My name is Samantha Davis and I am the Supporter Relations Officer for Dogs Trust Basildon Rehoming Centre and cover Essex and surrounding areas. Despite the pandemic, our work at Dogs Trust continues – and as part of this, I wanted to let you know I offer free talks to community and social groups across Essex and neighbouring counties. Due to the current climate, we are only able to offer VIRTUAL TALKS - via Zoom currently. But as the landscape is ever-changing, we are hopeful that we will once again be able to offer TALKS IN PERSON at a later date dependent on government guidelines and social distancing requirements in place. So who are we, what do we do and what does the future hold? I won’t go into too much detail now (I’ll save that for the presentation!). However, in simple terms, we love and care for around 15,000 dogs every year at our network of rehoming centres and we never put down a healthy dog.

Aside from providing a rehoming service for the dogs that come to us, we also run various other projects, campaigns and services, like the Canine Care Card Service. This is a free service, whereby, in the event of the owner’s death, we will look after their dog, providing them with all the care they need until we can find a responsible, loving new home for them. This is often of great concern to the elderly, as their dog may be their only friend and companion – Dogs Trust can give them peace of mind, knowing that their canine companion’s future is safe, should the worst happen to them.