Vote for the cover of the next CSPCA calendar

The vote is now open for this year's Cavan SPCA photo calendar competition.

A shortlist of 21 photos have been published in today's Anglo-Celt newspaper with a voting coupon.

The photos have also been published on the Celt's Facebook page. The votes submitted online and via the print coupons will be combined and a maximum of 50% of the marks assigned from each medium to determine the overall winner.

Animal lovers are being urged to vote for their favourite picture and the winner will front the 2021 CSPCA Calendar, with the 12 runners up featuring inside for each month of the year.

A new Canon digital camera will also be presented to the winner, sponsored by The Anglo-Celt.

Laura Reilly from Ballyjamesduff is a volunteer with the CSPCA and she explains why the calendar is more important than ever before.

“We’re raising funds for our important rescue work. The calendar is vital. Since the emergence of Covid in March and the lockdown and restrictions, we have been unable to raise funds.

“Our charity shop on Thomas Ashe Street in Cavan Town was closed and we have been unable to host our annual pub quizzes, dog walks and other fundraising events,” outlined Laura.

The charity shop has recently reopened with the easing of some restrictions but the CSPCA is still playing catch-up in terms of generating funds to pay the bills.

Their costs are in excess of €85,000 every year between veterinary fees (€30K), food (€20K), spaying and neutering (€25K) and other fees and expenses such as travel and phone, insurance, accountants’ fees etc.

The charity sometimes gets government grant aid but is never aware if the allocation will be forthcoming or how much it might be until around December each year.

While the funds stopped coming in during lockdown, the rescue work of the CSPCA continued.

“We still had animals coming into our care who needed veterinary care and needed to be fed,” said Laura.

She said they received many calls during lockdown from people looking for rescue dogs – perhaps because they were “at home more” or out walking in the good weather.

Staff were still limited in terms of how many they could rehome because they couldn’t have people calling to see the dogs and they still needed to properly vet people and ensure they had suitable homes and circumstances for taking on a rescue pet.

“Tina [Boyle] wouldn’t have been able to start rehoming dog until early June,” explained Laura, adding that all the while animals had to be fed.

The CSPCA photo calendar competition is one of the most popular competitions run in The Anglo-Celt every year with hundreds of photos received.

The deadline for the vote is 12 noon on Wednesday, September 16.

The Cavan SPCA calendars will be printed later in the year and available for purchase in the usual outlets for just €7. The charity will not be publishing any new Christmas cards this year as it still has stock left over from 2019.