Care For The Paw is the charity that looks after dogs belonging to homeless people in Liverpool city centre.
Care For The Paw came into being in 2010, and over the last few years we have evolved into a small group which provides support for dogs who are living on the streets with their homeless owners. Sadly, many people are currently homeless throughout the United Kingdom, and many have dogs with them. This charity provides support to dogs and owners by supplying dog food, treats, bedding, collars, leads, dog coats, poop bags, toys and many other dog-related items so that they can help to make life a little easier for dogs and their owners.
As well as that, they have two Vets who donate their time to health check the dogs, and vaccinate them should they need it, and administer flea and worming treatment where necessary, and provide further treatment if needed. We have two outreach teams who walk around the city centre to reach as many dogs and owners as we can. In April 2016, the law changed whereby all dogs now have to be microchipped. The heroes take care of microchipping the dogs of homeless people, so they can ensure that the dogs meet the legal requirements.
From time to time, some of our homeless friends need extra support from us. For instance, if they are admitted to hospital they are extremely anxious about what will happen to their dogs. They can step in and provide Foster Care for the dog until their owner is able to have them back. The guys are always looking for Dog Foster Carers, so if you would be interested in looking after a dog on short-term foster, please visit their Dog Foster Carer page for more information here.
We were lucky enough to sit down with one of the Vets, Danielle Greenberg:
“I’m one of the Vets that volunteers to go out with the outreach teams every other Saturday night 1st and 3rd of the month, checking on dogs and their owners we know and recording and checking any new dogs we find. We try to get the dogs microchipped and register them to the charity so they are eligible for the Hope Project which entitles them to free veterinary care at the PDSA as ordinarily they could not use the hospital as they are not in receipt of housing benefit.
We also give out dog food, treats, blankets and collars where needed. We also provide vaccinations and flea worm treatments to these precious companions.
We run a small clinic in The Basement on Parr Street on these Saturday evenings for these dogs. The charity was set up and is run by the wonderful Jan Hughes. If anyone would like to drop of any food or doggy gifts, The Basement would be wonderful on the 1st and 3rd Saturday evenings of each month.”
You can drop stuff of at:
The Basement
56-60 Parr Street
Liverpool
L1 4JN