Mars Associates Help RSPCA create a kitten creche
Mars donates money and time to develop a Kitten crèche for the RSPCA.
05 February 2010
Mars Petcare have been investing in and supporting their local communities for over 50 years through their ‘Mars in the Community’ programme. Providing this support is a core part of the Mars ethos. The aim of the Mars in the Community programme is to support mutually beneficial partnerships that will have a positive and lasting impact on the lives of those who live, learn and work in our local communities. We work with the organisations we support to ensure our programmes have the maximum impact on the community.
This year Mars Petcare, Melton Mowbray factory has adopted the RSPCA Radcliffe Animal Shelter as the sites partner charity for associate activities. The charity was selected based on their size and capability to accommodate our teams and their need for our support to improve the facilities for the animals that have been abandoned and looking for a loving home.
The shelter receives no financial assistance from the RSPCA, the national lottery or the government; they have to raise all of our funds from local people, companies and other organisations.
The Canning Operations Shift Manager team were the first to take up a challenge on Thursday 4th February. The team challenge was to develop a redundant building at the RSPCA’s Radcliffe Animal Shelter into a kitten crèche. The Kitten crèche will provide the shelter with a purpose unit to assess and health check homeless kittens prior to them being available for rehoming.
Over the course of a day, the team fitted new cupboards in the kitten crèche along with worktops and a sink, added shelving to the cat enclosures and refurbished the outer door. The team also helped with duties within the cattery, carrying out cleaning, grooming and socialising activities with rescued felines waiting to be re-homed.
The total cost of the refit was £1,000 and the Mars team also donated a further £1000 to the centre for help with on-going running costs.
Jonathan Chapman, one of the team from Mars said, “We were delighted to be able to help create a kitten crèche at the Radcliffe Animal Shelter. Mars is very passionate about pets and our associates are always keen to help improve the living conditions of all animals. We had a really enjoyable day working hard for the charity.”
David Stern from the Radcliffe Animal Shelter, “We were so happy that Mars Petcare chose us to be the partner animal shelter of this year. We have noticed an increase in abandoned animals since the economic crisis began, so to help us make use of a redundant unit is fantastic. The volunteers have done a fantastic job on the kitten crèche and the animals are really enjoying the new facility.”