Warringtonanimalwelfare Reviews 7

I work closely with a vets practice and reached out to this rescue centre in the hope of getting support with some kittens. Unfortunately, my experience was very disappointing.

Rather than offering help, advice, or support for the kittens’ welfare, I felt that the main focus was on taking the kittens off me rather than working together in their best interests. For an organisation that says animal welfare is its priority, this was upsetting and not what I expected.

From my experience, there seemed to be more concern around money and pedigree animals than genuine support for animals in need. I hope they reconsider how they approach situations like this and focus more on collaboration and the welfare of the animals first.

We had a wonderful experience recently at WAW. Staff and volunteers are very friendly and were very patient with us while we chose which cats we wanted to bring home.

Adoption process was really easy and team were quick to respond via email.

Thank you!

I had arranged for waw to neuter my male cat due to me being off work due to ongoing treatment, as finances wasnt their greatest to having treatment and not being able to work....I have nothing against waw what so ever as I had used them many years ago for my female cat my problem is with the sheer and utter disrespect of their older female receptionist who at first did not want to answer my concerns and just wanted payment there and then, she was very abrupt and condescending which at the time I put down to the time of day and work load they had, fast forward 1 week I was having reservations to taking my cat there and asked if the voucher (not full discount £55 neutering fee) could be transfered to our local vet, I was told point blank no! I had no choice but to take him there....met by a lovely blonde lady who showed interest and assured me he would be ok......a man then asked me to read paperwork and sign.....up on reading I noticed it said if any accidents happen whilst in waw care they will not be held responsible??? That i the owner will take full accountability!!! I stated i wasnt happy with that and they needed to word it properly as it seemed a little harsh, I was told if I dont sign it can't be done.....I didn't even get chance to say goodbye my cat was taken.... into the other room.......so i left feeling a little off, that they didnt ask anything about my cat eg temprament or issues only when he had last eaten......2.30pm I got a call to say everything had gone well and I can collect my cat.....the same lovely blonde lady passed him to me in his cat carrier.....the 1st thing I noticed was that it absolutely stunk of urine, I said oooh he smells so bad has he urinated, she said no he was fine and dry in there, so I assumed that another cat had probably urinated on his carrier, I asked if I could obtain and purchase some pain medication as the lady infront of me had some for her cat,I was told he wont need medication as he had it during surgery under sedation and that he only has a small stitch and males tolerate the procedure better than females,so she measured me it was not needed......when we got home he was completely unstable as I expected and he had a little food whilst he was sleeping I noticed blood on our towel so I lifted his tail to take a look!!! There was a 2cm open wound on his scrotum!!! I called back and asked if this was normal......I was told by the first lady yes, I explained that it was bleeding and I could see inside, I was put on hold,she came back and said yes its normal.....I explained he was covered in urine,has an open wound and what about infection???? Could I send them pics for their vet to see she said yes....pictures sent and I was called back on their mobile number, to be met with the same response this was fine....I became tearfully and at that moment the phone was taken over by what I can only describe as utter disrespect!!! The older female abruptly said down the phone,what is your issue,the vet has told us it normal, what do i expect, I said it is an open wound and that it may not look as bad due to lighting and hard to gage size from a picture,what about infection, she actually laughed and said our vet is more than qualified with 15years experience and that if I wasnt happy I should of gone to another vet!!! Condescending, and heartless, abrupt and with a raised tone she said loudly "if you think we have destroyed your cat then what!!!!, at this point I shouted :how dare you speak to me like that and put words in my mouth!!!I did not use the word DESTROY!!!, I used the word infection!!!" In her sarcastic voice she said ooooh well go to another vets, no vets will stitch or glue him its not the done thing!!! I said he is covered in urine .....clean him she said!!! I was in utter shock and disbelief!!! My tears turned to anger and I said she should not speak to a human being like that, that I am not an animal who wont answer back that she needed to re think her manner and tone and I also said I hope the call would be recorded coz if anyone else heard that she would be out of a job!!! Some customers could suffer from mental health issues and having her speak to them like that would not have a very good outcome!!!! Utterly disgusting woman and I will never ever recommend that place as long as she is working there, she never says her name as im sure she speaks to people like this all the time!!!!!........so the end outcome....we attended a lovely vets practice called reecs in orford and they lovingly cleaned him up as he was sooo filthy gave him a full check over and used medical glue on his large open wound as after 2 different opinions of their vets it was deemed best as they feared his muscle/skin would cause further problems!!!! They also provided a collar, but honestly WAW you need to re think who you employ!!!! Their vet is under pressure i feel for them working with her!!!!

We bought a kitten about a year ago from Facebook. I don't usually agree with buying animals instead of adopting them. However, something drew me to this one. We picked him up, and he was tiny (after being told he was 12 weeks and vaccinated). We eventually figured out that he was only about 7 weeks old. When we picked him up, there was another kitten who was pending collection. We decided to ask the owner if we could have the 2nd kitten as we were so worried about her safety after seeing the state the first one was in. She agreed, and we went back for her. She was also only about 7 weeks and tiny.

We weaned them, took them to the vets, and got them both vaccinated. We had been looking after them in a 2 bed flat ever since. When they were a bit older, we started looking into neutering them. Unfortunately, I lost my job recently, so our income significantly dropped. We could not afford the neutering, so we contacted countless charities attempting to get help with neutering costs, only to be told that they were full over and over again.

The cost of food, litter, insurance, pet plans, and neutering for 2 cats started taking a toll on us. While we were coming to the decision of what to do, we kept them separated. We also have a young child, so this has all been a challenge. We went on holiday (prebooked and paid for over a year in advance) and had the neighbour look after the cats. When we got back, we were informed that they hadn't been separated the whole time. We knew in that moment that we had to make the heartbreaking decision to give one up.

