Dear Dean Russell, My name is Melanie Silver and I live in your constituency. As my MP, I am writing to you out of concern for funding support for animal welfare charities, which specialise in rescuing and rehoming stray, unwanted and neglected pets. The Government appears to have misunderstood the nature of the work and the funding model for these charities, which provide a vital service to the communities within which they operate. In normal times, these organisations rely solely on donations from the public and receive no government funding whatsoever. However, the coronavirus pandemic has left many of these small locally-based charities, such as Watford’s National Animal Welfare Trust (NAWT), facing a drastic shortfall in funding due to the forced closure of their charity shops and curtailment of fundraising activities at their rehoming centres. To be blunt, these organisations are facing a challenging financial future, which could result in permanent closure.