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Press release / Businesses challenge others to a day in the dog house

Press release issued for Bath Cats and Dogs Home

Lola and her carer Ben keep an eye on Kennel Break fundraisers. From left to right: Kevin Ravelin, Bath Cats & Dogs Home; Steve Smitherman, Barclays; Rebecca Land from Systemagic; Nick Raine from Novia; Natalie Giles, Zest; Gwen Cardiff and Tracey Farion from Bath Vets; Andrew Paull and Brian Topper from Centaur

Lola and her carer Ben keep an eye on Kennel Break fundraisers. From left to right: Kevin Ravelin, Bath Cats & Dogs Home; Steve Smitherman, Barclays; Rebecca Land from Systemagic; Nick Raine from Novia; Natalie Giles, Zest; Gwen Cardiff and Tracey Farion from Bath Vets; Andrew Paull and Brian Topper from Centaur

Businesses challenge others to a day in the dog house

Barking mad businesses from Somerset and Bath are challenging other local firms to work in a dog kennel for a day, in aid of an animal rescue charity.

Participants from local companies will be locked up at Bath Cats and Dogs Home on Friday June 10 – and they won’t be allowed out until they have each raised £1,000.

Using their laptops and phones, the kennel occupants will be able to buy their release while inside, by reaching out to their contacts and raising the bail money to buy their freedom.

“We want to challenge other brave Bath businesses to join us in the dog house,” said Natalie Giles, a lettings negotiator from Zest, based in Bath.

“A friendly rivalry’s building between us already” commented Nick Raine of Novia Financial in Bath. “We’re all of course hoping to be the first to hit that £1,000 marker on the day.”

Bath Cats and Dogs Home is asking animal loving business people to apply their usual time management and negotiating skills from the office, to a morning’s dog kennel working.

Ten businesses have so far committed inmates to the fifth annual Kennel Break challenge at Bath Cats and Dogs Home next month, including veterinary surgeon Gwen Cardiff and nurse Tracey Farion from Bath Vets; Steve Smitherman, business manager of Barclays Bank’s Bath branch; Brian Topper, managing director and Andrew Paull, financial director of Centaur; Natalie Giles, senior lettings negotiator at Zest Lettings; from Houndbound, Lauren Barnes, owner and Kate Hornby, day care assistant, Kate Hornby; Nick Raine, director of operations at Novia; financial advisor Adam Davitt of Smart Advice Financial Solutions and Smart Property Agents; Martin Spiller, chairman of Systemagic; and from Bath Cats and Dogs Home, HR and facilities manager Angela Chapman and administrator Kevin Ravelin.

Organisers from the Claverton Down-based charity are hoping to attract ten more kennel inmates to reach their £20,000 fundraising target on Friday 10 June.

Zena Jones, a fundraiser for Bath Cats and Dogs Home added:

“By swapping their usual working environment with a kennel to raise money, everyone involved will be making a real difference to the lives of lots of vulnerable animals.

“Most businesses involved start raising awareness and funds before Kennel Break.

“There’s always such a great buzz on the day and camaraderie between inmates, with plenty of social media noise made while it’s all going on.

“If we could reach a new milestone this year and raise £20,000, fantastic!”

All funds raised during the Kennel Break Challenge will go towards Bath Cats and Dogs Home’s £1.4 million annual running costs. The business that raises the most money on June 10 will be crowned Bath Cats and Dog’s Home’s ‘Top Dog’ for 2016.

Bath Cats and Dogs Home is one of the busiest adoption centres in the South West. In 2015 it took in more than 1,300 animals from across Bath, Somerset and Wiltshire, reunited 212 strays with their owners, and found loving, forever homes for 1,348 animals.

To sign up to this year’s Kennel Break challenge, call 01225 787335, or email zenajones@bcdh.org.uk


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