The challenges of Coronavirus
7th April 2020
All of us, no matter who we are, are feeling the effects of Covid-19 on our lives. At Oak Tree the challenges are many, but we have a vital role to play supporting our community and animals in our region through this period.
The current movement restrictions mean that we are unable to rehome animals or take in non-emergency relinquishments. We are also unable to welcome visitors to Oak Tree Farm, our tearoom and charity shops, this has cut off a significant part of our income. When lockdown was announced, our amazing foster care team stepped up to provide home-based housing for many of our residents, to ensure they were in a home environment enjoying sofa time instead of being in the kennels and cattery during this period when the Charity was unable to rehome them. Thank you to each and every foster carer who is making sure our animals welfare is maximised.
As with most organisations, we are encouraging our amazing staff team to work from home wherever possible (we are all learning about remote working and technology!) and many have been furloughed during this period to help ensure our sustainability. However, we have a core team ready to respond and help our community at this difficult time. We are still taking in emergency cases, and seeing an unprecedented rise through the foodbanks for more pet food support from those facing financial hardship due to Covid-19. With this in mind, and supported by a generous donation by Purina, we have extended our foodbank food supplies to Carlisle, Wigton, Cockermouth and Brampton Foodbanks in addition to Carlisle Carers. In the first 6 days of April over 40 pet food parcels have been given out to those most in need.
Our Helping Paw programme remains active to support those who are homeless or fleeing domestic violence during this period and we are receiving an increased number of calls from worried members of the community about looking after their pet during this period. Our dog training classes and animal education programmes have moved online, do contact our team at info@oaktreeanimals.org.uk for more information about these.
We remain here to help animals in our region please contact us if you need our help. We are running an answerphone system on our phonelines which is checked regularly by our team in between caring for animals onsite and supporting our community.
A huge thanks to everyone who has supported us financially during this time, we really appreciate your support and generosity, it is truly invaluable.
