Who We Are

We are a small group of Springer enthusiasts, currently nine trustees and few regular volunteers who help us either at fundraising events or by walking the dogs.   We have worked in the Rescue area for a number of years and in 1998 we became a registered charity.

What We Do

We aim to care for and re-home as many un-wanted, stray or neglected Springer Spaniels as we can as well as proving advice and support to current owners.   Despite our title we willingly help other types of Spaniels plus cover a much larger geographical area and will not base decisions solely on the location of either a dog needing our assistance or a possible home for one of our current dogs.   As well as strays dogs come to us for reasons such as;

the "present" is too much trouble
a new baby arriving
their owners splitting up
they are too old to work
their owners working pattern changes
they have a behavioral problem
their owners move house or emigrate
they are found as a stray.
or even a new puppy arrives (so the oldie has to go!)

There are many other reasons, too numerous to list but whatever the reason, we care for them and try and find them a suitable new home as soon as possible.   Last year we helped 107 dogs find a new family.

We also provide support to a number of dogs on our foster scheme.   Although this is a costly scheme we are very proud of it and it is something that not many rescues have.   Dogs which are elderly or have a medical condition are often difficult to find homes for as people are worried about the financial commitment that may be needed.   As part of our foster scheme these dogs will be found a permanent home but we will continue to provide financial assistance towards veterinary costs.   We currently have around 30   dogs which are part of this scheme, which as you can imagine is a large drain on our funds.

SYESSR believe that all Springers deserve to be given every chance to live their full life regardless of their age or disability. Only on veterinary advice and when quality of life is poor is euthanasia considered. This ethos is a costly one and means extra income has to be found to support these dogs.

The Problems We Face

Caring For The Dogs

We do not have the luxury of our own kennels and instead rent kennel space at a local rescue/boarding kennels.   They provide the basic care food, water, cleaning etc but we have to do everything else, walking, grooming, veterinary visits etc.   On average we have around eight to twelve   dogs in kennels at any one time so this can be very time consuming.

Finding Suitable Homes

The most important aspect of our work is finding new suitable homes for the Springers in our care.   This can prove difficult as many people looking for a dog have a picture in their mind of the perfect dog (colour, size, age, markings, temperament etc etc) and the dog they initially choose may not be suitable for their lifestyle.   We are also increasingly finding that we are getting a number of dogs that are harder to find suitable homes for, this may be because they are elderly or have medical/behavioural problems, but the outcome is that they spend many months in kennels.   As we are limited financially to the number of dogs we can have in kennels at any one time, the fact kennel space is taken up by these long term dogs means we cannot help other Springers in need.     However we will never give up on them, we are sure that there is the perfect home out there for every dog.   For example our longest ever resident, Skipper, was with us around five years and yet when we did find him a home he has proved to be an almost perfect dog who is having a fabulous life and is loved dearly by his new owners.   They cannot believe that in all that time no one else had given him a chance.

Money

We are not a big charity and do not have the cushion of a nice healthy bank balance.   The majority of our income is spent on kenneling and Veterinary fees (over 92%) and despite being out fundraising as often as possible we still are always worrying about where the next £1 will come from.