For many dogs, a rescue charity or organisation is their last opportunity for a happy life in a forever home. Quite rightly, the organisations that carry out this work enjoy immense public support, as well as incredible loyalty from many of the people who have found dogs through them. This appreciation and loyalty makes us more forgiving of charities than we are businesses, less critical of their arrangements. But what happens when the distinction between a charity and a business starts to blur?

Many Tears Animal Rescue is a dog resuce set up by Sylvia and Bill VanAtta. The rescue operates from Sylvia and Bill’s home near Llanelli, where Bill also runs a pet boarding service. Sylvia has a long history of working in and running animal rescues. As Sylvia Wragg, she founded both Brook Cottage Animal Rescue and Last Chance Animal Rescue. She has alse been involved with Eilat Loves Animals in Israel, Harmony Rescue in Tucson and The Humane Society Richmond County, both in the United States.

Many Tears rehomes dogs no longer wanted by dog battery farmers, as well as from pounds. It is incredibly successful, finding homes for 2,000 dogs in 2011.

Clearly, this rescue is growing rapidly. It had fixed assets valued at £96,590 on 30 April 2011, compared to £62,508 a year earlier. This includes not only improvements and extensions to the property, but equipment such as vehicles and kennels. Notwithstanding Sylvia’s pleas on her blog, Many Tears is thriving.

Rehoming 2,000 dogs makes Many Tears a large rescue, with an income to match. It asks new owners for a fee of £170, which compares well to other rescues. Assuming 75% of new owners paid this fee, and the rest made a donation of £50 for an older dog that’s been in the rescue for a while, Many Tears made a rescue income in 2011 of £270,000.

It boosted this by £57,000 through fundraising. It has an active group of supporters, Friends of Many Tears, with dozens of street collections, raffles and events. In 2010, they raised £38,000 for the rescue. Sylvia does some fundraising too. Her blog has lot of requests for help with getting stuff for free, and she’s also selling models to fund trips to Ireland to rescue more dogs. It appears these trips are not popular with all her supporters.

Many Tear gets lots of free things too. Until recently Delta Pet Foods supplied all of the rescue’s food for free. They get through 25 15kg bags of dry food a week, or £17,000 of the stuff. Zoflora supply the cleaning products.


The frontpage of Many Tears' website features no dogs. It's all by or about Bill and Sylvia.

You’d think that with all this fundraising, that Many Tears would be a charity. You’d be quite mistaken. Many Tears Animal Rescue Ltd is currently set up as a company limited by guarantee, And although the company is set up to be non profit-making, it means that it can reveal much less than a charity has to about its operations.

This is clearly a sore point with Sylvia and Bob. On their website, after a long introduction to them, is a long defence from Bill about why Many Tears is not a charity. Buried in this explanation is this interesting argument:

Sylvia and I would no longer control the rescue. We would have to have lease agreements and legal doccuments drawn up protecting us from the rescue and the rescue from us.

This is an odd thing to say, given that that is precisely how Sylvia and Bill have things set up with Many Tears. Although the company is run from Sylvia and Bill’s own home, it pays them for the privilege of doing so. Many Tears Ltd leases its proprty from Sylvia and Bill, paying them £12,957 a year in lease charges.

The main sticking point seems to be Bill’s kennelling business, Cawdor Kennels, that he runs from the same premises. Bill’s concerned that running a business and a charity together would be lethal.

Now imagine- my tumble drier breaks and I run a load of bedding over to the rescue side to borrow their drier, again no problem. But what if we were a registered charity? I have just benefited from the charity by using their dryer. Now our little “no problem” becomes a big problem in the eyes of the Commission. As we all share the property we have loads of little “no problems” here.

This is an incredibly weak argument. Arranging the VanAtta’s dog rescue company into a charity and kennels would be easy job for the right solicitor and accountant. Even if it did cost Many Tears £7,500 it would be money well spent, As well as tax benefits, it would be able to demonstrate the probity we expect from an organisation that stops us on the street and asks us for cash.

It is unfair for Many Tears to enjoy the benefits of charity, while sidestepping its moral responsibility to account for its fundraising and spending. Until it makes the leap, you have to see Many Tears for what it is. A thriving, growing, dog rescue business which should not be crowding out other charities that can account for what they do better.

As for running a rescue like a business sounds like a good idea to me ...