Homeless charity St Mungo’s has had to open its London emergency shelter an unprecedented five times this winter, which includes the second-coldest March since records began. Government figures indicate that there were 5,000 more deaths this March than for the same period in previous years.

The shelter is used to save the lives of those sleeping rough, when temperatures drop to below zero for three consecutive nights and when all the permanent hostel beds are being used. They offer an emergency bed, a hot shower, hot food and clean clothes while the charity looks for more permanent accommodation. Continue reading →

Animal welfare charities, such as Animal Aid, continue to attack horse racing, pointing out that nearly 400 animals are raced to death every year.

Especially targeted is the annual Grand National at Aintree, Liverpool, a long and dangerous race over jumps for the horses and one that makes considerable sums of money for those who knowingly risk the animals, and the bookies, media, sponsors and racecourses etc that all pocket a cut. Races involving jumps are far more hazardous than flat racing, resulting in one death for every 121 jump racing starts compared with one for every 2278 flat racing starts, or 18 times more. For this reason some racecourses in the UK have discontinued them, firstly Nottingham in 1996, then Windsor in 1998 and Wolverhampton in 2002. Continue reading →

Christopher O’Neill, founder of the Forces for Good trust for wounded members of the armed forces, who used money granted to his charity by the Welsh Assembly to fund a lavish lifestyle, has been jailed for three years for fraud. See Charity Matters Feb/March 2013 Issue 47 FORCES CHARITY ROBBED BY FOUNDER.

Sentencing O’Neill, 51, on 20th February at Caernarfon crown court judge Niclas Parry told him:- “You have committed a wicked deception on the public purse”

Criticism has been levelled at the Wood Green Animal Shelter, Godmanchester, Cambridge after the charity destroyed a donor’s golden retriever within hours of the donor’s death. (Mail Online)

Widow Lynda Hill had signed up for the charity’s Pet Promise Scheme in which Wood Green staff promise to try to find a new home for a pet if the owner is unable to look after it. In the event Mrs Hill was found at her home in Peterborough with her dog lying beside her after she had been dead for several days, and neighbours, used to seeing her walking the dog, became concerned and raised the alarm. Police breaking in to Mrs Hill’s home and finding her dead gave the dog food and water and played with it in the garden until it was collected by the charity. Continue reading →

Charities running events are moving away from balls, and hotels, and running a wider variety of events in a wider variety of venues.

These are two of the trends noted over the last 20 years by Mary Kay Eyerman, editor of the London Datebook charity magazine who notes that a number of charity sporting events are supplementing the London Marathon with more marathons, half-marathons, long walks, shorter walks for toddlers and bike rides. Events in hotels are being supplemented with some in livery halls, restaurants, art galleries, stately homes, and even prisons, ( good places to have Lord Archer at?) and all to offer donors somewhere different they might like to go to. Continue reading →