The National Foundation for Retired Service Animals (NFRSA) has announced a merger with the Retired West Midlands Police Dog Benevolent Fund (RWMPD).
The NFRSA is a registered charity, founded in 2022 by Countess Bathurst of Cirencester Park, and its aim is to support retired dogs and horses from the Police, Fire & Rescue, Prison, Border Force, and National Crime Agency (NCA) services, by assisting the owners with medical and veterinary bills. The organisation already works closely with locally based charities, including the RWMPD Fund.
The RWMPD Benevolent Fund was established in 2014 by a small group of volunteers, independent of the police, who wanted to create a framework to support police dogs in their retirement.
Due to the type of work the dogs undertake, it is very difficult for their handlers to obtain any kind of medical insurance when they retire, so the financial burden of their care is a huge consideration. Without financial support, those who took on a retired police dog often had to make really difficult decisions with regards to their treatment.
To date, the RWMPD Benevolent Fund has provided support on 80 occasions with payments made in excess of £60,000 and with all claims paid in full. The Fund always had the aim of obtaining charitable status and does so via the merger. The NFRSA will ensure that all monies raised via the RWMPD Benevolent Fund post-merger will go towards supporting West Midlands Police Dogs.
Terry Grove, treasurer of the Retired West Midlands Police Dog Benevolent Fund, said: “The establishment and the success of the NFRSA provides an opportunity to transition the Benevolent Fund into the NFRSA, which will ensure that retired West Midlands Police Dogs can continue to be afforded the support they have benefited from over the past 10 years.”
The announcement was made at this year’s Crufts show in Birmingham. The NFRSA attended the event alongside the RWMPD Benevolent Fund and the West Midlands Police Dog Unit, who supported The Kennel Club with police dog demonstrations.
