We’re experiencing a crisis with the costs of veterinary care for our animals and need your help!
We’re the RSPCA Chesterfield and North Derbyshire branch, a separately registered charity to the national RSPCA. We carry out our animal welfare work across North Derbyshire and run an animal rehoming centre in Chesterfield where our dedicated team cares for hundreds of rescued dogs, cats and rabbits each year.
Did you know we’ve rehomed over 1,800 animals in the last five years?
We help the most vulnerable animals. They include victims of cruelty and neglect rescued by RSPCA officers from terrible situations, as well as sick or injured strays and abandoned pets left to fend for themselves.
Many of the animals coming into our animal centre need urgent veterinary treatment. From fixing broken bones to saving animals that have been starved nearly to death, we’re committed to doing the best we can to give them a second chance at happiness.
We rely on donations from our generous community to enable us to be there for animals in need. But the cost of living crisis has hit us hard; causing a surge in demand for our services and, at the same, a huge increase in our running expenses. Last year our costs of veterinary services and medications rocketed to over £50,000.
Our vet bills have more than doubled since 2022. Although the vets we work with kindly strive to keep the costs as low as they can, the effects of inflation and the rise in levels of animal neglect are putting massive pressure on our ability to respond to the requests we get every day to help new animals. Your support is vital to allow us to continue to offer a lifeline for as many animals as possible.
Your donation will help animals like Autumn, a young Poodle cross, who was suffering from an untreated eye condition when she arrived in November 2023. She had come from a house with many other dogs and was too frightened to walk on a lead. Scared and in pain, Autumn slowly began to trust us as we nursed her back to health. She needed several delicate operations to correct the abnormalities to her eye, and had a contact lens fitted temporarily to help the healing process. Autumn’s vet treatment cost over £1,700 in total. Once fully recovered, Autumn was successfully adopted. She’s blossomed in her new home and loves chilling out on the sofa after her zoomies!
We’re now spending around £1,000 a week treating the animals in our care. A donation of £20 could pay for an antibiotic injection for a cat with a painful abscess; £50 could give a dehydrated puppy life-saving IV fluids, and £500 could cover the cost of treatment for a dog experiencing severe dental disease.
Prevention is key to our work, which is why we make sure that the animals we adopt are neutered, vaccinated, microchipped and treated for parasites. Your gift will also help fund the cost of these vital procedures. For example, £10 would be enough to treat a stray kitten for fleas and worms.
Without the support of people like you, we’re facing the heartbreaking risk of having to scale back our services and reduce the number of animals we can treat.
As a thank you for your kindness, we have a range of rewards available, including exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ tours of our busy animal centre and the chance to name one of the animals in our care. These would make fabulous presents for an animal-loving family member or friend!
Donate today and help save animals from suffering pain and distress. Thank you.