When the fire broke out at the dogs’ home in Manchester, people leapt into action to try to save the animals trapped in burning buildings. We now know 150 were saved and 60 died – a terrible waste of life.

The heroes of the hour were not just staff, firefighters and animal professionals, but local people who risked their own welfare for the sake of dogs which had already been given up, ill-treated or abandoned by previous owners.

The compassion didn’t stop there. Over the weekend thousands of people donated food and bedding, while many others donated money to the charity to help with vet bills and to rebuild the razed buildings.

Hundreds more came forward and offered to foster a dog, after the charity struggled to place the 150 survivors. In fact, so great was the mass compassion, it caused gridlock on the M6 and the grateful Cheshire Dogs’ Home had to ask well-wishers to stay away.

I am not criticising anyone who wanted to reach out after the tragedy. Not one jot. But I do wonder why it is some people only want to help as a visceral reaction to tragedy. They see a TV advert about starving children, an earthquake, war or sickness, or a news report covering a tragedy anywhere in the world and the Great British Public puts its hands in its pockets.

But children die of starvation every day, earthquakes happen frequently, war is never off the agenda, sickness is around us all from birth to death and dogs lose their homes and die terrible deaths with repulsing frequency, yet there is little outpouring of love, money and help unless these things happen as part of a big event.

I know people who open their homes to foster dogs on a regular basis. They feed them up, or slim them down, improve their training, fix medical problems, give them the same level of love they give their own dogs, then wave them goodbye when their “forever home” appears.

I know people who spend every last penny of their “disposable income” helping charities with vet bills, bedding and food and those who organise fundraising events, take kennelled dogs for walks, spend hours on the phone trying to arrange transport from one end of the country to the other, to place the right animal in the right home, or save one who would be euthanised due to lack of space.

So what I would say to the thousands of people who reached out to Manchester Dogs’ Home is don’t forget once the headlines go away, your local rescue centre still needs funds, bedding, food, volunteers and foster families. Keep on reaching out.

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