WHAT CAS STANDS FOR

auses	ction	olutions
The causes of animal neglect, cruelty and abandonment are many. All are unforgivable. First is ignorance, and lack of knowledge. Second are cultural attitudes.  This is also known as the ”Well, it's only an animal" syndrome. Third is lack of commitment, because animals require time and money throughout their lives.	CAS has a two point  action plan  to combat the problems. ONE To educate people  in the specific needs of animals,  particularly when there are children in the family. TWO To have no fear of reporting to the relevant authorities, instances of animals living in appalling conditions.	Solutions will only be possible when everyone appreciates the value of animal life. CAS solutions are - to follow the commitment of helping all animals abandoned around us, to promote care and committment, to pass on all relevant knowledge that will help these animals, and to ensure that all animal brought to us are given access to veterinary treatment, vaccinated and cared for until a new home can be found.

Costa Animal Society 2007 AGM was held on March 28. 
These reports were delivered by the President and Treasurer.

President's Report
from Wendy Thorne

Treasurer's Report
from Peter Thomsing
 

2007/2008 has exceeded any previous achievements on the animal homing front. We have homed 184 dogs, of these 52 have gone to the Netherlands, 31 to Germany and of those 51 were puppies.

CAS is the longest established animal charity along the coast, 23 years now. We have managed to achieve incredible goals with both cats and dogs in the last few years. Since this committee took over, some 600 cats have been neutered and endless suffering animals treated and rehomed.

Every day, around 150 cats afe fed by our helpers in Nerja, Torrox and Maro. There is also an active feeding programme in Cómpeta. Our members should be proud of the results of our society .

All these efforts will have to reduced unless we are able to overcome our present financial crisis.

The simple facts are that we do not have sufficent funds to cover our costs. For the first time ever, this month we have been unable to pay all our bills. At any time we have 25 dogs in our care.  All are vacinated and neutered, all at cost.  They then have to be housed until a new home is found.

We have no funding from any source but our own efforts. With our own efforts and the German group SPA we have significently reduced the sick and abandoned cats littering the streets of Nerja. No graciousness from the Town Hall - just a threat of a fine for feeding in public areas.

There are rarely dogs on the street these days and those that are are quickly taken in. The new Police Chief is animal friendly and has greatly improved the pound and police attitudes. However, it is still not enough.  Tourists are very sensitive to animal cruelty and many decide not to return to Nerja.

We need your ideas for fund raising.  We need people with vision and enthuisism to help fight animal cruelty. We are a non profit making society which keeps its overall running costs under 15%. We are audited annually, no one is paid and we need to raise 20,000 euros urgently to continue comfortably. It must be found.

We are grateful for all the co-operation we receive and are actively persuing public businesses and corporations in our vital search for funds

To summarize the current position - as you will hear from the Treasurer - is that we are just not raising sufficent funds to support the demands that are placed on us by the general public. We are therefore going to have to drastically reduce the number of animals we take in until the financial situation is improved. I would also like you to know that we co-operate with five other animal charities along the coast, helping each other when possible.

I have already mentioned that we need more people to actively help us in all areas but this requires commitment.  My position and that of the fundraisers have become full time jobs. To give you some idea in my role as President I deal with the majority of the animal homings and have a network of people, not necessarily CAS members, who provide assistance in homing.

Such, however, is the demand from the public that I receive in excess of 30 calls a day requesting information, help or generally asking me to rehome animals, all of which have to be responded to or problems resolved. This leaves little time for anything else.

I am not alone in taking calls and giving out information.  Karen O’Brien & Jane Kirk are also working flat out. Karen receives a similar number of calls for cats as I do for dogs.

I would like to thank everyone for the support they give us, particularly to Expedito and his staff at the Clinica San Fernando who work without complaint, and also Mario the vet in La Viñuela who provides us with support in that area.

I maybe too soft for this job but who can look at a healthy but mistreated animal in the eye and pass the death sentence.

Finally, later on we will be dealing with the re-election of officers.  As I think you are all aware I have already completed two 2-year terms of office. Under our constitution the position of President is limited to a two year period.

Two years ago we took legal advice and it was decided I could continue if there were no other nominations and subject to a vote of those present.

I am more than happy to stand down now, if there are other nominations, but would be prepared to continue if this is not the case.  

As you are aware Richard Thorne stepped down as Treasurer at the end of December 2007. He has however provided me with the following report :

2007 was a difficult year financially as can be seen from the audited figures presented to you. We raised a total close to 104,000 euros during 2007, very similar to the figure raised in 2006, although this resulted in a loss of 2,000 euros for the year.

The fundraisers did a remarkable job during 2007 when you consider we lost 5,000 euros in donations that we had been receiving for the last 6 years as a result of an individual donor's changed circumstances.

Our largest expense by far are the kennel fees we incur as a direct result of the increased number of animals we have taken in, despite the huge effort that has been made to rehome dogs direct before reaching the kennels.

Our relationship with HzH has proved very sucessful in that many dogs have been homed in the Netherlands.  However I believe the committee needs to reasess the arrangenent with HzH as the time between the dogs being reserved and being transported to the Netherlands can run into months with the result that CAS are still paying the kennel fees and available spaces are being blocked.

Financially CAS is on a knife edge, scrapping by on a month by month basis, We desperately need to raise more funds. As can be seen from the figures we need to raise an average of close to 9,000 euros per month to meet out overheads.

Although at certain times of the year we have some very good months at other times we raise nothing like that which creates enormous cash flow problems.

All our fundraisers work very hard but in my view we have exhausted the funds available in the Nerja area and need to look much further a field particularly on the corporate side.

One area that I think the committee need to address is the general public’s belief that CAS is “rolling in money” The number of times I have heard that misconception, particularly when we have just raised a 1,000 euros or so, proves that they have no idea of the true costs involved. Maybe we should educate them in the hope that people will be more generous with donations etc.

Peter has now taken over my role within CAS and I wish him  well for the future.

Finally my thanks to Mathew Bell for completing the audit for us this year.

Wendy Thorne was re-elected President. 
Vera Newing stepped down as Vice-President but remains a committee member. 
The new Vice-President is Jane Kirk.