An animal welfare charity believes being well-known could be to its detriment.

The Manx Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says its finances are ’stretched to the full’.

A statement from the charity says it does not receive government funding either for rescuing or rehoming animals, neither does it receive funds for rescuing wild animals and birds.

Juana Warburton, the ManxSPCA’s general manager, said: ’The society has been fortunate enough to receive generous cash donations over the last few years to fund capital projects and as a result we have been able to improve the facilities for our animals, most recently completing a small extension to the kennels.

’But we need to fund day-to-day costs such a vets’ fees, animal food and salaries. We run a tight ship here at Ard Jerkyll but the continuing tough economic climate is taking its toll on our finances.’

Despite this, Mrs Warburton told the Examiner that the charity was in in the black, although the 2017 finances were not yet ready for publication.

The most recent available figures show at the end of 2016, the Manx SPCA had carried forward assests of £1,978,307 into 2017.

Mrs Warburton explained why this isn’t as good as it seems.

She said: ’We have increased the amount we’ve fundraised by about 50% but our legacy income was below what we budgeted for and we couldn’t raise as much as we did in 2016 from grants and trusts.’

She also revealed the extent of the work the charity does in a year: dogs or puppies rescued, 63; cats or kittens, 460; rabbits and guinea pigs,59; birds, 490; hedgehogs or similar animals, 45.

closures

There were also events which were beyond the charity’s control, such as the major road closures in Foxdale which Mrs Warburton says affected the tearooms at Ard Jekyll.

The Manx SPCA, which marked its 120 anniversary last year, was also hit with bad news after it was discovered it had inadvertently been overclaiming VAT for several years. The charity now pays 20% VAT on most of its running costs, which further hit 2017 finances.

Mrs Warburton said: ’The Manx public are incredibly supportive of the work we do, but because we are an established and well-known charity there is a misconception amongst some that we have plenty of money to fall back on.

’This is simply not the case and we need to work harder than ever to raise funds.’