Volunteers giving their time to care for animals in Limerick this Christmas and New Years

MANY of us look forward to rekindling family traditions on Christmas Day and for a some loyal volunteers that will include making their way to the Limerick Animal Welfare (LAW) sanctuary in Kilfinane.

At the moment the sanctuary is at capacity, as it is almost year round. 

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There are around 60 cats and kittens, up to 60 dogs and other animals under their loving care. 

Vice chairperson of LAW, Geraldine Gunning said that they have about 15 volunteers who come regularly. 

“These volunteers are a constant and they are wonderful, others come and go and there are companies who come on volunteer days about every three weeks, but the regulars know what to do and where to go,” she said. 

“There are volunteers who are with us for 15 years, they know all the animals by name and everything about them,” Ms Gunning said. 

She added that even though Christmas and New Year's are busy times, there was no hesitancy from volunteers coming forward and they filled their rota very quickly. 

The volunteers will do everything from cleaning kennels and maintenance to sorting out food, cleaning the animals, walking them or just sitting with, chatting to and socialising the dogs. 

“Some volunteers love cleaning and they'll just do that, others will do anything that needs to be done and some are really good at photographs,” Ms Gunning said. 

“One lady is retired and she gave up the gym and started coming here to walk the dogs instead for her exercise,” she said. 

Ms Gunning said they see some unspeakable cruelty, but that the voluntary work restores her faith in humanity. 

“There's a feel good factor here at Christmas and New Years - there are wonderful people out there,” Ms Gunning said. 

Ms Gunning spoke about Mary who takes a special interest in older small dogs - walks them, bathes them, sits with and chats and gets them ready to be rehomed.

“When the dogs get a home, Mary would always come in to meet the new owners and tell them all about the dog's character and what they like.” 

She added: “We also have a husband and wife who visit every weekend to walk the bigger dogs.”

LAW also run three charity shops in the city centre and they would welcome any and all Christmas themed donations or unwanted gifts, as they will be put away for next year. 

There are almost 40 volunteers who keep the three shops running, sort out stock and while the charity shop income has declined since Covid, the shops would still represent about a third of the income for LAW. 

Between maintenance, vet bills, food and overheads, it costs around €90,000 a month to run LAW, so any and all fundraising makes a huge difference to their  costs. 

Earlier this month,  Limerick Animal Welfare was  allocated €120,000 under the Animal Welfare Grants Programme from the Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Limerick Feral Cats was awarded €19,000 under the same programme.