Have you ever been to India? If you have, you'll have seen the large amount of stray dogs and cats that live there. It's a huge problem but we don't think any animal should be culled or that they should needlessly suffer.

We want to raise £13000 to cover the costs of running the centre so we can concentrate on raising the bar on our humane birth control and vaccination programme to help reduce the number of stray dogs and cats that live on the streets and beaches of South Goa.

ARC was founded in 2005 by Janie O’Connor and is based just outside of Palolem in South Goa, India. The centre was set up as a direct response to the high volume of stray animals in and around the local area; creating a rescue centre where stray or injured animals can be re-homed and cared for by the centre workers and volunteers, as well as helping to make a dent in the massive problem of stray animals through a neutering programme.

Initially our fundraising goals were to run a short term campaign and get as many strays sterilised as possible in a six month period. However, soon realising this would only give the strays aid in the short term, ARC decided to start building a shelter from a disused chicken shack. We then moved to the current site three years ago, which we built from scratch. We built a new room onto the shelter using only glass bottles as we couldn’t afford bricks, and we’ve been there ever since.

The wall has recently had to be replaced, owing to flooding from the severe monsoon rains. It's disasters like this where we have to dig deep into money that is needed to keep the centre running on a monthly basis and that's why we'd love to raise enough to run the centre for a whole year so we can focus our attention on our birth control and vaccination programmes, as well as helping to educate locals into the treatment of animals and how they can help to reduce the conflict between humans and our four legged friends.

The culling of stray animals in India is very common and we believe our Animal Birth Control programme has dramatically decreased the number of animals suffering. Since 2005, thousands of dogs and cats have been sterilised by ARC; improving the condition of the strays on the local streets and beaches. We want to increase that positive impact we've had...

The workers and volunteers spend most of their time caring for and treating the stray animals without running water and an onsite vet. The centre relies solely on donations and volunteers to keep the shelter running.

Please help us by making a donation or visiting us when you are in South Goa.