:00:15. > :00:20.Claire Horton is the Chief Executive of Battersea Dogs and
:00:20. > :00:26.Cats Home. The charity is over 150 years old. Last year it took in
:00:26. > :00:29.nearly 7,000 dogs and over 2,700 cats. This is a place like no other.
:00:29. > :00:36.It's full of smiles, tears, happy endings, and it's full of decisions
:00:36. > :00:39.that do the right thing for the animals that come through our doors.
:00:39. > :00:44.The charity reunites lost cats and dogs with owners, and assessing
:00:44. > :00:47.whether animals are suitable for rehoming. I went to the South
:00:47. > :00:57.London site next to Battersea power station and spent the day with
:00:57. > :01:02.
:01:02. > :01:05.Good morning, Claire. Good morning. It's a long day ahead. It will be a
:01:05. > :01:08.little bit of a long day. Probably about 12 hours. That's fine,
:01:08. > :01:12.there's lots to do. A lot of different people coming in. Where
:01:12. > :01:16.does your day normally start? of the site. I come in, get my
:01:16. > :01:22.coffee and say hello to as many people as I can walking to the
:01:22. > :01:24.office. It's back up here for a tour of the homes, see what is in,
:01:24. > :01:27.what happened overnight, what dogs and cats we have, what potential
:01:27. > :01:34.problems, and the clinic, just to see what's on the operating list
:01:34. > :01:42.for the day. As well as the Battersea site the home have two
:01:42. > :01:49.other centres, one at Old Windsor and one at Brands Hatch in Kent. Is
:01:49. > :01:52.it five days a week there? For me? Or six or seven? The site is open
:01:52. > :02:00.24 hours, seven days a week, so that means that we work whatever
:02:00. > :02:07.hours we need to. Generally I do a five day Monday to Friday. That's
:02:07. > :02:17.when most of my meetings take place. Good morning, Arthur. Good morning.
:02:17. > :02:18.
:02:18. > :02:23.Hello. How old is he? How long have we had him now? Three to five.
:02:23. > :02:27.We've had him two to three months. He's one of your favourite boys.
:02:27. > :02:33.He's an early morning walker. You're an early morning walker, of
:02:33. > :02:39.course. Yes. Arthur is one of our top volunteers. Arthur is more than
:02:39. > :02:45.full-time hours. Every single day. The first walk is 13 minutes past
:02:45. > :02:48.eight. Yes, thereabouts. generally see Arthur as I come in.
:02:48. > :02:58.I'll take you into our new cattery, opened in November, state of the
:02:58. > :03:14.
:03:14. > :03:20.Now, we've got in this cattery about 90 pens. I'll just make sure
:03:20. > :03:24.there's nothing else at the moment. Right. OK. Is this where all your
:03:24. > :03:30.cats are? Yes, pretty much. The cattery is over three floors, this
:03:30. > :03:33.is the rehoming floor, where the public come. Why would cats come
:03:33. > :03:39.here to Battersea? About 50% of the cats coming into Battersea are
:03:39. > :03:42.stray. They have gone off, lost, wandered the streets. The other 50%
:03:42. > :03:51.are brought in by owners, circumstances have changed, can't
:03:51. > :03:55.keep the cats or cats have kittens, all kinds of different reasons. We
:03:55. > :04:00.take them all, we don't turn anything away. They come through
:04:00. > :04:04.the doors. What is your rehoming rate with cats? Do you rehome all
:04:04. > :04:10.the cats that come in here? Pretty much all of the cats come in and go
:04:10. > :04:14.out. The average stay for a cat is about 30 days. We lose few cats. If
:04:14. > :04:23.we do lose any, it's 3% of the 3,000 cats that we have every year,
:04:23. > :04:28.because of old age or advanced disease or illness. Everything
:04:29. > :04:33.pretty much goes out to new homes quickly. Do you ever put any cats
:04:33. > :04:35.down? Very, very few cats. That would be purely on the basis that
:04:35. > :04:44.they were very ill, very, very old, generally advanced. So kidney
:04:44. > :04:53.failure and that kind of thing. That would be the 3% you talk about.
