Students team up with animal charity to help homeless cats in South Devon

Leading pet charity, Blue Cross, has teamed up with South Devon College, to care for homeless cats and kittens until loving new homes can be found for them. Cats will stay at the Animal and Horticulture Unit in specially made ‘cat chalets’ where students studying Animal Care courses will look after them until new homes can be found. The partnership fostering scheme will be launched on Saturday 13th September at 10am.

Rob Skinner, Blue Cross Senior Fostering Manager, said: “Blue Cross rehoming centres across the UK are full of cats and kittens desperate for new homes and our catteries are often full to capacity. Our new partnerships with colleges like South Devon give homeless cats the best chance of finding a new home, while enabling students to gain useful first-hand experience of looking after animals. So it really is a win-win partnership for all of us, including the cats!”

Rob added: “As the college is close to our well-established Blue Cross rehoming centre in Torbay, it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to work closely together to help as many homeless cats as possible in the region.”

Blue Cross is constantly finding new and innovative ways to help the ever increasing number of pets who become homeless or abandoned. As well as schemes like the new fostering partnership with this college, the charity also recruits volunteers to care for cats in their own homes.  

Rosie Lord is studying for a diploma in animal care at the college. She said: “I’m really enjoying looking after cats for Blue Cross. Practical experience is really important for my course and so I’m learning at the same time. It makes it extra special to be helping a charity and to know that for many of these cats there simply isn’t anywhere else for them to go so to they really need our help.”

The Blue Cross fostering partnership with South Devon College has been entirely funded by the Support Adoption for Pets Charitable Trust

To find out more about the charity, to make a donation or to see pets currently needing a loving new home please visit www.bluecross.org.uk.   

ENDS

Notes to Editors


• Media are welcome to attend the opening of the South Devon College Blue Cross fostering scheme, please contact the media team. Photos will also be available after the opening event.
• The opening will be taking place at South Devon College’s Animal and Horticulture unit at Vantage Point, Long Road, Paignton TQ4 7EJ
• Torbay pet rehoming centre has been helping homeless and abandoned pets across South Devon and East Cornwall since 1988. The centre rehomes hundreds of cats every year and also a number of dogs via The Blue Cross Home Direct scheme. Sick, injured and homeless pets have relied on Blue Cross since 1897. Abandoned or unwanted, ill or injured, pets turn to us for help every year. Our doors are always open to them, and with your support, they always will be.
• Each year, thousands of cats, dogs, small pets and horses turn to our animal hospitals, clinics and rehoming services for treatment and to find them the happy homes they deserve.
• Blue Cross actively campaigns to improve all aspects of animal welfare, working with the government, schools and others to improve the lives of pets and their owners. For more information, please visit www.bluecross.org.uk.

South Devon College
1. South Devon College is a medium sized further Education College serving Torquay, Paignton, Brixham, Newton Abbot, Totnes and South Devon.
2. The College Mission is “inspiring our community through learning for all”
3. The College was given an overall Outstanding (Grade 1) rating by OFSTED in January 2009 and tops the league table for General Further Education and Tertiary College student success (2012/13).
4. The College was awarded ‘Beacon status’ by the Government's Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) in 2009.
5. The College provides teaching and learning from level 1 through to level 6; this includes A Levels, GCSEs, community education, work based learning (apprenticeships) and a wide range of further education, higher education and vocational programmes.
6. The College has a dedicated business training unit, Business Advantage, which offers tailored training solutions for large and small businesses in both Paignton and the Management Centre in Heathfield.
7. South Devon College provides higher education programmes (foundation degrees, top up degree courses, HNDs & HNCs) in partnership with Plymouth University.
8. The College provides teaching and learning to over 13,000 students per year, has 630 fulltime staff and contributes £25 million to the local economy.
9. The College was awarded GOLD – CHAMPION Investors in People award for its staff development and training in 2014.
10. The College has invested £40m in creating a new campus at Vantage Point.  This has developed into a world class state-of-the-art learning environment with purpose built classrooms, laboratories and workshops, including a new University Centre dedicated to Higher Education, innovation and learning.
11. The College has a further new Campus at Newton Abbot and other locally based facilities including the pioneering Marine Academy at Noss on the River Dart, a centre of excellence with a Marine Engineering facility.
12. Recent developments for the Community include the investment of a £7m South West Energy Centre; the Devon Studio School for Health and Social Care; the approved £10 million University Technical College at Newton Abbot, in partnership with Exeter University and local employers; and the commencement of teaching of full-time 14 year old students at South Devon High School within South Devon College in September 2014.

Media contact

Sophia Khan, Blue Cross Media Officer: [email protected] / 020 7932 4070.

— Page last updated 28/01/2021