“The North East Dogs & Cats Home” – our new strapline

Over the past 15 years, Stray Aid has grown from helping just a few dogs each month to helping many hundreds each and every year. Originally, Stray Aid worked to prevent healthy stray dogs from needlessly being put to sleep if their owner hadn’t come forward after just 7 days of being found straying, but very soon our work grew, and we became the council dog pound for County Durham. Now we are working with councils from across the North East, as well as police forces, and the public, all to make sure stray dogs in need get the best possible chance of getting back home or finding a new forever home.

When we first started, we rented 10 kennels at our current site in Coxhoe from a pet boarding business, which gave us the capacity to establish the charity. We have grown as demand for our vital work has continued to increase, and we now own the whole kennel site. The site also came with a small cattery. This gave us an opportunity to help even more animals in need, and we began to accept what we call ‘handover’ cats, meaning they have come straight from homes where their family was no longer able to care for them.

Importantly, due to the size of the cattery, we are unable to take stray cats, because, just as with stray dogs, they need to be kept separate to be monitored for potential infectious diseases which could put the other animals in our care at risk. Thanks to our on-site vets, we are able to address any signs of illness a dog or cat may have, making sure they are not in pain and are as comfortable as possible.

15 years on, we have decided to give our brand a refresh and update our strapline, that little phrase you can see under our main logo. Although we are still very much “A Stray Dog’s Best Friend”, as we continue to grow and help even more animals in new ways and reach even more communities across the North East, we decided it was time for a change. Our brand-new strapline of “The North East Dogs & Cats Home” has recently been approved by our Trustees and Directors, and has been designed to reflect the role our vital work plays across so many communities throughout the region.

As part of this change, we have created an updated logo which will be gradually appearing on newly updated stationery, signage, and our website in due course. However, in order to make sure no funds are taken from the care of our animals, our new logo will be rolled out gradually, appearing first on our social media, and stationery as new orders are put in with our printer.

We would like to thank each and every one of our supporters for your generosity over the past 15 years and for continuing to support our vital work into the future. If you are able and haven’t joined up, please do consider sponsoring the care of our dogs & cats by joining Team SAFE from as little as £5 per month, or you can make a one-off donation if you prefer.