Which animal charities do you think make a real difference?

[WhenTheresAWill]

I’m going to make a will soon and I’m trying to figure out which charities to donate to once I die. I have a few in mind but I’d appreciate any suggestions too as I’m keen to donate to smaller charities too. Here or abroad, pets or wildlife and any species.

I’ve no children or partner(No desire for a partner either) so I want to leave it to charity.

TIA

Actually, several of the larger animal charities are highly litigious about money left to them in wills. Such reports of harrassment to get probate and have the cash handed over are pretty common.

Find that hard to believe but if they are it's because they want to help animals- so all in a good cause

Well they damn well should do everything to get the money left to them. Of course they should. It's amazing how many relatives, who have had no contact with the deceased for decades, decide to contest wills when they discover everything has been left to charity. I've left everything to charity. I would hate, after my death, for some distant relative I have no relationship with to try to take the money I want to go to a cause I deeply care about.

A friend without internet access asked me to find animal charities working in Ukraine for her to donate to - ones that looked good to me were https://www.animalrescuekharkiv.org, UAnimals and https://uwarf.org. Some charities with a wider remit which also work in Ukraine are Vetinarians Without Borders, Four Paws and Wildlife & Welfare.

Be very wary of this - the local ones are only as good as the people running them.
I am not going to give examples but i know of ridiculous misguided wastes of money connected to local branch rspca ,i would be quite annoyed if i had contributed to their funds, but i have no idea how you would be able to find out what their donated funds had been spent on.

As a cat lover instead of having a pet I support SavingWildcats, which is working to improve the endangered Scottish Wildcat population.
Fauna and Flora International also have various species specific projects, such as pangolins.
Both these charities seem to spend less on advertising than some better known ones.

I volunteer for a local branch. I agree that the branches are only as good as those running them but I do believe they genuinely have animal welfare at the heart of what they do. We have information publicly displayed in the branch stating exactly what we spend the money on.
Obviously I cannot comment on other branches but I’d like to think other branches would be transparent too. I’m interested in what you perceive as misguided waste of money though.

i campaigned recently improve animal welfare in abattoirs and was successful in having the law changed. Several animal charities worked with me. Two that stood out were OneKind in Edinburgh and Animal Aid based in Kent. OneKind campaigns to improve animal welfare and has been successful in bringing about significant changes. Animal Aid, amongst other objectives, obtains videos from abattoirs, farming and other situations that have revealed the extent of animal suffering and brought the wrongdoers to justice including prison sentences.

Both hugely worthy of your support.

My examples would possibly identify me and my place of work sorry.
I also believe that animal welfare is at the heart of what they do.

Lol, not according to my probate department, and plenty of threads on here citing the same.

What, harassing distressed relatives? Some twisted priorities there.

It’s not relatives contesting wills. It’s charities demanding luaus of household items for value before the funeral has taken place, it’s them wanting another valuation of the property so it’s advertised for a higher amount, it’s a complete interference in the probate process being looked after by attentive relatives who have also been bequeathed in the will. These are not relatives coming out of the woodwork.

You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about.

Anyway it’s the OPs money to give away to cars or donkeys as she wants to.

Haha. Are you a lawyer then?

As I'm part of an animal charity, which is sometimes left legacies, I most certainly do know what I'm talking about.

No, but I was an executor for my dad and he’d left some money to charity. I was never hounded or pressurised to release the money.

100% agree with these sentiments - little to add, @NoctuaAthene has absolutely hit the nail on the head, unpalatable as it may be to many...

It is great you are thinking about this OP but I would agree to stick to smaller, well known local or regional charities.

I have to agree with @Jamesblonde2
my experience was identical.

A wonderful lady died, my late grandmothers best friend, who left no children or blood family.

the house was left to a large horse charity. the money to smaller local charities.

The behaviour from the Charity who were to benefit from the house was unmanageable.

two days after she died, they were hiring skips to send clearance men to clear the house and sell it. Before anything else had happened, never mind a funeral. She was a number to them.

Her personal belongings were vast and treasured. They were NOT left to the charity. They wasted a great deal of money and caused a great deal of upset in the process to her friends and loved ones.

Why don't you out the charity then?! or give us a clue...

Maybe some scammers on here serious, but fortunately OP doesn't sound stupid 👍👍

There have been some great suggestions already for you. Please have a look at
https://www.safehaven4donkeys.org/
who do wonderful
work overseas including in Egypt brick kilns providing veterinary care to working animals.

Some that I like and support:
Mayhew - it is London based, mainly works with cats & dogs, but does community work such as neutering feral cats in London and assistance for homeless people with pets - they also have some international projects e.g. vaccinating / neutering street dogs in India, Afghanistan, and training overseas vets.
Horse Trust - a retirement home for horses including ex-military and police horses, plus rescue work.
Badger Trust - they’re actually quite small but do effective protection work and campaigning.
Would you stretch to bees & insects? If so, Buglife is worth looking at. They work on conservation of invertebrates in the UK, species recovery etc.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the responses.

I'd agree with NoctuaAthene - the majority (~95%) of contributions to animal charities go to those dealing with companion animals. Despite our claim to be compassionate animal lovers, the industry responsible for the most cruelty worldwide receives less than 3% of donations; this is despite hundreds of billions of creatures suffering unspeakably every year. My advice would be to take a look at NoctuaAthene's link here:
https://www.farmkind.giving/animal-charities

Aside from that, find some reputable farm animal rescue places near you or in your country. An example of the kind of places I will be giving to are:
https://www.towerhillstables.org/aboutus
Fiona Oakes who set THS up is an inspiration to us all!

https://www.hillside.org.uk
This is a great place - I've been there several times and they really do care.
I hope this is useful.
Also bear in mind that animal farming, particularly factory farms, are responsible for more climate change than any other sector - food for thought! ;-)

I’m delighted to see this recommendation as I’m a huge advocate of The Fox Project. I volunteered for them in their ICU for years until health issues meant I could no longer continue. I have never met a nicer or more genuine group of people who are truly passionate about what they do. For awareness, it’s not just the south east where they make a difference. In addition to their ambulance / rescue service in the south east, they also advise councils (and other, including the press) on across England on humane fox deterrence and fox welfare. I don’t know if it has since changed but when I first met Trevor (the founder) years ago, he told me that they advise all but one council in England. I’ve always been curious who that one council was.🤔 They provide an incredible service on a shoestring with so much provided by volunteers and supporters (they have a list on Amazon if anyone would like to donate actual food etc). Gratuitous photos added of some of my most favourite patients over the years.

I worked as a volunteer vet assistant at the PDSA many years ago and my experience there put me off the PDSA for a long time, maybe forever. Don’t get me wrong. The charity itself and the people who worked there were great despite it being a soul-destroying job at times. On my very first shift, 9 cats died/were put to sleep in my first 15 mins of my shift. I only worked Saturdays (I had a paying job Monday-Friday) but it used to take me all week to get over the angst of the previous Saturday shift and then it was time to start again. It was heart-breaking.

But what really finished me off was that some of the PDSA’s clients (and by clients I mean the human owners) should never be allowed to have pets. Some of the clearly treated their pets as disposable and when you looked at their records it was just horrific. My first exposure to this was a cat named Monster (🙄) who died because the family bull terrier had been allowed to rip Monster’s stomach out. Obviously there was nothing we could do to save Monster. The family didn’t seem to give a damn. They had a track record of similar ‘activities’.

There were so many incidents like this and whilst I appreciate that the PDSA’s hands were tied, and they were doing the right thing by treating the animals regardless of how awful the owners were, I couldn’t couldn’t support them any longer.