Limerick<\/a> Animal Welfare (LAW) has given these pets a second chance at life and now they are looking for their forever home.<\/p>\nMarion Fitzgibbon, charity director and Marie O\u2019Connor, sanctuary manager in Kilfinane, say 2025 has been another extremely challenging year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLAW experienced an unprecedented increase in the number of abandoned puppies and kittens, alongside rising operational costs and declining donations. Our isolation unit is full of puppies. We have had abandoned and unwanted puppies right through the autumn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation for the horses is critical.\u00a0 We get emergency horse calls every day. Many horses and foals are dying from malnutrition and starvation.\u00a0 LAW is trying to respond to as many calls as possible, but sometimes it is too late to save these unfortunate horses,\u201d said Marion.<\/p>\n
Marie said last year saw an unparalleled number of pregnant dogs being abandoned and many unwanted and abandoned puppies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have also taken in kittens into December. The cost of feeding, worming, vaccinating, microchipping and vet care, until they are ready to be rehomed is huge,\u201d said Marie, who adds that LAW is a charity and relies on donations for the stray and abandoned animals.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marion said their financial position continued to cause concern in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce again our income did not keep pace with our expenditure.\u00a0 In the circumstances, many projects had to be postponed, including work on the sanctuary clinic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe estimate our total budget for 2026 will be in excess of \u20ac1.5m. This is a huge challenge and we are appealing for donations, however small, to help us to keep the sanctuary open,\u201d said Marion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate the Department of Agriculture\u2019s grant of \u20ac120,000 for 2026,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
What drives Marion and Marie is seeing the many heart-warming stories thanks to LAW.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most rewarding part of our work is when we can save an animal and stop its suffering,\u201d said Marion.<\/p>\n
Marie says while it is clear that although there is cruelty and neglect, the vast majority of people love their animals and treat them well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They both thank their loyal supporters and volunteers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank the public for their support and donations, the people in work taking time out of their busy schedules to do fundraisers for LAW in their companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to see the Santa Paws event in Wickham Way in December so well attended.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMany thanks to our wonderful staff for their commitment and care for all the sanctuary\u2019s animals. We would also like to thank Bruff gardai,\u201d said Marie.<\/p>\n
If you would like to rehome any of these pets please email limerickanimalwelfareadoptions@gmail.com or ring 063 91110 to find out more about the process and change an animal’s life.<\/p>\n
For more pictures, click ‘Next’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DO YOU have space in your heart and in your home for one of these dogs, cats, horses,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,889,18,13,14,6,19,17,19124,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-277255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-county-limerick","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-kilfinane","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115869458327191039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}