PAWS is a work in progress, we started out in Feb 1997 with the intention to rehome unwanted dogs from their current homes. However, we soon realised the huge amount of abuse, neglect and abandonment of dogs throughout the County and we started to give them shelter and veterinary care… News spread fast and soon we were dealing with cases from Cork and Kerry to Sligo and Donegal… Since that time PAWS, has rescued, vaccinated, neutered and rehomed thousands of dogs and as 70% of these were adults, our neutering programme has prevented millions of unwanted puppies being born and consequently dumped in ditches, dustbins and dog pounds. Sometimes we feel like ‘giving up and giving in’ but then somebody says a kind word or calls to visit, with a happy, healthy adored pet, which when it originally came in to our care was a quivering, ravenous, petrified mess. Days like those give you the strength to carry on that extra mile. As you may know, we at PAWS depend totally on the public to help us to keep our doors open to abandoned and abused animals. The National Lottery have thus far ignored pleas from Animal Welfare groups to grant aid our work and the Dept of Agriculture very kindly give a small grant each year to rescue centers Sadly, however, this covers only a minute portion of the running costs, which ran to over 300 thousand euro last year. The rest is made up from flag days, fundraisers and donations. We, at PAWS now find ourselves under serious pressure. Our biggest …