Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home were having an Open Day with guided tours, aimed principally at schoolchildren,  but we can all say we are young at heart.

I arrived just in time - thanks to a signal failure at Brixton which considerably delayed the Victoria Line, before they decided to suspend all trains south of Victoria.   But I managed to get the 1.54 p.m. train, destined to arrive at 1.58, and a quick sprint along the road to the Home meant I was only a couple of minutes late, and the tour hadn't yet departed.

The tour lasted only about half an hour, but I learned quite a lot about the Home from it.  

Battersea Dogs Home was started in Holloway in 1860 by a lady called Mary Tealby, their first Chairman, who died in 1865.  It moved to Battersea in 1871, following complaints from the neighbours about the noise and the smell; they bought the current site for just £1500.   Battersea Power Station, just around the corner, which is not much bigger, recently went for over £40 million - though most of that enormous increase in value has only occured in the past ten years. 

They now have three Homes: the one in Battersea, and newer ones in old Windsor and Brands Hatch, which can house up to 450 dogs and 150 cats.   At Battersea, a brand new cattery was opened in 2010.

Since 1860, they have cared for over 3.5 million animals.   Their Lost Dogs and Cats Line has reunited over 30,000 dogs and cats with their owners since it was launched.   Their volunteers spend over 50,000 hours every year socialising dogs and cats.   Every year, the Homes care for an average of 20,771 dogs and cats, and they have 100,000 visitors.

On average, cats stay for 32 days before being re-homed, whilst dogs stay for 48 days.   Whilst they are there, dogs cost £24 per day and cats £16.

Part of the tour included a visit to the dogs exercise room, where, amongst other things, they had the chance to jump over fences run through tunnels, and jump up on tables.   The dogs giving the demonstration of tbheir prowess still had a lot to learn, but they were getting there.   Unfortunately, because the girl explaining everythign had such a very strong accent - it's quite difficult to follow someone who adds a vowell at the end of every word, so that she speaks of a "Cata" and a "Doga"  and a "Homa", and also holds her crib sheet in front of her face.   Her enthusiasm was obvious,buyt it would have been nice to know exactly what she was saying.

After the tour finished, I wne to have a look at the places where the dogs and cats were kept.    For the dogs, that involved, climbing a ramp up a couple of floors, or taking the stairs - they are housed on the upper floors, with superb views over to the river.   Each entry door has the name of a street, like Fleet Street on it.   The dogs themselves are not just well looked after, they are pampered.   Each dog has its own light, airy room, with a proper bed to sleep in and a shelf to lie on, together with toys to play with.   Everything, as one would expect, was spotlessly clean.   Most of the dogs seemed to be  staffies, with the odd Siberian husky and German shepherd and lurcher.    There were no little dogs, and no little puppies.

The cattery was partly closed, with a small part was open on the third floor, so I climbed the stairs to have a look.   No adorable little kittens, like in the Mayhew Animal Home - just large cats, one of which, a black one, kept mieowing at me when I paused by its room - I won't say cage, for that give the wrong impression of their living conditions.   Their rooms are almost as big as the ones for students at Leeds University where I attended a summer school many years ago.