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SLB
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17-01-2012, 01:30 PM

Many Tears - an article

I saw this elsewhere and wondered what you guys thought.

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.
http://dogpolitics.co.uk/?p=249

I find the first comment at the bottom of the article interesting too..
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Razcox
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17-01-2012, 01:57 PM
hummm does make interesting reading and the first comment did make some good points too. I would expect them to do more to bring the puppy farmers to justice TBH
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crestnut
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17-01-2012, 02:11 PM
I have been questioning Many Tears ethics re puppyfarmed dogs that they take in for qwhile now on various forums but was always sort of shouted down about it !!!!!!Interesting
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MarchHound
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17-01-2012, 02:28 PM
How funny that I was discussing MT and the supply of puppies and ex breeding pedigrees it always has only at the weekend.....

Dodgie.

As for shipping dogs from Ireland, Dogs Trust do that too.
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krlyr
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17-01-2012, 02:29 PM
It's a tough one but you could question many rescues. Why are rescues like SOS bringing dogs from Spain over to the UK to rehome when we have enough dogs in rescues here? Why are likes like Rescue Remedies/Staffie Rescue filling themselves up with harder to home Staffies/Staffie crosses instead of euthanising them and going for quantity over quality? Why do vets healthcheck BYB puppies so that they can be sold as "vet-checked"? Many people justify something that has no benefit longterm because it has a shortterm benefit, and vice versa. Rescue Remedies helps the Staffies that need homes *now* - do they turn away that desperate case "for the greater good"? Do vets refuse to deal with BYBs to make a point - but let puppies get sick and die in the shortterm? MT reporting puppyfarmers may eventually help in the longterm, but shortterm it will prevent any puppyfarmers contacting them again for fear of being prosecuted. It is naive to think that they will just give up breeding because they no longer have an outlet for the undesirable puppies or the bitches that are no longer of any use, they will simply dispose of them by other means.
I haven't looked into Many Tears that much, so I can't defend them personally, but equally I'm not going to just jump on a bandwagon criticizing them because of an internet article. I've been the victim of malicious internet gossip and not everything you read is the truth.
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Murf
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17-01-2012, 02:55 PM
Cant win ...
They turn down people and get criticized then they get called puppy sellers ..
It was the RSPCA getting stick the other week for having to much money ..

As for running a rescue like a business sounds like a good idea to me ...
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ClaireandDaisy
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17-01-2012, 03:28 PM
Who wrote the article? A disgruntled volunteer perhaps?
I have set up and managed small Charities. I have in fact removed one from charitable status to make it a not-for profit organisation. Why? Because it is easier to manage and less admin.
I have Chaired a charity that was in danger of being taken over by 3 people in a politically-motivated move. At the AGM those who have a vote (members and Trustees) can remove or elect new Comittee members and then go on to change rules etc. Luckily I got wind of it and was able to make sure members were aware. If (as with the usual AGM) only the basic dogsbodies turned up, the clique would have taken over. So yes, you do lose control
If people feel this Rescue is not doing the job they wish it to, they should set up a Charity themselves and do what they feel is the right thing.
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ClaireandDaisy
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17-01-2012, 03:32 PM
Originally Posted by Murf View Post

As for running a rescue like a business sounds like a good idea to me ...
Actually... you now have the option to:

Private limited liability companies


You may want to create a limited liability company if the organisation is likely to:

be large
employ people
enter into contracts to deliver or use services
own land or property

An example of a charity that is a limited company might be a local arts charity that promotes the culture of a particular group in the community by organising cultural events. They might need to be a limited company in order to hire a lighting company for an event.

more info here http://webarchive.nationalarchives.g...oups/DG_066537
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coventrycatfish
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17-01-2012, 04:03 PM
I know nothing about Many Tears other than that article, a few things I've seen on here previously and not really read, and a quick glance over the MT website just now. Therefore I didn't really have an opinion about them.

However, to me the article looks like it may well have been written by someone with a grudge. Maybe a former member of staff or someone who tried to adopt a dog and was turned down.

I can understand their view on wanting to keep the rescue as a "not for profit" registered company, both because he has a business at the same premises and because she wants to keep control over the rescue she founded and run it how she feels it ought to be run. If I were in her shoes, I would probably be doing something similar.

As for the rescue paying them a lease for the property, well they have to have the money to eat, pay a mortgage, bills, whatever. The rescue would certainly have to pay some sort of lease/rent if it were based anywhere else that's not on their property.

They are in between a rock and a hard place with the puppy farmers. If they take these dogs, people criticise them, and if they don't, they are faced with the knowledge that the dogs will probably be hit over the head with a shovel or drowned in a bucket. They can't win, can they?

At the end of the day, they are attempting to make a difference in a world where so many don't care. They don’t deserve a load of criticism for trying to do the right thing for the dogs.
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Ben Mcfuzzylugs
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17-01-2012, 04:51 PM
If everything is above board I dont see a problem

They are helping in the way they feel is right, if people dont agree with their methods then they can support another organisation that they do agree with

not for profit/charity - I dont think the dogs care either way
Getting rent from the charity for the use of their land - dont see a problem, if they dont have an income, cant pay their bills, cant help the dogs

Taking dogs from puppy farmers - well it gives the dogs a chance at a nice life - the PF would still keep on breeding and find less nice ways to get rid of the dogs - and at the end of the day at least they as trying to help the dogs right now, I am doing nothing for puppy farm pups, so who am I to critasize someone who has found a way they are happy with

shipping from Ireland - lots of people do - I did, DT do when they are quiet - clearly there is a way bigger problem there than here

So yes we should be trying to stop the PF and the Irish bad breeders - but someone also has to do something about the dogs NOW
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