:04:53. > :04:56.Pretty much. Cats - not every cat will want to be left alone. There's
:04:57. > :04:59.a lot of people that want a cat like that. Generally we don't have
:04:59. > :05:05.too much problems homing the animals, we are pleased with the
:05:05. > :05:08.rehoming rates. We'll talk about the dogs later. The challenges with
:05:08. > :05:14.dogs, or some dogs at Battersea, they are different to the
:05:14. > :05:18.challenges with cats. Hugely different. Hugely different. We
:05:18. > :05:21.have a huge range of different behavioural issues with dogs. And
:05:21. > :05:23.the fact that dogs are bigger and have a much more interactive
:05:23. > :05:31.lifestyle with their owners, presenting all kinds of challenges
:05:31. > :05:40.for us. I'll show you some of those challenges as we look at the dogs
:05:40. > :05:45.later on. This cat is waiting, what does that mean? It means that the
:05:45. > :05:48.cat will have come in recently. We need to understand what sort of
:05:48. > :05:52.behaviour it has, is it sociable, friendly, does it like people, will
:05:52. > :05:58.it let you pick it up, can you put it on your knee, will it play with
:05:58. > :06:02.you, is it alright with other cats. Obviously people that come into
:06:02. > :06:06.Battersea will have different requirements. We have children,
:06:06. > :06:09.some have other animals. You need to understand what it's like with a
:06:09. > :06:13.dog. We cat-test the dogs, and dog- test the cats, it's understanding
:06:13. > :06:20.what sort of home would suit that particular animal best, and we go
:06:20. > :06:25.through thorough assessments for all of them. We have a few kittens
:06:25. > :06:33.in at the moment. One in the bed at the back. She looks like she hasn't
:06:33. > :06:36.got up this morning. And a little young cat in the litter tray. I'll
:06:36. > :06:41.take you through to the socialising room, where members of the public
:06:41. > :06:44.meet and interact with the cats. On the way I'll show you this. This is
:06:44. > :06:52.where the Downing Street cat lived before he went off to become a
:06:52. > :06:58.famous boy. We are proud to have been chosen to home the cat to
:06:58. > :07:01.Downing Street. What it did for us was send rehoming rates through the
:07:01. > :07:04.roof and we ran out of the cats almost the following weekend.
:07:04. > :07:07.Because everyone knew to come to Battersea. Battersea is all about
:07:07. > :07:13.dogs to many people, but it's Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, and
:07:13. > :07:17.we have done cats for 125 years. you have a personal favourite
:07:17. > :07:21.between cats and dogs? Are you more of a cat or dog person?
:07:21. > :07:26.supposed to say I love them all the same, but it's dogs for me, I'm a
:07:26. > :07:33.dog person. I had a 23-year-old cat that I lost 8 months ago. Probably
:07:33. > :07:39.the oldest cat in the world. Loyal. I love cats. Dogs are my thing, I
:07:39. > :07:43.have to say. Do you have a dog? I have four. From Battersea? I have
:07:43. > :07:47.two from Battersea. I only had two. But I have four, I picked up a few
:07:47. > :07:54.Battersea ones. I'll take you into the clinic now and see what they
:07:54. > :08:02.have got on for the rest of the day in there. The head vet is Shaun
:08:02. > :08:12.We have standard operations. has mammary tumours that need to be
:08:12. > :08:12.
:08:12. > :08:16.removed. This is an older cat. We are giving it a good dental. It's
:08:16. > :08:23.common for a cat to come in and need dental works - scale and
:08:23. > :08:28.polish, extraction. These are the recovery pens, five for dogs and
:08:28. > :08:34.eight around the corner for cats. It's nice to keep them apart.
:08:34. > :08:38.is Max, he's feeling a little sorry for himself, he has kennel cough.
:08:38. > :08:46.Outside of the home, kennel cough is a mild illness. In here, when
:08:46. > :08:53.the dogs are right, some are so anxious, they can get quite poorly.
:08:53. > :08:58.He'll be fine. This is Levi. He is 11. He came into the home a few
:08:58. > :09:03.weeks ago. He had a few growths removed and sent for testing.
:09:03. > :09:09.Hopefully we think they'll come back fine to go. Hopefully Levi
:09:09. > :09:12.will be off to a home. He's an older boy, 11 years old. He has a
:09:12. > :09:18.little time in the hospital wing before he goes off into the
:09:18. > :09:21.rehoming block. He'll be fine, he's a good boy. Next Claire is off to
:09:21. > :09:31.meet staff in the London Organising Committee, donating tennis balls to
:09:31. > :09:35.
:09:35. > :09:42.be used at this year's Wimbledon That's it, the winning ball is now
:09:42. > :09:52.with Dolly. Presumably Charlotte, is Dolly one of the recovering
:09:52. > :10:02.kennel Cough dogs? She has had kennel cough. She's getting healthy.
:10:02. > :10:02.
:10:02. > :10:12.Semifinal ball, which one? This one or this one? This one. Good girl.
:10:12. > :10:17.
