Breaktime read
A First World War dog ambulance funded by Mrs Elphinstone Maitland of Connecticut, USA.
DID YOU KNOW? Blue Cross estimates that it has helped a staggering 38 million lives.
A Blue Cross Fund wounded war dogs poster.
The charity has always campaigned to raise awareness and improve the lives of animals. In 1949, it took up the plight of council tenants banned from keeping pets, resulting in an agreement that enabled pet ownership. In 1955, the ODFL officially changed its name to Blue Cross. In 1991, it launched a Pet Bereavement Support Service to support owners who had lost a pet or had to hand over an animal due to a change of circumstances. Blue Cross also became the first animal charity to employ a dog behaviourist to address behaviour issues in rescued dogs and improve their chances of being rehomed. During the covid pandemic, it launched a helpline to assist the nation’s pets and their owners in managing changes to their home environment.
Second World War soldiers are reunited with a German Shepherd at the Charlton kennels.
Protecting people
and their
The Blue Cross marks its 125th anniversary this year. Alison Gallagher-Hughes looks at the history of a charity devoted to animal welfare. nglish law may have only recently recognised animals as sentient beings, but there have always been those who have considered the needs of animals and helped people in less fortunate circumstances to care for their animals. This year, the Blue Cross charity celebrates its 125th anniversary and we look back on a journey which mirrors that of wider society, reflecting our changing attitudes and a deepening bond with the animals that share our lives. The charity was initially founded as the ‘Our Dumb Friends’ League’ (ODFL) to help working horses in London, who were often underfed, carried heavy loads, and were prone to injury on the slippery asphalt roads. In 1900, it supported dog owners who could not afford to pay a licence fee, which could result in them having to give up their pet. The dog licence remained a legal requirement until 1987. It also ran a scheme loaning water troughs to shops and homes to provide refreshment to passing dogs during hot weather.
E
30 August 2022
p30_PPM_Aug22.indd 30
s pet
dogs they had befriended. When the time came for them to return to Britain, many found they could not afford the fees for the required six-month quarantine. The ODFL acquired kennels at Charlton, South London, and turned it into a dog quarantine station. A total of 285 dogs from France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Mesopotamia (now Iraq) were received there — free to their soldier owners. In 1906, the charity opened its The start of the Second first animal hospital in Victoria, World War saw animals at central London, treating home suffer. Many were working animals and pets whose owners could not The charity plans to help abandoned when people fled cities for the relative afford private veterinary more than 120,000 pets safety of the countryside. care; it was thought to be over the next three years When the bombing started, the first of its type in the through its rehoming, those who stayed often lost world. clinical, education, and their pets. Disorientated by Its symbolic blue cross behavioural support the noise and devastation, first featured when the ODFL services. the pets would escape and be raised funds to help animals unable to find their way home. during the Balkan War of 1912. The ODFL stepped in, collecting A flag bearing a blue cross on a white stray animals and rescuing them from background was used on the field of battle bombed out buildings. Newspaper appeals to indicate facilities for injured animals, as were launched to find owners or secure opposed to the red cross for humans. temporary homes. The charity also At the start of the First World War, the produced white ‘saddle cloths’ for dogs to charity set up hospitals near the battlefields wear that enabled them to be seen during of Belgium and France, treating injured blackouts. horses, dogs, and other animals used during The Victoria Animal Hospital continued the conflict. to work around-the-clock treating sick, Horses were indispensable for both injured, and frightened animals throughout the cavalry, and for pulling gun carriages, the war. The Charlton kennels, used to wagons, ambulances, and munitions trucks. quarantine befriended dogs in the First Dogs acted as messengers and carried firstWorld War, became a refuge for the pets aid equipment on their backs. of servicemen and women called to serve Not surprisingly, by the end of the war, overseas. many soldiers had formed bonds with
DID YOU KNOW?
BLUE CROSS MEDAL In 1940, the first Blue Cross medal for pets was awarded to a dog called La Cloche, who saved her French sailor owner after he fell overboard. La Cloche dragged him to the safety of a raft where he was rescued by his crew.
Great Dane Juliana is the only pet to have been awarded the medal twice. She first won it in the Second World War after miraculously extinguishing an incendiary bomb during the Blitz. Three years later, she was awarded the medal again, after alerting customers to a fire ripping through her owners’ shop.
The rebuilt Victoria Animal Hospital was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 2001, and the charity now has four animal hospitals, five pet-care clinics, and 11 rehoming centres across the UK. It recently launched an appeal to raise £40,000 to support people and their pets fleeing across the borders of Ukraine. To date, it has raised over £150,000 and this total continues to rise; visit www.bluecross. org.uk/blue-cross-ukraine-pet-welfare-fund Kerry Taylor, education manager at Blue Cross, reflected: “We are very proud of our heritage and the work the charity does. We are needed today more than ever, with pet theft, online scams, and impulse purchase from unscrupulous sellers.” Despite changing times and the growing bond between people and their pets, there is still a need for the valuable work that Blue Cross undertakes, to protect people and their pets and, in turn, bring more people and pets together.
La Cloche.
www.petproductmarketing.co.uk
13/07/2022 09:08
