Banbury animal charity needs one final membership push

BARKS committee member Jo Allen with nine-year old Bengal cat Cinnamon who has been adopted this year

BARKS (Banbury Animal Rescue and Kindness Service) saves, cares for and re-homes around 350 cats, kittens, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, hedgehogs and small rodents each year. After a fall-off in annual subscriptions, they aim to triple membership numbers to help cover their basic everyday costs.

Encouraging new support, Richard Knight MRCVS, Clinical Director and Partner at Vets4Pets Banbury, said: “BARKS provides all the care that unwanted, abandoned or stray cats and rabbits need without hesitation or question.

"This all comes from a lot of personal time and expense from its caring volunteers and supporters, without whom the charity would not survive.”

BARKS chair Ann Collins said: "Our target for 2019 it to get back up from 100 to 300 members - and the Banbury Guardian and its readers are helping us to get there with an encouraging start.

"We have had new people join and others rejoin and also a few, very welcome Young BARKS candidates.

“These membership funds are vital to us feeding, housing and treating the animals. Ideally, we need about half of our new memberships to be family ones.”

With rescue centres in Bodicote and Woodford Halse, last year BARKS saved and rehomed almost 200 cats and kittens and 350 animals in total. Many senior and disabled cats are also cared for by fosterers.

Annual membership is £10 per person or £15 per family. To sign up or offer any other kind of voluntary support, email BARKS at [email protected] or phone 07427 063178.

Find out more at www.barks.org.uk or on the BARKS Facebook papge.