:10:17. > :10:22.Good girl. Perfect. And again. Good girl. Well done. She's good, she
:10:22. > :10:32.likes this. I don't want to run her too much. She chews the ball up.
:10:32. > :10:33.
:10:33. > :10:37.This one. Give me that one first. This is a really nice garden as
:10:37. > :10:43.well. This is Mary's garden, which was donated to us and provided by
:10:43. > :10:45.one of our supporters, a trust that looks after us and gives us money.
:10:46. > :10:49.And they created a really nice century garden, with different
:10:49. > :10:55.things to do for the dogs and the poorly dogs that spent time in
:10:55. > :10:59.kennels when they haven't been well or been able to get out much. It's
:10:59. > :11:04.a nice environment for them to come, they can relax. There's plenty for
:11:04. > :11:06.them to explore and do. We try to do that with the kennels that we
:11:06. > :11:11.have, in our paddocks, finding interesting things to help them
:11:11. > :11:16.pass away the day. Some of these guys are here for a long time.
:11:16. > :11:26.You've been here since January, sweetheart? Why would some dogs
:11:26. > :11:26.
:11:26. > :11:28.stay longer? Boisterous, wrong colour, wrong breed. It makes a
:11:28. > :11:31.difference, different behavioural issues, some dogs need more
:11:31. > :11:38.attention than others, some can be boisterous, play roughly, and a lot
:11:38. > :11:44.of people don't like that. It can be all manner of reasons why a dog
:11:44. > :11:47.would stay. Health as well. You may be trying to make a dog better.
:11:47. > :11:51.Dogs will go through the medical procedures, some will be sick when
:11:51. > :12:00.they come. The dogs you see in the clinic are dogs that will stay with
:12:01. > :12:10.Dogs are forming a guard of honour. Claire is meeting the Mayor of
:12:11. > :12:11.
:12:11. > :12:19.Wandsworth, Councillor Jane Cooper. Hello. Good morning your worship,
:12:19. > :12:22.Claire is introducing the Mayor to Keith Payne, service dogs manager
:12:22. > :12:31.for Battersea. He's assessing a Rottweiler to see if it's suitable
:12:31. > :12:34.Not all dogs are suitable to become a pet. What we do for the
:12:34. > :12:43.Rottweiler's German shepherds, they can be potential to work with
:12:43. > :12:51.security services or police. We look for a dog into tough games and
:12:51. > :12:58.search games to assume something like this. We can contact relevant
:12:58. > :13:01.police service or armed forces and Laura Jenkins is head of animal
:13:01. > :13:07.services at the moment, and is liaising with the dog services
:13:07. > :13:17.location to see if they'll take on a dog with a bite history. I don't
:13:17. > :13:20.
:13:20. > :13:25.feel he'll bite me. He's doing natural German Shepherd traits. If
:13:25. > :13:29.you could take... Strength needs to be developed. They need to become -
:13:29. > :13:33.show all the character they need to be. I'm so comfortable putting my
:13:33. > :13:43.hands in his mouth. Claire is showing the Mayor around some of
:13:43. > :14:15.
:14:15. > :14:22.American Bulldogs, there's all MUSIC PLAYS. These animals
:14:22. > :14:32.shouldn't be in a kennel, they should be in a home. You'd see
:14:32. > :14:34.
:14:34. > :14:39.different behaviour exhibited. What you are seeing is false behaviour.
:14:39. > :14:43.This is a chill-out room. Dogs can be distressed during the course of
:14:43. > :14:46.the day in kennels, we take them out, we put them in the office with
:14:46. > :14:54.the staff. We walk them out across the park, take them into the
:14:54. > :15:02.paddock. You are a receptionist. Who is this? This is Dotti, I got
:15:02. > :15:06.her from here three years ago. is your dog. She is mine, I
:15:06. > :15:12.fostered her, she was too cute. I had to keep her. You bring her to
:15:12. > :15:16.work. She sleeps on the desk and barks at people and chases her tail.
:15:16. > :15:19.We are with Laura and Sabha, Laura is looking at Sabha and how to find
:15:19. > :15:22.her a new home. Sabha came in Saturday. What we'll do is when the
:15:22. > :15:26.dog arrives is give them a medical check and assessment. Sasha is up
:15:26. > :15:30.for rehoming. We find with non- board breeds we can rehome them
:15:30. > :15:37.quickly. Some of them stay with us 60 days, which is the difficult
:15:37. > :15:47.side of it. There's time to see more of the home's kennels with
:15:47. > :15:49.
