Sweet viewers, welcome to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Today we will visit the UK-based Dogs Trust, which looks after dogs in need and seeks to bring about a day when all dogs can enjoy a secure and happy life. Charlotte Peters, Supporter Relations Officer at Dogs Trust now shares how the organization began.

Dogs Trust was founded back in 1891, and we are actually the largest dog welfare charity in the UK. We care for over 16,000 stray and abandoned dogs every single year throughout our network of 18 rehoming centers. As well as re-homing dogs, we also run several campaigns. We have a nationwide education program and we also offer subsidized neutering and microchipping in the worst affected areas.

Under the magical hands of the kindhearted Dogs Trust veterinarians and volunteers, every dog coming through the door of a Dogs Trust facility is given a fresh chance to live a better life.

This is Lulu. She came in from Ireland in very, very poor condition. Her fur was totally matted, she was covered in lice, her ears were very dirty, and all her eyebrows had actually grown inside her eyes. So she’s had to have an awful lot of treatment. As a result, all she wants now is loving; hence this lap dog. She doesn't like walking on the floor, she just wants to be carried everywhere; she wants to be nursed all of the time. And she's turned into a most beautiful little dog. So, isn’t she adorable? She’ll get plenty of walks while she’s here, definitely, and plenty of love.

Let’s now find out more about Dogs Trust’s love-filled rehoming centers!

It’s extremely bright, it’s extremely welcoming; we have a huge reception area. This center here is purpose-built. We wanted somewhere where people would want to come and look at the dogs, and also see how well cared for the dogs are here.

Obviously our priority is the dogs, so they have the most wonderful facilities; they have state of the art kennels, glass fronted kennels with under floor heating. So the kennel design is primarily for the dogs. Most people who walk through our doors say, “We can see how well cared for those dogs are.” We know that they’re in the best place.

Constructed with the environment in mind, the newest Dogs Trust rehoming center will have a “low carbon paw-print!” Dogs Trust’s chief executive Clarissa Baldwin provides more details.

This is our 18th rehoming center that’s going to be opened in Loughborough, which is in the East Midlands of England. We will be able to look after around a thousand dogs a year there. It will have green rooms, and it will have heat reclamation. Very much we are looking at the savings that we will make in the longer term.

Dogs Trust’s compassionate “Freedom Project” and “Hope Project” help animal caregivers look after their animals during family crisis periods and provides veterinary care to the canine companions of homeless persons respectively.

“Freedom (Project),” this is for women who are escaping domestic violence. And they have nowhere to go with their dogs, because it’s very difficult to find places to live with your dog. So what we do is we take the dog out of the abusive home, we look after them in rented accommodation for a while, or find foster homes for the dog, until such time as the abused person finds alternative accommodation. And we’ve look after about 500 dogs in this way and helped the families.

The “Hope Project,” this is for people on the streets who’ve got their dogs. We do know that there is a wonderful relationship between the homeless person and their dog. The homeless people in the bad weather for instance, and they’re sitting outside a shop, if it is raining, the umbrella will be over the dog, so they really have this wonderful relationship that we’d like to be able to support. So it’s microchipping, it’s neutering and it’s all the flea treatments and vaccinations that we give to the dogs.

Another sensitive initiative implemented by Dogs Trust helps give peace of mind to caregivers concerned there may be no one to look after their dog companion after they pass on. Should such an event occur, the canine friend would be taken to a rehoming center and Dogs Trust would help find a new loving home for him or her.

I also promote a scheme called the Canine Care Card, which is basically a card that you would carry around in your wallet, and it guarantees that in the event of your death Dogs Trust will look after your dog.

Dogs Trust is also taking steps to lessen the number of dogs being born without anyone to care for them.

When we first started looking at statistics we found that in the United Kingdom, something like 30,000 healthy dogs were being killed because there was just no home for them. So we decided that what we had to do was to start reducing the numbers of dogs that are being bred. So what we’ve done is put in place free microchipping, free neutering, and education of the caregivers. We’re neutering about 30-40,000 dogs a year.

We now meet one of the rehoming center’s cute residents!

