National pet charity, Blue Cross, which has a shop at The Westway Shopping Centre in Frome, has agreed a partnership with the War Horse Memorial organisation, to promote the Purple Poppy Appeal to help raise funds for animals in need.
Blue Cross will be selling boxes of the emblematic purple poppy pin badges nationwide in its high street shops and across its hospitals, clinics and rehoming centres. Meanwhile War Horse Memorial is concentrating on its network of organisations, schools and supporters across the UK and abroad to raise the profile of the Appeal, leading up to National Purple Poppy Day on August 23rd.
The appeal will be raising funds for animals in need and in addition to the pets helped via the Blue Cross, the poppy will be supporting UK equine charities.
War Horse Memorial unveiled a memorial in Ascot last year – a national monument dedicated exclusively to the millions of UK, Allied and Commonwealth horses, mules and donkeys lost during The Great War.
Blue Cross played a pivotal role during the First World War in helping horses and other animals that were sent to fight. Then known as Our Dumb Friends League, the charity set up The Blue Cross Fund to help during the Balkan war in 1912, and re-launched the fund to help animals in WW1.
The fund’s work really came into play during WW1 when it set up a number of hospitals in France and Italy to help war horses and other animals.
Today the charity is focussed on changing the lives for countless pets in need in the UK and funds from the purple poppy will enable them to care for the many animals who 100 years on still need their help.
Julia McKechnie-Burke, director of fundraising at Blue Cross said, “Blue Cross is extremely proud of our rich heritage which stems from working to save animals in war over 100 years ago. We are equally as proud of the help we offer today for the thousands of pets who need us in a very different way. We are delighted to partner with War Horse Memorial and raise funds from the purple poppy to help the dogs, cats, horses and small animals that come to us daily in need of care.”
War Horse Memorial chief executive Alan Carr MBE said, “We wanted Poppy our War Horse – named by the UK’s Guides and Brownies – to have a lasting legacy. History tells us that over 16 million animals served in the First World War. They were used for transport, communication and companionship. However, animals remained a crucial part of the war effort. Horses, donkeys, mules and camels carried food, water, ammunition and medical supplies to men at the front, and dogs and pigeons carried messages. Canaries were used to detect poisonous gas, and cats and dogs were trained to hunt rats in the trenches. The Purple Poppy Appeal provides that lasting legacy by raising funds for animals in need.”
