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SPANA (The Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad) is a global working animal charity that supports donkeys, horses, mules, oxen, camels and other working animals in many of the world's most vulnerable communities.
PO Box 79509, EC4P 4ND, London, United Kingdom
2.8
11 reviews
Hasn’t replied to negative reviews
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Received a junk mail begging letter today. Went online and read the government review. Far too much money goes on fundraising, and 4 executives out of the 40 UK staff are taking almost £400k pa between them.
My name is Abdinasir Mohamed Ibrahim.
I am a student studying veterinary medicine at a university.
I am 20 years old and was born in Somalia
My name is Abdinasir Mohamed Ibrahim.
I am a student studying veterinary medicine at a university.
I am 20 years old and was born in Somalia
SPANA is a family favorite, and we have supported them for many years as did my mother. They strive to help people and working animals through education and support, though now on a pension, I continue to donate to this wonderful organization. I even visited some of their centres in Morocco a few years ago and I was bowled over by the commitment of their staff and their compassion for animals.
Management team cost £500k before any help is given
I was shocked when I read the accounts for last year and found that is was not run by volunteers - the management team salary and pension contribution is more that half a million a year.
About 38% of all donations doe not go to good causes.
Reply from SPANA
SPANA currently helps working animals across 19 low-income countries – its charitable mission encompasses some of the most complex and challenging working environments in the world.
To ensure the charity can pursue its mission successfully, SPANA depends on an experienced global workforce: these staff include qualified veterinary professionals, behaviour change specialists (to support our work to change local attitudes and behaviours towards animals), project managers, safeguarding experts and organisational leaders. Staff salaries are set by a Trustee-led renumeration committee, following benchmarking against equivalent roles in similar sized charities. SPANA is committed to paying fair and reasonable salaries, since the charity believes it serve animals best by being able to recruit experienced and competent staff to deliver its work.
SPANA’s management team costs during 2022 to 2024 were less than the figures you refer to. The charity has worked hard to minimise its staffing costs while continuing to grow its global impact for working animal welfare.
In 2023, 68 pence of every pound donated to SPANA funded charitable work to help animals in need. 27 pence was invested in further fundraising, to allow us to continue our work in the future. For every £1 SPANA spent on fundraising in 2023, it raised £3.70 to help more working animals in need.
In 2023 alone, SPANA provided 336,018 working animals with vital treatment and care. The charity also trained 75,239 owners in good animal care and taught 68,662 children about animal welfare, to help drive long-term change for working animals.
Globally, many animals such as horses, camels, donkeys and cattle are forced to endure harsh conditions and work long hours of back-breaking and repetitive physical labour, in difficult terrains and harsh temperatures, often without breaks and with a poor diet. Despite their exploitation at the hands of their owners, they are often severely neglected including being denied veterinary treatment, resulting in many animals being forced to work in great discomfort and pain. Owners may also inflict punishments and beat animals who are unable to carry out work such as carrying loads of weight beyond their capabilities. Further, despite the hard work these animals contribute to society, few are provided are "retirement" but rather they are often mercilessly killed and sold to be slaughtered.
SPANA does critical work for these working animals and ensures the ones they are able to reach are provided basic care. SPANA not only supports these animals in urban areas but also in more regional and/or developing countries, where animal welfare is extremely poor.
Please think about contributing your support to this important cause as there is a desperate need for their work to continue despite the current cost of living crisis and high cost of animal medical care. There is no doubt there are hundreds of thousands of working animals out there that SPANA have not yet been able to reach due to resourcing limitations. It is of critical importance that SPANA has ongoing donations to expand their operations to reach more of the innocent, voiceless and exploited out there.
The work they do is so valuable how could you possibly rate it low there's not enough people working in this area as it is they might not be perfect but they do so much for so many, - reported by international organisations that around a quarter of a million animals a year are helped so I think they deserve five stars!
Disappointed when I sent a cheque to such a worthwhile charity ,to get no reply ? Just a tx saying it has been received would have been appreciated.
Reply from SPANA
Dear Dee, the team is shocked and deeply disappointed to hear this. You would normally have received a thank-you from us, unless you asked not to. Can you please email us via hello@spana.org, as we would like to investigate how this happened and - even more importantly - thank you for your kind support. We hope to hear from you soon.
So...I would like to get something straight. Not only do SPANA exist (contrary to the review posted on this site on 21.2.2020 by ‘Quest’), but they provide the most amazing support around the world for working animals and their owners. I have been to their medical centre in Marrakech around 20 times and I did a fundraiser for them during the pandemic. The support in place for me at this time was second to none. Please ignore ‘Quests’ claims of scams. This is completely untrue and SPANA continue to need support. I will be continuing to give mine
Yet another 3 pounds a month to help the donkeys scam, why do the broadcasting networks allow these bogus specialist video ads on TV, wateraid, spans, save the whale, help african children, most of which dont even display a registered charity number
Reply from SPANA
On behalf of the organisation, I would like to assure you that SPANA (The Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad) is an established global charity with an outstanding 97-year record for delivering transformational support to working animals and the developing communities that rely on animals for their survival. You can find out more about our work at www.spana.org or at the Charity Commission website.
SPANA does feature our registration number (209015) across our adverts and appeals. We suggest £3 a month as a donation amount because this can help us transform the lives of working animals in some of the world's poorest communities, on an ongoing basis.
SPANA provides free veterinary care and treatment to working animals in the developing world (including donkeys, horses, camels and elephants), who provide their communities with the water, food, fuel and transport they need to survive. We also work to ensure owners are informed and trained in how to care for their animals. Our vital work transforms lives, but we can only do this with donations from our supporters - and in order to reach more potential supporters, we do need to advertise.
If you would like more information about our work please do contact us at hello@spana.org - we will be happy to help.
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