About us
Making a difference to animal charities
Way back in the 1970s Paul Houlden took pity on Benny the monkey, whose future looked far from bright when he was stranded in a quarantine pen. Paul paid the fee to release and care for his new pet, until the time came when Benny was found a good home in a local zoo.
Now, devoted to the principle that “animals are little people, and deserve to be looked after”, Paul runs the Animal Rescue Foundation, with the main aim of raising funds to, in turn, help smaller animal charities throughout the UK.
He recalls the first charity helped by the Foundation, an organisation known as HULA (Home for Unwanted and Lost Animals) in Bedfordshire, which received a total of £9,500 for new building and fencing.
HULA was founded by a concerned vet, his wife and other animal lovers after a lady brought her young puppy into their veterinary surgery and asked for it to be put down “as I’m going on holiday and can’t afford to put the dog in kennels”. At that time, there were no animal rescue centres in Bedfordshire. The vet refused and Blackie became the first rescued animal.
The charity is a good example of the sort of deserving cause the Animal Rescue Foundation has helped over the years. HULA takes in unwanted and abandoned small animal pets (cats, dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs etc.) for re-homing. It also rescues larger animals and has goats, pigs, Shetland ponies, chickens, ducks, geese and sheep as well as a steer and heifer.
Paul also runs his own business, but has successfully developed the Foundation on the premise that “We are an enabling charity, awarding grants to other small animal charities so they can keep going”.
Paul sums it up this way:
Cats, dogs, pigs, ponies, donkeys, horses – you name it. Why do we do it? Because we love animals.
We join up the dots, helping animal charities and people who are caring for animals with an immediate need for assistance. We are a local answer to a national need, making a difference to small charities”.
Dr Sarah Beynon, supports Animal Rescue Foundation
Dr Sarah Beynon owns, manages or grazes about 85 hectares of land across the St Davids peninsula – an area equivalent to about 200 international football pitches. The land is managed primarily for wildlife conservation. The farmland is home to her Tyddewi Herd of Welsh Black cattle, arable crops such as wheat and acres of wildlife habitat including wildflower meadows, Rhos pasture, marshy grassland and heath. Their research investigates how we can farm to feed a growing population and look after wildlife at the same time.
Dr Sarah Beynon is passionate about all animals and fully supports Animal Rescue Foundation in their endeavours to raise donations for local animal charities that rely on donations to support their efforts.
The charity was delighted to receive £4,000 from the Animal Rescue Foundation in April 2013 towards establishing a dedicated area for dogs in the Isolation Unit to get free running exercise and fresh air, and reduce any anxiety of being kennel bound while waiting for health clearance.
When Royston Animal Welfare needed funds to cover the cost of running cat and dog pens they asked the Animal Rescue Foundation for help – and were very pleased to receive a total of £10,500 over two years.
We received £2,000 – a fab donation. This went a long way to cover the neutering costs of a couple of large feral cat colonies we were trapping and getting in at the time. Obviously vet bills are our biggest expense, so this was a great help to us.
We need your help
Whatever route a donation takes, it’s used to support animals in need of care and attention by supporting smaller animal charities throughout the UK where rescue centres, shelters and re-housing projects need help. Foundation money is used by charities to help in such areas as fund-raising, vets bills and capital projects, thus allowing these local organisations to concentrate on looking after their animals.
Only those charities with a declared ethical policy regarding animal care and re-homing will be supported by the Foundation.
Policy statement on Grant acceptability
- We are a non-political and non-hidden agenda driven charity. We will NOT support:
- Charities using the guise of charity work to propagate their views.
- Charities whose accounts show excessive expenditure on fripperies.
- We expect in normal circumstance, – charities to have at least 1 years approved accounts.
- Until (and if) CIC’s can claim gift aid from HMRC we are unable to help.
- We only offer grants to registered charities in the UK.
- We expect these charities to be registered with HMRC for gift aid.
- We are dedicated to support all UK animals and wildlife.
- We totally accept the interaction between animals and people so we will grant to:
- Charities whose main aim is rehabilitation, or help to people with the aid of animals.
- Charities dedicated to benevolent animal training for the betterment of humanity.
