Raystede's Pet Advice and Community Events (PACE)

Our popular, early-intervention PACE Days seek to advance public education on pet ownership and animal welfare and are an effective way to reduce animal surrender numbers. In our 70-year history we have faced our fair share of challenges, but the current animal welfare crisis is unprecedented. Our year-round PACE Days are proving to be an effective early intervention to prevent long-term, costly pet-related problems. This in turn helps reduce the number of animal surrenders. Most of our PACE Days are held in areas of socio-economic deprivation across Sussex, including in Hastings, Hailsham, Eastbourne, and Brighton & Hove. Our Education team, a veterinary nurse and often our dog behaviourist are on site to provide visitors with free expert advice. Problematic dog behaviour is one of the main reasons for dog surrender enquiries. In addition, owners typically report that they no longer want their pet, or have time to take care of it. As a result, many of our dog admissions arrive with behavioural issues and require extra support and special training. Over a third (36%) of all pet owners have acquired their pet since 2020. This equates to 8.3 million animals (including 4.1 million dogs and 3.7 million cats). In addition, the high proportion of first-time pet owners since the start of the pandemic means the need for public education on animal welfare is greater than ever (Source: PAW Report, 2023). Our PACE Days therefore provide pet owners with timely information and support to help reduce or prevent problem behaviours. We also provide free health care, microchip and weight checks, pet care literature and poo bags. Our PACE Days are proving so popular and effective that we’re planning to increase our offering in 2025. We’re planning approximately 65 PACE Days, and will engage with an average of 65 people per day, impacting an estimated 4,225 people. We are requesting funding for 10 PACE Days.

The main outcomes of PACE Days is expected to be an increase of at least 50% of people impacted this year, compared to last year. While the reasons for pet surrenders are complex and multi-faceted, we also hope to see a reduction in the number of pet surrender inquiries. For example, while we received a record number of surrender requests for cats and dogs in the year to end-March, the number of rabbit surrender requests fell to 369 from 507 a year earlier.