Animals In Need founder celebrates 74th birthday and 33 years of running the Northamptonshire charity

The founder of Animals In Need, Roy Marriott, looks back on the 33 years of running the Northamptonshire-based charity as he celebrates his 74th birthday.

Roy turned 74 on Saturday, January 7 and his birthday fundraiser accumulated a staggering £1,500 for his charity, which he runs with his wife, Annie.

Animals In Need are dedicated to rescuing sick, injured, trapped and distressed wild and domestic animals. They provide veterinary treatment, care for and rehabilitate animals until they can be released or re-homed.

They typically take in around 500 animals a month and re-homed over 3,000 animals in 2021 alone.

Roy said: “It has been hard work but it has been so rewarding to see animals go back out and be re-homed. Giving them a second chance, that’s all we can do.”

The charity is set in three acres of land in Little Irchester and boasts state-of-the-art kennels, a cattery, stables, a fully-equipped animal ambulance and even their own hospital unit where, once a week, a vet volunteers for a day to carry out medical procedures that would ordinarily cost extortionate prices.

They currently have 12 members of staff and over 500 animals onsite including dogs, cats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, goats, pigs, horses and over 100 hedgehogs.

A standard working day for Roy at Animals In Need starts at 5am and typically ends between 7pm and 8pm.

Being the animal lovers they are, Roy and Annie also care for eight dogs at home. They have a Malinois called Simba, two Jack Russells called Maeve and Blossom, two German Shepherds called Misty and Sasha, two Romanian dogs called Ray and Alfred and a Labrador cross called Roxy.

Roy has been fond of animals for as long as he can remember. Over the years, he has volunteered with various animal charities such as the RSPCA and the National Animal Rescue Association. He turned vegan on his fortieth birthday.

“All you could get in those days was a jacket potato with no butter and beans and that was your lot,” he laughed.

He founded Animals In Need in 1990 because he felt strongly about existing animal charities not preventing the euthanisation of their own animals they were unable to re-home.

Animals In Need was born with Roy’s vegan values, a strict no-kill policy and a promise that every animal adopted from them will always have a home at the charity if their owner can no longer care for them. In fact, there is a clause in all adoption paperwork that owners must return any unwanted pets to Animals In Need.

The charity started in Annie’s long back garden to help out some of the existing animal sanctuaries before expanding to rented out kennels.

Roy, who owned his own printing company in Northampton called Star Print at the time, did a 10 mile walk around Abington Park in aid of Animals In Need. He was presented with a hefty donation of £410,000 from, wait for it… a butcher!

This enabled Roy and Annie to purchase their three acre land in Little Irchester around 16 years ago, where they have continued to build Animals In Need to what it is today.

In November, the charity was presented with the Animal Champion award at the Spirit of Corby 2022 after answering a call to Nationwide Building Society to rescue a family of pigeons trapped in netting.

Roy told this newspaper: “We would never have made it this far if people didn’t give us donations and we have had some really good staff down here who made it all possible.

“It has been massive the amount of work Annie does to promote the charity.”

Animals In Need have an onsite vegan cafe, which is set to reopen to the public this weekend from 11am to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

A volunteer day is also taking place on Saturday, January 14 from 12pm to 3pm.

Find out more by visiting https://animals-in-need.org/.