:15:49. > :15:52.Claire. These are overflow kennels for kennel cough dogs for dogs
:15:52. > :15:58.suitable for rehoming, they have kennel cough at the moment, so they
:15:58. > :16:01.have to be made better before they're out in the public domain.
:16:01. > :16:04.We struggle with the sorts of kennels they are in because they
:16:04. > :16:07.are under a railway arch, you have the noise, when they bark it echos.
:16:07. > :16:13.There's old kennels that we have used for decades, desperately
:16:13. > :16:22.needing a change. It's back to reception. James from the
:16:22. > :16:25.fundraising department. What do you have here? Knitted mice with Catnip
:16:25. > :16:28.inside, herby treats that the cats love to play with and drive them
:16:28. > :16:38.crazy. We have loads and loads. Bags, in fact, of these. They are
:16:38. > :16:41.
:16:41. > :16:47.everywhere. We are so grateful. we have knitted blankets. It saves
:16:47. > :16:53.the charity a huge amount of money in buying blankets. Where do they
:16:53. > :17:00.come from? We ran an appeal in The Guardian, and we were inundated
:17:00. > :17:03.with response. One person knitted 427 mice. The average is six mice
:17:03. > :17:06.per person. And they come from anything from knitting groups to
:17:06. > :17:09.care homes. It's any way our supporters can make the cats' lives
:17:09. > :17:12.better while they are here. At the afternoon meeting there's a chance
:17:12. > :17:22.to ask more questions. How many dogs did Battersea take in last
:17:22. > :17:25.
:17:25. > :17:35.year? Under 7,000. How many were put down? A third were put to sleep.
:17:35. > :17:36.
:17:36. > :17:40.Why would Battersea put a dog to sleep? There are a number of
:17:40. > :17:43.reasons we take the decision with the dogs in our care. Many of the
:17:43. > :17:46.dogs coming to Battersea are dangerous. Many of them have been
:17:46. > :17:50.bred illegally. Many of them are section 1 under the dangerous dog
:17:50. > :17:54.act, pit bull terriers. The particular type we get in here,
:17:54. > :17:57.we'll get Pitt bulls and crosses in here. Those dogs we have to put to
:17:57. > :18:01.sleep unless they are exempted. The majority of those animals will be
:18:01. > :18:08.put to sleep. We have a lot of dogs trained to bite, used as protection,
:18:08. > :18:13.trained to attack. They'll be put to sleep. We cannot responsibly
:18:13. > :18:21.rehome them. We have dogs who are ill, dogs who are badly injured,
:18:21. > :18:24.and we can't save them. They'll be put to sleep. We have people,
:18:24. > :18:27.members of the public ask us to put their own dogs to sleep for
:18:27. > :18:29.whatever reason, in which case we have detailed and lengthy
:18:30. > :18:33.conversations with people, we are not about putting rehomable dogs to
:18:33. > :18:36.sleep here. Do you think you could do any more to prevent some dogs
:18:36. > :18:39.from being put down? You know, Battersea isn't the problem here.
:18:39. > :18:47.Battersea is about providing the solution. We are picking up the
:18:47. > :18:55.pieces of problems going out on the streets. We are picking up the
:18:55. > :18:57.pieces of factory breeding, dogs sold on the internet. All the
:18:57. > :19:04.difficult issues that affects society with dogs becoming a bit of
:19:04. > :19:06.a throw away commodity, with picking up. We educate, we go into
:19:06. > :19:10.communities, we go to schools, talking about responsible ownership
:19:10. > :19:13.and how to look after the animals. We talk about animal welfare and
:19:13. > :19:23.the communities that have these particular types of dogs that we
:19:23. > :19:27.
:19:27. > :19:31.deal with. We talk about how to make sure your dog is well trained,
:19:31. > :19:34.well socialised. Other charities do the same. It won't be a problem we
:19:34. > :19:37.solve overnight. It's a generational issue, a problem we
:19:37. > :19:40.have picked up for years and years and will for years to come. Claire
:19:40. > :19:43.has travelled to west London for a meeting with the Chief Executive of
:19:43. > :19:53.Metro Bank. She's been working with the bank on promotional events on
:19:53. > :19:54.
:19:54. > :20:02.finding homes for the dogs. could make 10%ish. It makes it
:20:02. > :20:12.meaningful. It does. Let's lock it in to High Street. Back at the home
:20:12. > :20:29.
