Found an animal that needs help?
Find the right next step
Choose what you can see to find practical guidance and contact options. WARN does not operate an emergency dispatch service. If a person is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services.
Keep a safe distance and contact a professional. Contact options updated for Choose location / elsewhere.
Keep a safe distance and contact a professional
- Observe from a safe place and keep children and pets away. Do not approach large wildlife, bats, snakes, birds of prey, or sick or dead birds.
- Contact a wildlife rehabilitator, local wildlife authority or vet promptly. Describe visible injuries, breathing difficulty, entanglement or a collision without trying to diagnose the animal.
- Ask for species-specific instructions before handling, moving or feeding it. Do not enter a road, fire zone, railway or water to attempt a rescue.
Guidance: RSPCA: injured wildlife advice. Reviewed 8 September 2026.
Contact options
These independent services have their own areas, hours and capacity. For an injured dog or cat, call a local veterinary practice first. If you cannot reach a responder, try the local wildlife authority or another vet; do not wait for a reply from WARN.
What to tell a responder
Share the exact location or map pin, when you found the animal, what you can see and how to contact you. Take a photo only from a safe distance. Explain any nearby traffic, fire, water, people or pets so the responder can plan an appropriate response.
How do I donate to a local animal shelter in the UK?
Donate to a local animal shelter by paying the registered rescue, council pound or breed organisation that actually holds the animals. Search "animal shelters near me with dogs" or "rescue shelter for dogs near me", then give on that organisation's own page. WARN cannot receipt a gift for a named pen in your postcode.
If you also want to rescue the dogs that will never sit in a UK kennel — street dogs, meat-trade seizures — give on this page as a second gift. That is combined giving. It is not a substitute for the local standing order.
How do UK donors combine local shelter giving with programmes abroad?
Many UK donors already give to dog and cat shelters near them. The abroad half is optional. It funds CNVR, rabies vaccination and quarantine where partners operate, not extra kennel space in Kent.
A typical split: Gift Aid locally to a Charity Commission rescue for rehoming, and a non-Gift-Aid gift to WARN for Karachi CNVR or meat-trade quarantine. Both receipts are honest. The general shelter-donate page without this fork is donate to animal shelter.
How do I find a rescue shelter for dogs near me in the UK?
Use shelter directory, Maps, or the Charity Commission register. Type the search the way you would say it. A local animal protection society or humane society is the right door for cruelty reports and kennel volunteering — not WARN.
If you are looking for a rescue dog, stop here for the home itself. Application, home check and aftercare sit with that rescue. The adoption walkthrough is newsroom briefing. The trust walkthrough is newsroom briefing.
Is WARN an animal protection society?
No. In UK speech an animal protection society usually means a local humane society, SPCA-style cruelty charity or volunteer kennel. WARN is a UK Community Interest Company that grants to vetted partners abroad. Legal identity is at registration status. Programme spend target: where your money goes.
If you wanted a local society, give or volunteer there. If you wanted the abroad half of a split gift, stay on this page.
Guide 5
The purpose of your contribution
The abroad half funds partner-led CNVR and rabies vaccination for street dogs, and quarantine after dog-and-cat meat-trade seizures. Donation amounts are contributions, not verified prices for individual procedures or care days. It is a programme cost, not a named-dog invoice. Do not read a cat-surgery unit price here.
Symbolic adoption from £5/month is adopt a dog and adopt a cat. Country context is where we work.
Guide 6
One-off versus monthly when you already give locally
Keep the local standing order if that rescue relies on it. Add a one-off WARN gift after a raid or a culling threat. Add monthly WARN giving if partners need a clinic calendar. Cancel the WARN half any time — it does not cancel your local rescue gift.
Dog-only one-off wording without the combined-giving fork is donate to dog rescue.
Who should not use this combined-giving page?
Skip this page if you only wanted a local kennel, only wanted Gift Aid, or only wanted to join an animal protection society. Use shelter directory. Skip WARN if you wanted a named kennel dog with photo updates.
Stay if you already give locally — or you are about to — and you also want street dogs and seized cats helped where they live. Give on this page.