered charity won, i feel a little uneasy about it has we are always warned to be cautious of bogus charites and if they are running a long time and have thier own website why dont they have a registered charity number ?

pyramuid man

Well I have to say that LAW are very good.
Myself and my partner got a cat from there and she is perfect. Well mannered and well taken care of by LAW. So I vote for LAW

suziwalsh

Hi All,

I am the pup rehoming coordinator for dogs in distress and have been for the past 18 months or so. It is pretty much like a second job...or takes over my job some of the time. I can honestly say Dogs in Distress is not a bogus charity. We vaccinate, micro-chip, worm and neuter all of the dogs that come into our care. We also take in many injured and sick dogs and get them the best available veterinary treatment. Our vets bill last year was in excess of €45,000.00 not including neutering or vaccination costs. We also pay for food for all of our dogs while they are in our care and they all get fed a high quality brand of food like Royal Canin, Nutram etc. We home check all of our homes and follow up with them to make sure all dogs are safe and happy. We are all volunteers and pay for phone bills, petrol and other expenses out of our own funding. Dogs in Distress is very dear to me and I put my heart and soul into improving the lives of dogs in Ireland. We do as many school visits as we can and really work around the clock to help dogs in need. Anyone wishing to ask any questions or who would like to know anything further about our organisation is more than welcome to email me at pups@dogsindistress.org or text me on 086 3304333 and I will call you back (usually I am on the phone or at work so it is best to text me just in case I miss your call). I also volunteer for a few more charities but Dogs in Distress really takes up the main part of my time.

Dogs in Distress also help out other charities and rescue groups when we can and work closely with them to save as many dogs as possible. All I can say is we are doing are best and always trying to improve our rescue.

suziwalsh

all of the other charities listed are fantastic and I do not believe there is one "winner" when battling such a worthy cause !

jen_23

Hey all,

I know a few people may be upset that their paticular charity won't be the chosen charity for the calendar this year
However no matter which charity was picked there was always going to be 7 really good and no less deserving charities which weren't going to be. Unfortunately the fundraiser is not going to be big enough to help them all but we can certainly brainstorm some ideas to help others during the year.(which I would love to do).

I think dogs in distress is as deserving as any other charity (for the record I didn't vote for it I voted for cottage rescue) and deserves as much effort to go into it to make the fundraiser a success.
The funds I'm sure as Suzi said will help in the costs of neutering and vaccinating and helping the animals.
After all the point of this was to help the animals and thats what were doing.:)

I hope everyone still wants to be involved regardless of whether the charity you voted for was the chosen one or not.

As I said at the end of the day it's the animals we want to help and does it really matter which ones as there are so many out there that need all the help they can get.

Coppernlucy

Lovely speach but to me it could apply to any of the rescues listed above except for the fact that they are all registered charities and have to supply finacial accounts for any source of incomeing and outgoings. To me that is a huge difference in were i would be putting my donations. Anybody can talk the talk but the fact remains Doginsindistress are NOT a registered charity and in a petshop i recently seen a dogsindistress collection box with a charity number on it that does not belong to them and thats were my concerns lay when i read this thread.
I am sure you do good work and seem to be genuine but the facts are still the same, in fact would it not benefit you more to become a registered charity?

jen_23

Hi Coppernlucy,

I understand your concerns and I assure you that everything will be done to ensure the funds raised will get into the right hands.
After you informed us earlier of DID not being a registered charity I contacted DID directly.

What I received back was

Thanks for getting in touch. Dogs in Distress is not a registered charity yet. We have started the application procedure and have for the last few months been try to get a constitution together that meets with the revenue commissioners approval.

I have not pasted in the entire email just the bit referencing the charity registration.

I hope that this information will put your mind at ease a little bit

dellytots

jen_23 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

This was very kindly given to me by Socket.

http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/press/...,16151,en.html

It might be an idea when people are voting to take into consideration the above link which outlines the government grant allocations given out to rescues in 09.

Just to outline quickly what each charity received:

animalcaresociety -18K
Peoples animal welfare society (paws) - 25K
dogsaid - 5K
cottagerescue -5K
limerickanimalwelfare -20K
dogsindistress -5K
Drogheda Animal Rescue -18K
lasthope -5K

I cant seem to access that link but with the way things have gone because of the resession the charitys will be recieving a LOT less then what is outlined. I know Dogs Aid have been very badly hit as they were expecting to start building their new centre with the funds!

