European Animal Welfare is a small charitable trust, set up in 1998 to provide help for animals abroad. We are not registered with the Charity Commission; we are registered as a charitable trust with HMRC. EAW was founded by Kate Green, who was so appalled at the animal neglect and abuse she witnessed when living in Spain for two years in the late nineties, she decided that she could not live amon
gst it and the best way forward would be to return to England to raise money and bring as many tortured souls as possible back to England for rehoming. As the Pets' Passport Scheme was not in place till the year 2000, her first van load of seven dogs and two cats had to spend six months in quarantine, not a good experience at all. For the next six months, she made a round trip of 120 miles every day to visit them in their prison. The local shelter in Tossa de Mar asked Kate if she could find homes in England for some of their hundreds of dogs and cats, so once the Pet Travel Scheme was introduced, EAW began the never-ending task of rehoming the Spanish strays in England. Kate has rehomed around 700 abandoned dogs and cats and inevitably has a house full of dogs herself. These days, she takes in mainly older dogs and those with health issues that make them unhomeable, as most new owners do not want to take on the added responsibility of vet bills. EAW does not have kennels, the dogs are either taken directly to their new homes when they arrive, or they move in with Kate till the right home can be found. Unfortunately, twenty five years later, the need to help the abundance of abandoned animals abroad is still as great as ever.
