We put pets first and so do our CSR initiatives

At Vets4Pets, we put pets first. This is at the core of our organisation’s values, and it’s therefore no surprise that many of our CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiatives at the group and individual practice level focus on animal health and wellbeing as well as people and the planet. Some of our CSR activities are small and local in nature – think bake sale for a local animal shelter/rehoming centre – but some are much larger, strategic, nationwide initiatives where we join together with our practices and with Pets at Home to make a bigger impact. One such example is the Lifelines scheme – one of the benefits of the Pets at Home VIP club.

VIP Lifelines are generated every time a member of the Pets at Home VIP Club swipes his or her card when making a purchase in a Pets at Home store, shopping on the Pets at Home website, paying for a treatment in one of the group’s Groom Rooms or after their pet has received veterinary care in a Vets4Pets or Companion Care veterinary practice. The Lifelines are then converted into vouchers, which charities can spend for whatever they need from their local Pets at Home store to help look after the pets in their care. Click here to watch a short video that shows how Lifelines help pets in need.

Launched in November 2012 by Pets at Home, VIP Lifelines expanded in 2016 to include Vets4Pets and Companion Care practices. As part of the Lifelines donation scheme, our vet practices have annually each received £300 worth of Lifelines credit they could gift to a local charity of their choice.

Recently, the VIP Lifelines scheme reached a milestone by raising £10 million in Lifelines for animal charities all across the UK. To celebrate this incredible achievement, 769 charities registered on the scheme were given an extra £400 in vouchers to spend at Pets at Home stores and/or the Groom Room and £300 to spend at a Vets4Pets or Companion Care surgery. The vet voucher can be spent on whatever the charity needs to help the animals in its care (products, check-ups, annual vaccinations, needed surgeries, etc.). In the last 6 months alone, more than £70,000 has been redeemed by charities in our practices!

We are very excited to welcome these charities into Pets at Home stores, Vets4Pets and Companion Care practices and our Groom Rooms and are thrilled to be able to help them help the animals in their care.

One example of a charity benefiting from VIP Lifelines is cat charity Heatons, which last year, took in, supported and rehomed around 200 cats. Vets4Pets Stockport were delighted to be able to help provide treatments with the £300 Lifelines voucher for this particular charity.

Jack Ferrario, co-owner and vet at Vets4Pets Stockport said, “The team at Heatons are great, and we see cats from the sanctuary every day for everything from booster vaccinations and microchipping, to regular health check-ups.”

The Lifelines voucher was used to save the life of Ziggy, a five-year-old cat that had recently arrived at the charity with abnormal breathing and upper respiratory tract disease. Ziggy received chest X-rays, a course of steroids and an inhaler to help his breathing.

“This condition can cause sneezing, coughing, fever, reduced appetite, rapid breathing and nasal and oral discharge and ulcers,” said Jack. “If it had gone untreated, Ziggy’s quality of life would have diminished and would have eventually required for him to be put to sleep.”

VIP Lifelines is an excellent way for our vet practices to help and support hundreds of incredibly worthy animal charities like Heatons throughout the UK that do amazing work. It’s also a shining example of one of our CSR initiative that we’re incredibly proud of and one that sits right at the heart of what we as an organisation are all about.

For more information about VIP Lifelines — or to join the programme — please visit https://vip.petsathome.com/.