Profi le on Many Tears dog rescue

Many Tears Rescue

In this issue we find out about the valuable work of Many Tears Animal Rescue:

Many dogs that come to Many Tears have serious medical issues and where possible, dogs are treated to give them the best chance of a great life in their new home. Ailments range from glaucoma which requires the eye to be removed, cataracts, heart murmurs, paralysis, megasophogus, mange, luxating patella and liver shunts.

Many Tears Animal Rescue was founded in 2004 by Sylvia and Bill Ban Atta. They moved from the USA where Sylvia had been running a very large but heartbreakingly sad, Humane Society. Having been able to make major changes to the running of the American shelter, she and Bill moved to Wales and started building Many Tears. The name “Many Tears” came from Sylvia’s heart for all the dogs she could not save when she lived in the USA. A Native American once told her that “the soul can have no rainbows unless the eyes have shed some tears”. Many Tears started on a very small scale but soon grew with the backing of animal lovers who had the same ethics as Sylvia and felt the same longing to help the dogs. Many Tears now homes over 3,500 dogs a year and is extremely busy, but has never lost that special “family feeling”.

Many Tears mainly takes in exbreeding dogs and those on their last day at the pound although whenever they can and have space, they also take

46 | Total Grooming Magazine dogs from Ireland and other parts of the world, in desperate need of help.

The rescue is a happy home and has good living accommodation for the dogs with wonderful exercise areas and all dogs go out 2-3 times a day. They often have special walks with volunteers who are always welcome.

Many Tears also has a fostering programme where fosterers from all over the UK collect their dogs from designated drop off points or the rescue. The fosterers are the dogs’ final stepping stone to their forever home

and they remain in their foster home until a suitable application for the dog is received. For some dogs this can be a day, others many months.

Steph Webb Elder is a fosterer who lives in West Wales and often looks after bitches that have come to the rescue pregnant, even caring for more than one litter at a time. Sometimes the bitch has the pups at the rescue then moves to Steph, other times the pups are born at her home. She had the following experience last year:

“March the 31st 2019 will be forever etched in my memory, the best and worst day of a pup fosterer’s “career” and something that I would never wish on my worst enemy. It all started out pretty “text book.” Cosey had been left at a rescue pregnant and came to us to have her pups in comfort and warmth. She was beautiful, loving, gentle but confident which is not something that you often find in rescue dogs. We were expecting a fairly large litter (7 or 8?) as we had been told that she had a tummy full of pups. She didn’t leave us long enough (4 days?) to get her rescanned before she went into labour, her temperature dropped and she went off her food. As the evening progressed her contractions got harder and the first puppy was born. It was amazing and she was obviously a very good mum, there were long gaps (approx. 2hrs) between pups but at that point I wasn’t overly worried as she knew what she was doing. Then puppy number 5

started to make an appearance and it was quickly apparent that the pup was too big to be born, I couldn’t move the pup back at all and he (as it turns

out) was wedged firmly in the birth canal so with a quick call to the vet at midnight we started to make our way there. Cosey was calm for the whole 14 mile journey.

We had placed the 4 pups in a cardboard box with a (luke warm) hot water bottle and taken them with us. She seemed to realise that we were doing our best to help her and when we got there we were met by the vet and a nurse. They scanned her to see if there were other pups stuck behind the wedged one and we figured there were probably another 4 or 5 pups. It was going to be a big litter but nothing that we weren’t prepared for. They tried to manoeuvre the stuck pup but it wasn’t

happening. It was a C Section job and an emergency. As Cosey was prepped for theatre we told her what a brave girl she was and that she would never have to go through this ever again. Then they started. We have an incredible relationship with our vets and are fortunate enough to be in the position to work with them on many procedures. This time they were actually pleased for an extra pair of hands as the pups kept on coming. 7 more were born by C Section, bringing the total number of pups to 11. It was an insane number of pups to expect an emaciated Springer spaniel mum to raise. We were stood there talking about how often the pups would need topping up with milk in

order to help Cosey cope, when the vet checked her breathing (she was being stitched up at this point) and she was ok. Then the vet nurse checked, within 5 mins, and I will never forget the words “oh my God, she’s gone”. They did all they could but her heart had given out on the table. Poor Cosey’s legacy to the world after being used as a breeding machine was to give her last and everything to making sure that her pups were ok. I was in shock and didn’t know what to do. I was very aware that there were now 11 very hungry HUGE pups that needed feeding and if we didn’t crack on and get on with caring for them, we would lose them all as well. I gave her a kiss on the nose and promised her that we would look after her kids. Hence the litter’s nick-name of “Cosey’s Kids”. At 4 a.m. with day just dawning, we arrived home.” Steph and her mum and family friend, along with her vet and the Many Tears team for support, went on to successfully handraise all 11 pups, which is a huge achievement. They were all adopted and are doing well in their new homes

