A Merseyside animal rescue centre could be forced to close its doors as it faces "scary" bills heading into winter.
Jackson's Animal Rescue opened its Wildlife Centre in Frankby in 2018 with the intention of providing specialist care for animals in Wirral. In September 2020, founder, Steph Oliver, opened a second centre near Mold, North Wales, however the mounting cost of living crisis is making it increasingly challenging to maintain both sites.
Steph told the ECHO: "The Wirral site is the more expensive site to run. Obviously, we pay rent like any other business and we need two members of staff to run it all the time.
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"We have about £1,000 in vets bills every month and with the Wildlife Centre, we don't have domestic animals so there’s no adoption fees coming in meaning we don't really have an income. Lately, we’ve been at a point where we’ve had to think about closing it because we can't afford to run it.”
This year, Jackson's has taken in hundreds of animals across its two sites but the charity is currently "drowning" in bills, with many animals needing heaters and incubators as part of their care. Steph said the charity is being inundated with new admissions, with some owners even resorting to desperate measures to try and offload their pets.
She said: “Its just crazy. Every time the phone rings at the moment its another animal on the waiting list. It’s a mix between everyone getting a cat or a dog during lockdown and then the cost of living going up meaning people can’t afford to look after them.
"I got a call from a vet last week and they had a cat whose owner had threatened to feed it to their dog if the vet didn’t take it off them. The vet can’t hold on to cats, they’re not a rescue, so if we hadn’t taken it off them, they’d have had to put a healthy young cat to sleep and things like that are happening all the time.”
Steph said donations are at an "all time low" and the charity "needs a miracle" to be able to survive the coming winter. In a bid help boost Jackson's depleted funds, Steph took to social media to appeal for help.
She has since been flooded with supportive comments and donations, and has managed to raise around £13,000 toward the charity's £20,000 shortfall in the last few days. She said: “If we were to lose our Wildlife Centre, we wouldn’t have anything based on the Wirral and our whole idea was to help care for animals in the Wirral.
"Some days, we’ll have ten hedgehogs brought in so it's terrifying to think about what will happen if we’re not there. It’s amazing that people have donated. People have sent us the nicest messages saying they really appreciate what we do. Even if people can’t afford to donate, its nice to know that we’re appreciated.”
To find out more about how to donate, email contact@jacksonsanimalrescue.co.uk or click here.
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