Roy Keane has joined forces with Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind to raise vital funds to lessen the impact of Covid-19 on its services.
It’s Guide Dog Day tomorrow, a day to celebrate the difference the dogs make to those who are vision impaired and the families of children with autism who can lead more independent lives.
But this year’s fundraising efforts have been forced to move online.
With fundraising halted for the foreseeable few months, the charity is looking at in excess of a seven figure sum reduction in fundraising income this year.
This is against a background where it costs €5 million per annum to run the charity and €53,000 to train one Guide Dog.
Calling for the public to give them a dig out today, they explained: “We currently have 35 Guide Dog Clients awaiting our services and the demand for our Assistance Dog Programme is exceptionally high -we had 200 applications in 4 minutes when we opened our waiting list last year.
“Before the crisis, we had 45 dogs in training at the Centre and 111 puppies at walk.
“These puppies need to continue their formal training and the dogs need to complete their training and begin the matching process.
“We are continuing the growth in our Breeding Programme, with hopefully 100 dogs in total to be born or purchased during this year.
“This year’s births will be the dogs raised and trained in 2020, 2021 and into 2022.
“We hope as many of these dogs as possible will graduate as Guide and Assistance Dogs in 2021 and into 2022.”
To donate, text WOOF to 50300 to donate €4 or go to Guidedogs.ie for other ways to help out.