Coppernlucy

Thankyou for your reply Jen , i actualy believe the people are genuine but i still dont understand whos charity number was on the collection box if they claim here not to be a registered charity. I feel now that by doing that it is misleading the public. I will try get back to the shop to check the number or ring them. Thankyou i will get in touch with you to help with the fundraiser as i know there is lots of needy dogs that rely on our help.
You are doing a great job Jen

suziwalsh

The charity number that used to be on our collection boxes belonged to a charity that Dogs in Distress were associated with, you used to be allowed to have an associated charity if you were a small rescue but this is no longer allowed through new regulations that came in to practice recently...one of the reasons why we are seeking to get our own charity number. The number is no longer on any of our boxes and if you find one please let us know....as it may have gone astray! One of our kind volunteers accidentally printed up labels in human error the last time as she was unaware that recent changes had been made. It has now been sorted so to speak.

Liz is happy to discuss anything about our funds/fund raising/charity etc with anyone and you can contact her on 087 2287586 to ask any questions

hpsheba

Hi all, I am Liz, the fundraising co ordinator for DID ( must have done something wrong in a past life ). Just a few points I would like to clear up here.

1. Dogs in Distress is not a registered charity YET, we have been trying to do our constitution with the help of our fantastic volunteers but it have been sent back twice from the revenue commissioners for clarification on our "fostering system" so we are trying, and we have subitted our figures to the revenue department. Of course it would benefit us more to become a registered charity, there would be some many more fundraising oppertunities open to us. Just recently I have to direct Ebay to another dog rescue group to benefit from their charity noght as we were not a regisitered charity so please be assured that though we may not be able to benefit from some things we do pass them on to others llookig after animal rescues.
2. We are like most animal rescue groups are a volunteer run rescue. Our main aim is to help dogs and that will always come before using our time filling out paperwork. At present the puppy section receives in excess of 50 application to adopt pups per day so you can imagine the paperwork involved in that section alone.
3. We were an associated charity with another dog rescue group for a couple of years. Being an associated charity we were allowed to recieve receive donation fees and collect money from collection boxes in a fixed location. We were not allowed however go on the streets and shake buckets, offer tax relief on donations or publish a charity number and claim that it was ours. We abided by these rules, however, we did not realise that these rules had changed until Dec 08 ( they changed in Sept 08) and once we did we removed that associated charity number from all of our 18 collection boxes that are in shops, informed that staff of the shops and printed my phone number on them if anyone had a query to direct them to me. Coppernlucy, if the shop that you visited still have a charity number printed on the collection please conatct e asap and I will sort it out. It is possible of course that one slipped away through the net.

And last but not of all least Thanks so much Jen23 for offering to raise money in aid of any of the listed charities. All are fantastic groups of people who are doing their best in what in a really bad sitaution. I think that all rescues are facing a massive crisis in the next couple of months and even though DID are getting a huge amount of adoption applications at present it is currently running 50% / 50% on suitable homes. We have also, in the last 6 months taken on more sick and injured dogs and puppies than ever before so our vets bills are massive and it is a struggle each month just to keep all the balls in the air. Our volunteers are fantastic and we thank everyone who thought enough of us here to vote for us.

Again thanks Jen23 and pplease get in touch to have a chat if you have any queries.

karlin

We were an associated charity with another dog rescue group for a couple of years. Being an associated charity we were allowed to recieve receive donation fees and collect money from collection boxes in a fixed location.

I have contacted Revenue directly in the past on the matter of charity status (as a working journalist for the Irish Times) as this has been an area of so much fraudulent behaviour at the moment (eg clothing collections for supposed charities that do not exist), and this is simply not true that you could operate in the past as an associated charity simply by deciding to so so, so I am baffled that someone in Revenue would ever have said this. It has never been the case that any charity could operate as an 'associate charity' just because this was useful to another organisation that decided this should be the arrangement -- not without an involved process that includes registering for tax purposes as a part of that charity whose license is being used and having a formal, legal and binding agreement with the primary charity that has also been approved of by Revenue. Such legal agreement and formal status cleared by Revenue has ALWAYS been a requirement, well before September 2008. What changed in Sept 2008 was a far more stringent application process for charities generally as before basically you could ask to be a charity and be listed as one with almost no requirements to verify who and what an organisation was or what it did or how it spent its 'donations'. (The situation isn't that much better now -- Ireland has appallingly poor oversight for charities and mere charitable status is still so easy to get that it is hardly a guarantee of a responsible, tax-compliant organisation.)

To solicit funds under false pretenses --eg as being a charity when an organisation isn't a charity -- is fraudulant, so removing all such numbers and claims from points where funds are being solicited is actually a legal obligation on any organisation. There may be a financial liability on all funds collected to date if a number was quoted on formal correspondence, business cards, fundraising documents, etc.