This here is Shane. He’s one of three sponsor dogs at the Harefield Rehoming Center. A sponsor dog will actually live at a rehoming center permanently. When Shane first came to us at Harefield he was very, very shy, very nervous, and since he’s been here, he’s been here for nearly five years, he’s a different dog. When you take him out, he wants to go off and meet people. He’s very, very friendly, so he really does love his life with us here.

Dogs Trust rehoming centers ensure that all doggy residents get plenty of exercise and feel enlivened!

The sensory garden here has been built for all our dogs but it will be particularly beneficial for dogs that are stressed, that have been here for a long time and are getting bored of the kennel environment. So as you can see here there’re all sorts of different games for them to play. There’re different materials that have been used. There’s grass; there’re all sorts of plants in there.

Often dogs that are stressed as well, they do self-medicate so, there’re lots of plants they can use for that purpose as well. So, it’s really for environmental enrichment to keep the dogs stimulated both mentally and physically.

Looking after the lovely canines staying at the Dogs Trust rehoming centers is truly a rewarding experience.

The best part of working at the rehoming center is seeing those dogs, go through the rehabilitation process, and then seeing them at the end of the day going home to a loving family. There have been so many stories that I could tell you about dogs that have come through here. One that really sticks out and is personal to me was a dog called Patty; she was a Bulldog-cross. She was about seven years old.

She unfortunately had been locked up in a shed for all of her life and she had literally been used as a breeding machine. She had been bred and bred and bred, puppies after puppies after puppies, locked in a shed with no human affection.

Yet this dog came to us and she was the most loving dog you can ever imagine. She still, after everything that she’d been put through, she put her trust in humans she went home to a lovely family with very young children and she’s doing really, really well.

Touched by Dogs Trust’s benevolent efforts and dedication to caring for vulnerable canines, Supreme Master Ching Hai contributed US$17,000 to further the organization’s life-saving work. On Supreme Master Ching Hai’s behalf, our local Association members also gifted Dogs Trust 16 kilograms of vegan dog food.

May I say thank you very much. I would love to have met the Supreme Master but I hope you will take back our good wishes and our thanks for this very, very generous donation. I’ve obviously looked at the website and understand a little bit about the work that she carries out. She’s absolutely magnificent.

There are a number of things that we would like to do, buying some environment enrichment equipment for some of the puppy units that we have. Huge numbers of puppies now come in to us from all over the country. So we’d like to spend some money on furnishing other centers. Also some warm blankets for some of the older dogs so, I think they’d very much appreciate that as well. So we will put this money to very good use. And I hope you will send back our very warmest and our very grateful thanks to the Supreme Master.

In addition, Dogs Trust was presented with a number of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s DVDs and books, including “From Crisis to Peace” and the #1 international bestsellers, “The Dogs In My Life,” “The Birds In My Life,” and “The Noble Wilds.”

Fabulous, thank you so much. We have an education officer here at Harefield (Rehoming Center) and it looks as though these books will be a great help, and a source of information. Thank you so much.

Clarissa Baldwin later sent a thoughtful thank you letter to Supreme Master Ching Hai, the following of which is an excerpt.

Dear Supreme Master Ching Hai, I had the pleasure of meeting some of your TV team when I was interviewed by them at our Harefield Rehoming Centre this week; they helped to convey the scale of your charitable work and it sounds very impressive. It was also lovely to hear that you have so many rescued dogs and other animals of your own. Your donation will go towards helping us care for the thousands of stray and abandoned dogs who come into our rehoming centres each year.

Although we receive no Government funding, we are able to look after around 16,000 dogs each year. [O]n behalf of all the dogs in our care, thank you for your kind donation. Your generosity is greatly appreciated. With warmest wishes, Yours Sincerely, Clarissa Baldwin OBE Secretary and Chief Executive

We salute you Clarissa Baldwin, Charlotte Peters and all the other members of Dogs Trust for your wonderful hearts that are steadfastly devoted to uplifting the lives of our beautiful animal co-inhabitants. Your true love for canines clearly shines through.

For more details on Dogs Trust, please visit www.DogsTrust.org.uk Blessed viewers, thank you for your kind presence today on this episode of Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News. May our actions always represent our real noble self.