Two animal welfare charities have praised the work of the charitable arm of one of the UK’s biggest and most successful independent pet food companies for its efforts supporting them during 2017.
 
The National Animal Welfare Trust (NAWT) and Appaws for Autism were the official 2017 charities of the Burns Pet Nutrition Foundation, part of Burns Pet Nutrition, a family company in Wales that makes specialist foods designed for the health and wellbeing of pets.
 
The Burns Pet Nutrition Foundation has run the Burns’ Charity of the Year since 2015 in addition to other community schemes including Burns in the Community and Burns by Your Side, a scheme that helps school children improve their literacy and communication skills with the aid of trained volunteers and their reading dogs.
 
NAWT operates five rescue and re-homing centres across the South of England. Since working with NAWT, Burns has provided food worth in the region of £60k, and partnered the charity on a number of fundraising and promotional projects.
 
Clare Williams, chief executive of NAWT, said:
 
“NAWT has really enjoyed the opportunity to be one of Burns’ Charities of the Year. Aside from the very obvious financial benefit of Burns feeding our dogs and cats for a year, our animals have done well on their food and the Burns Pet Nutrition Advice Line has provided excellent advice throughout our partnership.
 
“Being a charity partner with Burns has meant so much more. We’ve enjoyed working on all sorts of activities together such as webinars, Facebook events and attendance at various open days. Thank you to Burns for choosing us.”
 
Appaws for Autism provides therapy dog assistance to people with an autism disorder. The charity works with partner organisations to re-home animals who have the potential to become therapeutic pets, and also provides autism specific training to dogs.
 
Carol Chisholm, founder of Appaws for Autism, said:
 
“During the year we enjoyed several events along with Burns, at Burnsfest in Ayr, Fresh Air Festival in Dunfermline, Dogs’ Day Out at Glamis Castle, and also a much loved trip down to Kidwelly to see how Burns keep the company running and finely tuned.
 
“Being one of Burns’ Charities of the Year has been beyond expression. We thought ourselves extremely lucky to have been chosen and we are very grateful to Burns Pet Nutrition, Burns in the Community, John Burns and Carol Lincoln for their support throughout the year as well as their friendship.
 
“We will never be able to thank them enough for everything they have done for us. Wonderful people and all Appaws staff think of them as friends. Thank you for everything and we will always hold a special place in our hearts for The Burns Family.”
 
Burns Pet Nutrition Foundation recently selected three charities it will support in 2018. These are: The Forever Hounds Trust, which matches greyhounds and lurchers to happy homes; the UK German Shepherd Rescue, which rescues and rehomes German shepherd dogs; and Dogs for the Disabled, an Irish charity that trains assistance dogs to assist physically disabled children and adults to carry out a range of practical tasks.
 
John Burns, Veterinary Surgeon and founder of Burns Pet Nutrition, said:
 
“Myself and the Burns Pet Nutrition team are extremely passionate about supporting and giving back to the community in any way, shape or form possible – and the same goes for charities in need of the support they aren’t currently receiving.
 
“We are looking forward to working with the selected charities throughout 2018 and, hopefully, they will feel the benefit of the support Burns Pet Nutrition can offer. We’re proud to be entering our third year of running Burns’ Charities of the Year, and we look forward to the years to follow.”