Any rescue must of course also file full accounts with Revenue and have paid taxes on all income up to the point at which it gains charitable status. Rescues asking for set adoption fees are required to pay tax on that income, and would also be subject to charging VAT if that income is over a fairly low threshold (just over €20k).

Many rescues do not apply for charitable status. Most rescues don't really need charitable status as most will have outgoings that match or are greater than incoming donations. That is the case with my small operation with cavaliers, where I operate at a loss. I file taxes for Irish Cavalier Rescue annually with Farrell Grant Sparks and my own accountants suggested that there was no point in seeking charitable status. Much of the above tax advice is what I was told by FGS which acts as accountants and auditors to some of the largest national charities, so can be presumed to be correct I think!

suziwalsh

Interesting....well out outgoings are most definately greater than our incoming donations !!! Seen as I have to have a full time job to fund my volunteer job!!!

Coppernlucy

Thankyou for clarifying that for me Karlin, the number i had seen on the dogsindistress donation boxes was CHY 14048 but the petshop staff have told me that it has recently being covered with a blank sticker
so now there are no numbers on the boxes i seen, i did take a photo of it just so that i know myself i wasnt going senile:rolleyes:
I do hope yous are granted a number of your own because i do think yous will benifit from it and it will give the general public more confidence in your work and were are donations are going.

EGAR

I think you will find that the general public has great confidence in DiD , Coppernlucy. Their rehoming figures speak for themselves. As to the paperwork, accounts etc. HOW do you think one applies for the Department Grant? They want to see full accounts, incoming, outgoing, bills, receipts, as well as a tax clearance cert and they do inspections. It ook me over a week to get it all together. So you can rest assured that all is well there since DiD applied for and got a grant.

Just because you have a charity number doesnt mean you are doing better work. And you can defraud there too if you are so inclined, with the tax returns for example which is common enough.

However, I think your concerns could have been solved privately by contacting DiD directly, without having to post on this thread which started well intended and for a great cause and therefore taking away from it, IMHO.

I too run a rescue for the past 13 years, I too have no charity number, rest assured my outgoings by FAR exceed my incomings. Doing rescue is a thankless task, apart from the fact that you enable animals to go off to a brighter future. We could all do without petty squabbles and sniping. If half the engery directed to slagging each other off would be channeled into worthwhile causes like animal rescue then the world would be a better place indeed.

And for those who are still between two minds about DiD. I have worked with them on many occassions and have not the slightest doubt that they do great work and safe many dogs who would otherwise die.

jen_23

Hey all,

Sorry I've not posted in a bit but I got a puppy yesterday and he has taken over my time the last few days (pics in another thread soon )

Anyway anayone still interested in the fundraiser please mark your interest in the dogs in distress calendar thread.

I want to start organising soon. Almost 40 ppl have vited for DID, originally over 30 said they would be involved and only 7 ppl so far have signed up for interest??

Guys anyway you can help is great no matter how small.

Come on and we can get this project off the ground

vodkababy

Coppernlucy wrote: »

Sorry Guys but i voted for one that IS a registered charity and i feel a little cheated that a NON registered charity won, i feel a little uneasy about it has we are always warned to be cautious of bogus charites and if they are running a long time and have thier own website why dont they have a registered charity number ?

Which is a registered charity?

vodkababy

karlin wrote: »

I am baffled that someone in Revenue would ever have said this.

I'm not. I've had many incidents where I comtact inland revenue and they say one thing and the next they say something else. Sometimes it depends who you speak to.

As for DID, I got a rescue dog from DID. They are a great group of people. The dogs in their care & Ashton are the most important. They help walk the dogs in Ashton too, and take photos and put them on their website so people know what dogs are available in Ashton. They spend their own money looking after the dogs, transporting them, feeding them. They devote their free time to DID. They do a wonderful job and ensure each dog goes to a good home. They do home visits before the dogs are adopted. They keep in contact after the dog is adopted to make sure everything is going well. I don't care if they are not a REGISTERED charity...they do a GREAT job and deserve all the help they get!!!!