:20:29. > :20:32.Claire catches up with her PA. How much of your job is admin? Most of
:20:32. > :20:35.my admin it processed by Rianan, who filters my e-mails, where we
:20:35. > :20:38.get 60 a day, she'll action anything that needs actioning, she
:20:38. > :20:41.flags anything I need or print up anything I need to work on
:20:41. > :20:45.overnight. A lot is reports coming in, questions and queries, I pick
:20:45. > :20:48.up on that. I sit at the end of the day doing e-mails myself, because a
:20:48. > :20:58.lot of my e-mails need personal attention and responses. I have
:20:58. > :21:04.
:21:04. > :21:07.party conference that you are going to. For the fringe? Yes. Thank you.
:21:07. > :21:10.She has had 24 years of experience, she's been at Battersea for 18
:21:10. > :21:14.months. What skills do you need as Chief Executive of the charity?
:21:14. > :21:20.need good business sense. You need to manage a complex operation. You
:21:20. > :21:24.need to understand people. You need to be able to motivate and guide
:21:24. > :21:27.and lead and inspire people. You need to be a great communicator
:21:27. > :21:34.with not just your team but external stakeholders. You need to
:21:34. > :21:44.fundraise. A big part of my role is endearing the charity to lots of
:21:44. > :22:01.
:22:01. > :22:09.new supporters. And you really need to have passion. What type of dog
:22:09. > :22:11.do you take most of at Battersea? Most of one particular type is our
:22:11. > :22:14.bull breeds, and they can be ranging from Staffordshire bull
:22:14. > :22:24.terriers, to bull mastiffs, English bull terriers, and the crosses in
:22:24. > :22:25.
:22:25. > :22:28.between. They make up about 50% of the dogs we take. The difficulty
:22:28. > :22:38.with those animals is because they are - there are so many of them
:22:38. > :22:44.
:22:44. > :22:54.they can stay in the home a long time. This is an emotional job for
:22:54. > :23:07.
:23:07. > :23:10.you. It's emotional for me. Every day. Every night. It's - you are
:23:10. > :23:13.thinking about all of the animals that are relying on you to give
:23:13. > :23:16.them a second chance and for the teams working on the front line
:23:16. > :23:24.it's 10 times a difficult for them because those are the people who
:23:24. > :23:28.forge the close relationship with all the animals that come in. Those
:23:28. > :23:31.are the people who look after them day in and day out and see them
:23:31. > :23:33.going through their journey through the home, and they are the people
:23:33. > :23:37.that make the tough decisions sometimes on a particular outcome
:23:37. > :23:40.for a dog, and that might be a decision to put that dog to sleep
:23:40. > :23:45.because it's the best thing for that dog. Those decisions break
:23:45. > :23:55.everyone's hearts every day. Do you take in a lot of dogs that have
:23:55. > :23:58.been abused? We do, actually. We see a lot of dogs used particularly
:23:58. > :24:02.for illegal dog fighting, or dogs used as bait dogs in illegal dog
:24:02. > :24:05.fighting, where they had defences lowered. Many may have had teeth
:24:05. > :24:13.filed down so they can't fight back. Those animals come in scarred
:24:13. > :24:16.mentally and physically. We get a lot of dogs that have behavioural
:24:16. > :24:19.problems because they come from owners that have not known how to
:24:19. > :24:23.look after them, and they can obviously be cruel treatment that
:24:23. > :24:25.we'll see and detect in the way animals behave. They shy away, come
:24:26. > :24:28.forward, snap. There's different behavioural traits that we have to
:24:28. > :24:33.understand when dogs with no background or history come into the
:24:33. > :24:43.home. Many of the dogs that come in are very badly damaged in one way
:24:43. > :24:54.
:24:54. > :24:58.or the other. How good is your process of rehoming a dog? It's a
:24:58. > :25:05.bit of a mission to get a dog or cat from Battersea. We want to be
:25:05. > :25:11.sure that the animal going into the home is the perfect match. And so
:25:11. > :25:15.we ask people to bear with us. Actually also to show a commitment
:25:15. > :25:18.and go through the process. We need their details, they need to come in
:25:18. > :25:21.and look at what animals match their circumstances. If we match
:25:21. > :25:26.them up and they have other animals, we need to meet them. Particularly
:25:27. > :25:30.the dogs, they have to bring the dogs in. We like to meet other
:25:30. > :25:33.members of the family to make sure they are on board and understanding
:25:34. > :25:40.what it is and who it is they are taking into the family. Do you
:25:40. > :25:50.enjoy your job? Best job in the world. This is - this is a place
:25:50. > :25:50.
:25:50. > :25:53.like no other. It's full of smiles, tears, it's full of happy endings
:25:53. > :25:57.and full of decisions that do the right thing for all the animals
:25:57. > :26:00.coming through the doors, and full of people with a passion and a real