A dogs charity which recues and rehomes Siberian Huskies and Malamutes is looking to recruit more foster homes to help with an increasing number of dogs left in their care.

Saint Sled Dogs Rescue is a non-profitable charity set up in 2013 by founder Heather Saville, when she fostered a three-year-old Siberian Husky Athena who previously had been unable to find a rescue placement due to needing medical treatment.

Taking Athena into her care Heather managed to raise £800 in just a few short hours covering costs of her leg amputation and after care, and from there Heather knew she wanted to do something different and decided to found Saint Sled Dogs Rescue.

Since then the charity has gone from success to success with 1023 dogs rescued, with an experienced team of 40 volunteers acoss the UK aiming to help as many unwanted, neglected or stray Siberian Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes through the process of fostering, rehabilitating and re-homing, or simply by supporting their owners with help and advice.

The charity is now looking to recruit more people for fostering after seeing an increasing number of dogs left in their care due to factors such as the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

Leah Ryan works as the charity’s South Wales area Co-ordinator and recently visited Abergavenny with two-year-old Milo, one of the dogs looking to be fostered. They currently have 40 dogs in fostering with 63 others on the waiting list.

Speaking to our reporter, Leah said: “The last two years have been particularly busy for us with many dogs relinquished into our care. In the last two years there has been a 45 per cent increase in dogs needing to be rehomed by us, much of which was down to the Covid pandemic.”

Despite Covid lockdowns and restrictions easing over the last year, the charity is increasingly busy once again with a rising number of dogs being left to them due to the worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Leah added: “In July alone we had 50 dogs sent to us for fostering or rehoming, and as we are not as well-known in Wales there is a real need to raise awareness of what we are doing to recruit more potential foster homes.”

For those who choose to foster a dog through the charity there is a minimum foster period of two weeks, with all vets bills covered during this period. All dogs that come into SSDR are neutered, vaccinated, assessed and medically cleared before leaving for their forever homes.

SSDR do take in dogs with special behavioural needs which means that they have to ensure that all homes are assessed correctly to match a home to the dogs needs, but volunteers are on hand to offer 24-hour support to those who foster.

The charity has a strong success rate for adoptions with 84 dogs successfully rehomed this year alone. Over the years, the charity has increased their number of successful adoptions every year with 95 adoptions in 2018 rising to 161 in 2021.

SSDR are now also looking into building their own Boarding and Rescue kennels to save even more dogs, and have set up a fundraising page to help raise the £200,000 needed to build such a facility. The planned building would include on-site facilities such as two Boarding Blocks and two Rescue Kennel Blocks that could help the charity save as many as 300 dogs per year.

For more information please visit the website https://www.saintssleddogrescue.co.uk/