Registered Charity no: 232265

Welcome again to our Newsletter and a belated Happy New Year to you all.

I have a direct request from Linda Smallwood, Shop Manager

"Can we please have any donations of records (vinyl), cds or musical instruments that you no longer need or want. We have a table booked at a musical sale in Middlesbrough at the beginning of May and we desperately need musical items, even if they are old guitars, we are happy to receive these from you". The branch attended the sale last year and raised approx 80. The table is donated to us so we have no overheads to cover on the day. Please give generously!

Also, as ever, any unwanted bric-a-brac/presents/clothing donations for the shop. If you have large/heavy items that you cannot transport yourself, please ring and we can arrange a collection from you. We generally all get an item or two at Christmas that we would not have chosen for ourselves go on donate it! Let the guilt go and feel good about helping local animals!

The shop continues to be our main source of income for the branch and we are ever grateful to the team there for their hard work and perpetual effort.

Please let all family, friends and colleagues know that they can donate via this medium. We have had a couple of donations through this and as the Ebay phenomenon is growing let us see our donations grow with it. If you or anyone ha any queries regarding this please contact me and I will try to help.

Another Volunteer Recruitment Evening was held at East Durham & Houghall College, Peterlee in March. Thank you again, to all those who attended. I have Volunteer Information Packs available for anyone who might be interested, again just contact me and I can post this out to you.

Several of our new volunteers have attended Home Visiting Courses recently and have thoroughly enjoyed these they are now willing and able to help our local animal centres at Great Ayton & Felledge Cattery.

We have also recently run two Free Microchip afternoons, one in Shotton Colliery and one in Peterlee (see below). Thank you to volunteer Michelle Dakin who helped at both of these events. We had good publicity and we are hoping to carry out a full day of microchipping in Hartlepool in the near future. Watch press for local information.

We are continuing with the free neutering & microchip campaign for cats, dogs, rabbits etc. We have had such good success in the past, with thanks to our local Veterinary Surgeons. The statistics follow below, but the Hartlepool Branch area is continuing to be near top in the North East Region for welfare treatments, neutering and microchipping. We constantly strive to educate people as to the benefits to owner and pet of these treatments.

Our new Felledge Cattery is going from strength to strength in the 3 months it has been opened. They take in cats solely from the Inspectors and once the cats are fit and healthy they are being rehomed at a good rate, allowing more case cats to be brought in. Great Ayton continues to have a high turnaround of animals. Staffordshire Bull Terriers seem to be the latest casualty of cases; many of these dogs are lovely natured and should have no trouble in being rehomed. If you or anyone you know might be interested in any animals please contact either of these centres for further information on the animals available for rehoming.

We have several upcoming fundraising events in sight not least RSPCA Week (23-29 April). Tesco Hartlepool has again allowed us to collect in the store, letters are currently being posted requesting help during this week with collections, and just 2 hours would help us.

Community Action Week is also being run in this area in conjunction with RSPCA Week. We endeavour, with the help and support of our Inspectorate to go into the local communities, identified as potential problem areas and offer them welfare/neutering assistance. Leaflet drops will be made to let the locals know where and when we will be in attendance to distribute vouchers and advice. Please also watch local press for further information.

We also have two collection dates 12 & 13 May at Dalton Park, Murton. Again if you are interested in helping please let me know. These dates coincide with a farmers market so we are hoping for good crowds!

At last the set up of this is imminent! If you let me have your email address email me with it then hopefully I will be able to email you the next newsletter! I would prefer this for as many people as possible mainly as this will cut down on postage costs to the branch. However, if it is not viable then you will of course receive a hard copy.

Best wishes & hope to see you soon.

Lisa Hogg, Branch Co-ordinator

Tel/Fax: 0191 527 3497

Email: rspca.hartlepool@fsmail.net