We decided to give our female cat up as there was now a risk of her being pregnant. We knew this was the right thing to do as a rescue would be able to provide her with the care she needed. We contacted a few places, but unfortunately, they all have waitlists. We rang Warrington Animal Welfare and explained our situation. When it got to the question of her living with other pets, I started explaining that we had a male cat who, at this moment, was also not neutered (we have been saving for a couple of months and are nearly there!) The woman on the phone with us started being very rude and snarky.

The woman on the phone told us that if we couldn't afford two cats, then we couldn't afford one. She also told us that if we give up our female cat, the male cat would jump out of a window trying to get to other females. Her tone was very condescending, and she was extremely unprofessional. She had absolutely no right to tell us what we can and can't afford, and to assume that we are so neglectful that we would leave a window open that our cats could jump out of was just horrible. She has clearly never had to struggle by the questions she was asking about our financial situation! We love and care about our cats, which is why we decided to do what was best for them, even if it breaks our hearts.

I started getting upset by all of this, told her I had changed my mind, that she was being judgemental, and I hung up the phone! There is no way I will be giving my cat to Warrington Animal Welfare after this. Learn some compassion and understanding before judging someone as you don't know their situation.

We adopted a beautiful one year old cat from Warrington Animal Welfare yesterday. All of the staff were helpful in answering all of our questions and were knowledgeable about the vet history, backgrounds and the temperaments of different animals. If they were unable to answer a question, they made efforts to find out the answer for us. It was clear to see how much they care for these animals when we visited, knowing each of their personalities, likes and dislikes, and favourite beds/toys/food. Staff couldn't do enough for us.

They answer emails promptly and are more than happy to discuss any queries over the phone. They have provided helpful advice about behaviours and caring for our new pet even after adoption. Could not recommend more!

We lost our dog of 12.5 years in December after finding out he had a large tumour on his liver.
We were so devastated we said we would never have another dog, but in January we decided to try fostering.
The 2nd dog we fostered was a young french bulldog and as soon as I got him home I knew I wanted to keep him and on the 19th Feb we adopted him.
I want to contradict the previous review given by someone who cant appreciated the amount of effort the small number of paid staff but mostly volunteers do.
Iv been there and seen them run headless trying to look after the cats, dogs, rabbits etc when the volunteers ring in sick.
It would be selfish and neglectful of them to be sat on the phone taking messages when the animals are number 1 priority.
Anyway I found there was other means of contacting them- by Facebook and by a mobile number I had for one of the staff.
They dont deserve spiteful criticism. They are caring special people doing as best they can with the small amount of people they have.

The animals are lovely. It’s such a wonderful touch to have little snippets as to each of their; needs, personality and background / how they have arrived at the centre. Such a great idea!

My low rating however is based on the sheer difficulty in contacting and navigating the ill-made application process / interest from online.

Call back promises- never materialise. The receptionist rudely speaks over people, then confuses herself in doing so. It makes the conversation exhausting, however being guaranteed a call-back from management brought some relief for smoother communication. This call never came.

Emails expressing interest in an animal are quite simply ignored. This unfortunately means the public are forced to complete the current challenging online application form to share their interest -which is a highly problematic process due to all questions being flagged as *essential, despite not relating to one another.
This in turn means applicants must lie and fabricate a situation from the get-go, simply to submit the form demonstrating their interest in rescuing an animal in need. Naturally, this is far from ideal.
Making it mandatory for persons to bend their integrity through no fault of their own, upon which someone then judges suitability lacks all professionalism or morality.
An example being)
*do you currently have pets? -NO
*are they neutered? insured? etc -You HAVE to select an answer, and the entire form continues in such a manner.

The centre is extremely stretched the receptionist stated, causing staff to be under immense stress. Therefore I offering voluntary support and was informed that I would be contacted. Once more, this has not occurred.

Constructive feedback, that I felt I had to add to the on-line form to provide some sort of explanation as to the contradictions I was forced to put, was then met with shocking hostility by way of push back and extreme rigidity via email reply. I found this incredibly off-putting as an educated professional that simply wishes to help an animal or two and help a charitable centre.
I replied politely and professionally, with the animals interests at heart, and again was appalled when it was met with a cold and brash statement of ‘that animal has a viewing this weekend’ by way of shut-down.
Talk about ‘cutting your nose off to spite your face’. I hope this poor creature finds a home from this apparent ‘viewing’ (although he is still not reserved and has been one of the longest on the site) as he should not be made to suffer at the hands of unprofessionalism.

If the centre was more open to aide and assistance, then tech savvy individuals would gladly help for free -this making it a win win for the animals, staff and the overall running of the centre and filtering system as a whole.
This, however, disappointingly is certainly not the case.

Several persons I have encountered since have openly shared their similar experiences with this specific centre and recommended that I attend a nearby larger establishment instead for a smoother process. This however should not be necessary and my heart aches for the cats stuck in this facility with people wanting to save them but can’t due to some staff members attitudes.

It is a significant shame as this could be a marvellous company & cause, gaining excessive funds for support in the right hands. Unbeknown to them, I had £10k to donate, which will now be going, as most do, to a larger organisation that has mastered the art of consideration, professionalism and basic levels of care.
Sadly, as usual, this is simply humans being disappointing and the poor animals suffering due to it. Several cats could have had a very happy home this Christmas with plenty of safe land, but instead are still behind cages due to somebody taking feedback all too personally.

Quite simply, this company needs to do better.
I will be communicating my concerns higher for investigation with the appropriate bodies.