Many dogs that come to Many Tears have serious medical issues and where possible, dogs are treated to give them the best chance of a great life in their new home. Ailments range from glaucoma which requires the eye to be removed, cataracts, heart murmurs, paralysis, megasophogus, mange, luxating patella and liver shunts. This

means large medical bills from specialist vets (such as eye surgery), so that dogs with cataracts in both eyes have at least one eye operated on so they can see, so that world is not such a scary place. Heather Wolfe recalls Karisma, an older farm dog she fostered, cast out as ‘not needed,’ who came into Many Tears blind, but had one of her eyes bulging due to glaucoma. The eye was removed and she went to Heather to recover. She said: “Karisma was a happy girl, recovering well, with fur around the wound growing back. She loved the garden, and going for walks on the lead, but then developed a sticky eye in her remaining eye which didn’t respond to eye drops.

“Sylvia asked for her to be taken to my local vet, where, to my deep sadness, it was found that glaucoma was in the remaining eye. Sylvia spoke to the vet on the phone and insisted she received an urgent referral for Karisma. This was arranged for the next day, with the local Eye Specialist Vet, where the pressure in her eye was so great, poor Karisma was operated on that same morning to remove her remaining eye. “Karisma was so much happier once the eye was removed, and as she had been blind for some time, didn’t miss the eye at all. Sylvia and the team at Many Tears were excellent sorting out this emergency and Karisma now lives quite locally in a loving home, with people who have had experience of blind dogs and were not fased by her affliction. Her fur grew back well covering the wounds. She is a very happy, lucky little dog.”

Fosterer, Sarah Jones, fostered Teo and Tali - French Bull Dog puppies - who arrived at the rescue in an

horrendous state, absolutely skeletal, riddled with worms and awful stomach issues. Sarah stated: “When Sylvia collected them, she didn’t think either would survive but had to give them a chance. Unfortunately, Teo didn’t make it and passed away in my arms after three days. But after a few weeks of

round the clock care at MT (where she went home with staff member, Lisa, every night) little Tali (now Lady) was strong enough to be adopted.”

Thanks to Sylvia, Many Tears staff, fosterers and supporters these dogs and thousands of others are now living in loving homes.

Many Tears is suffering the effects of coronavirus with a fall in donations and a likely ban on rehoming dogs:

Sylvia writes a blog on the Many Tears forum and this is her heartbreaking entry from 16-03-20:

We are already starting to see the devastating impact of the Coronavirus on Many Tears. There has been a significant drop in donations of food and the impact is enormous as we rely heavily on the generosity of the public not only for financial contributions but dog food and cleaning products.

Unlike nationally known rescue organisations who have financial resources to rely on, Many Tears invests all its money on the ongoing running costs of the rescue. Every tin of dog food and cleaning products helps so please have a look at the Wish List for items that are always needed. This is a terrible time for everyone, but I hadn’t expected it to impact on the dogs too. It is truly devastating. Everyday dogs will die, if adoptions cease, those waiting for a space would have to be turned down. I am taking a HUGE chance still accepting dogs into the rescue, but I believe somehow these dogs will be safe and rehomed to make space for others. The day we are forced to lock down I will need your prayers. I will NEVER give up on the dogs.

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COVID-19 BURTONS UPDATE 25/03/2020

As the UK Government escalates the response to COVID-19, it is our responsibility to act in a pragmatic and considerate manner, balancing the needs of the animal sector, business and the wider population. We have taken several steps to ensure that we are doing our bit at Burtons, whilst upholding our offer to the animal community in this difficult time, but please rest assured that our services through Burtons Direct remain largely unaffected at this time.

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Importantly, at Burtons we have significant manufacturing capability here in the UK. We have offered some of this capacity to meeting the national demand of the COVID-19 relief effort but otherwise remain certain of maintaining stock of the highest quality Burtons manufactured equipment. We also carry an extensive stock of a number of other products, ready for despatch.

Finally, as a tightly knit family-run business, working in some of the most caring of sectors, we feel the strain of these difficult and uncertain times very personally. From all of us here at Burtons, we wish you well the coming weeks and months and will be on hand to assist you where possible.

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