Coppernlucy

One reason why i start getting suspicious was an add like this .....Dogs / DublinFor SaleDogs in Distress currently have rescue space available for unwanted pups up to 6 months of age. All pups will be wormed, vaccianted, micro-chipped and neutered in our care and will go to home checked homes. Space is limited but we like to help when we can. Please contact pups@dogsindistress.org if you have pups in need of help. All our pups stay in kind foster homes with families who care for them until they can go to their forever homes.www.dogsindistress.orgWE DO NOT HAVE FUNDING TO PAY FOR PUPS Price: not specifiedAd posted by Dogs in Distress on August 09, 2009why on earth would a rescue who takes pound dogs be posting an add on a dealers site looking for pups when there are a lot of dogs on there website who are on limited time and need help asap ? I realy feel uneasy about giveing donations to a rescue who is takeing leftover puppys from breeders. I am gobsmacked to read this and will not be putting any more money in their donation boxes.

vodkababy

Where did you see this ad??

Coppernlucy

http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/dogs/961064I realy was starting to think i was wrong, but now i know this cannot be correct , do any other rescues put adds up on dealers sites looking for unwanted puppies ? surely the government would not like to think they were spending their grant that way? I am not going to post anymore because i feel i will be jumped on for speaking my mind and i know by the other posts they are being backed up but i know my gut instinct is saying this cannot be right!

ISDW

I'm sorry that you're not going to post anymore, because it would be interesting to hear what you have to say when someone replies to you.

I'm not part of Dogs in distress, I have fostered a dog for them, and now that I run my own small rescue, I take huskies or mals from them when they need me to. However, I know that they help many, many dogs and save so many lives.

I think that the reason they are looking for puppies is to keep them safe. Again, I don't know for sure, but I believe most of them are sent to the Dogs Trust in the UK, and find great homes. Unfortunately there are a few individuals here in Ireland that go around buying whole litters of pups and then send them off to puppy farmers in the UK to be sold, or to research establishments and they are used for experiments. Please tell me that you don't object to DID taking these puppies to stop this from happening.

I'm not having a go at you, but you seem to have real issues with them, but I don't know why. Have you ever been to Ashton and seen the dogs that they help? They are a voluteer organisation. All of the people that do work with DID also have jobs, families, etc. None of them get paid for all of the hours they give, the transporting they do, the fostering etc. It is a group of individuals who work together to save hundreds of dogs every year.

Since November, I have rehomed 28 dogs. At the moment I owe my vet €500, which I'm hoping to pay off next week, but then I'll take more dogs in, and the vets bill will go up again. Then theres the cost of food, and the petrol that I put in the van to go all over the country collecting dogs etc. I put €90 in the van on Saturday alone, and I know I'm going to have to put more in today, as I have to go and pick up another dog. Multiply that by, I dunno, 20, 50, and you'll get some idea of what they do, and how much money they spend on the animals they help.

Organisations like DID take the animals that the bigger, more 'reputable' agencies don't and won't take. They don't have an army of admin staff who are being paid to arrange charity numbers, etc, etc, etc. As I keep saying, they are all ordinary people, volunteering in their own time, spending their own money to help the animals.

Its entirely up to you how you spend your money, and who you donate to, but why don't you go along to Ashton pound one Saturday or Sunday, and take some dogs out for a walk, meet some of the volunteers, and see the reality of the situation? Again, I'm not having a go at you, but you really seem to have it in for them, and I don't know why.

vodkababy

It's a shame your not going to post anymore. Wasn't having a go, just wanted to know where you saw the ad...I was surprised. But it seems more an advert for them.

You seem to have real issues with DID. Don't know why. But they do help a lot of dogs find homes.

I got my dog through them and he's great

Coppernlucy

Tonight i was very saddened to see this post go up on thier site

It has come to our attention in recent weeks that members off our board have been contacting other members to arrange home visits for other rescues. Dogs in Distress would like to apologise to any members that have been contacted in this regard and assure them that until this had come to our attention we had no idea that this was happening. Any home visits required by Dogs in Distress will be posted under the Home Visits Needed section. All the members of Admin (admin names) would like to thank all our fantastic fosterers, home visiters, transporters, dog walkers and all our volunteers who without their help we couldn't help the amount of dogs we do. If any member has any queries or questions related to Dogs in Distress please contact a member of Admin directly and your query will be dealt with as soon as possible.

I have done a bith of enquireing as to who was the person or persons responsible and surprize surprize it was one of the kindest people i got to know on the board and someone who had openly worked so hard for them and other reptual charities , and i was deeply hurt to hear that this person has since been banned from helping , apparantly like many others, so i have seen and heard enough , if rescues cannot help each other out were does that leave the poor dogs ? This is nearly has bad has the poor mammy rothweiler that recently went into the pound with her pups , and the pups were immediatly taken out into foster and still right now a week later mammy lies in the pound still waiting on help, i have realy and truly thought strong and hard and i realy will not be helping or replying anymore because it just cannot be right .