SHARING TRAININGKNOWLEDGE, OTHERS TO DELIVER HIGH-QUALITY VET CARE ANIMAL WELFARE INTERVENTIONS AT OUR HISTORIC SHELTER IN KENSAL GREEN

With capacity for up to 15 dogs and 80 cats on-site, and many more in foster homes, we are not the biggest shelter in London – and we don’t want to be. Our focus is on preventing dogs and cats from needing to come into shelter in the first place.

When dogs and cats do come into Mayhew, they often need a lot of care, love and support from our teams. Alongside the veterinary attention they require, each animal receives a tailored enrichment plan and goes through thorough assessments so we can match them to the environment best suited to their individual needs. In 2022 we enhanced our behaviour modification approach for dogs in particular, working with a clinical animal behaviourist to ensure that every dog in our care has the best chance of finding their forever home.

Two-year-old Chow Chow, Bungle, came into Mayhew with very sore and painful eyes due to a condition called entropion, which caused his eyelashes to turn inwards. After successful surgery at our community vet clinic, Bungle needed monitoring and lots of TLC while his eyes healed. Our staff and volunteers were unable to resist Bungle’s sociable personality and he soon became Mayhew’s unofficial ‘office dog’, spending his days outside of mealtimes and walkies receiving love and attention from staff and volunteers in the open plan office.

At Mayhew, we know that we can have impact far beyond our physical locations in communities by sharing our knowledge with others and to train the next generation of veterinary talent.

We’ve joined forces with the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine to provide fourth-year students a ‘hands-on’ experience performing neutering procedures at our community vet clinic in London.

Melanie Blevins, Teaching Fellow in Small Animal Surgery at the University of Surrey says, “The neutering clinic days hosted by Mayhew are an invaluable opportunity for our students to put all of their training into practice in a real-life environment”

Veterinary Student, Annie, adds, “I am so grateful to all of the Mayhew and University staff, the lovely pets, and their owners for such an amazing experience. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to practice with expert supervisors and leave with the confidence to perform vital surgical and anaesthetic skills, the necessary patient care, and all aspects of communication required for the job.”

We are committed to improving veterinary competencies and capacity overseas as well as at home in London.

Our Afghanistan Country Director, Dr Abdul-Jalil Mohammadzai DVM – or Dr Mo – is a passionate advocate of our humane dog population management approach and speaks at conferences around the world on the subject.

STUDENTS VISITED OUR LONDON CLINIC IN 2022

In 2022, he spent two weeks in Iraq training vets at War Paws and speaking to local authorities about our ‘Kabul model’, before heading to Algeria in November to train more vets alongside our funder, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation.

In Tbilisi, Georgia, our newly opened clinic serves as a training centre for vets and other veterinary professionals with four vet professionals receiving training from the team.

Dr Mo was acknowledged as a Rabies Hero by MSD Animal Health in March 2022. He was given the award for his ground-breaking work to eliminate dog-mediated rabies in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, a mission he is passionate about and on which he speaks widely.

Our teams took the time Bungle needed to work on other quirks, such as his preference for not eating from dog bowls, instead providing all his meals on lick mats, and desensitising him so that he was comfortable to wear a harness. After eight months at Mayhew, Bungle finally found his forever family in early 2023 and the whole Mayhew team were there to wave him off to his new home in Oxfordshire.

In London, despite focusing our intake within our five-borough catchment area in 2022, we still saw a significant year-on-year increase in the number of requests for us to take on dogs and cats that pet owners felt they could no longer care for. Coupled with a reduction in adopters coming forward, our shelter has been stretched to the limit and we have only been able to help as many dogs and cats as we have thanks to our amazing team of volunteer foster carers.

It was one of the hottest days of the year when Bob, a fivemonth-old ginger cat, was brought into Mayhew. The young cat was found unconscious, and he was quickly taken to our clinic where the team discovered he had sustained serious head injuries. He had a split upper palate alongside other trauma, likely caused by him falling from some height such as from a flat’s balcony.

Our clinic team set to work on getting him conscious and safe before moving him to a cosy cabin in our kitten block. He was continuously monitored by the team and soon enough, this sweet cat was healed and ready for rehoming. He found his forever home shortly after, and now spends his days snoozing on sofas and chasing leaves across a protected garden.

Emma, Bob’s owner, said: “Bob is the most confident, playful, and loving cat and I am so grateful to the team at Mayhew for caring for him so wonderfully. can never thank them enough for helping him become the cat he is and bringing us together!”

Our incredible team of volunteer foster carers enable us to care for many more cats and dogs awaiting their forever homes.