The notice about this year’s 1% individual income tax donation amount from the people.

The notice about this year’s 1% individual income tax donation amount from the people.
2011.09.27.

In September, we are usually waiting for the postman as if he/she was the Messiah. We expect the long awaited letter sent by IRS (called NAV in Hungary) because the life of our 1000 protégées depends on it for a year, together with all the opportunities to work and grow. We – and all the similar civil organisation - are informed in this letter how large the total sum of charity donations is for that year, coming from the individual income taxes.
We can’t say we have not been worried since we knew that the deterioration of the economic situation, the higher number of unemployed and the growth of grey and black economy could all be serious negative factors.
This year the taxpayers have decided to donate 71 million Forints to Noah Animal Shelter. We know this is a huge sum of money and we want to thank all those who have named us as beneficiary or recommended us to their friends and coworkers (at the moment we do not have the number of donators yet). However, even though the sum sounds huge we have to say that our fears have been justified because it is orders of magnitudes less than last year.
Maintaining the Animal Shelter – with our nearly 1000 protégées, our animal rescue service, and our catastrophe response and education team – takes about 120 million Forints per year. In view of the fact that the main source of income of our Foundation is the total of the 1% donations from the individual income taxes, we have to make a few painful decisions.

We are not going to give up our basic principles and goals in the future because in that case we would not be the same any more, like:
We will not leave any injured animals or victims of accidents to their fate
We do not kill even if the animal has no chance to find a home due to its looks or behavioral deviancy and therefore we have to care for them throughout their lives. Even if they need expensive or straining medical processes or treatments
Prevention is the most important therefore we will continue to provide discount neutering and chipping services for the public
Within our educational program, we host kindergarten and elementary school groups and we ourselves visit homeroom, biology or environments classes. At different events we talk about responsible animal ownership and educate
Our catastrophe response team will go whenever there is trouble as they have been so far.

And we’ll continue do all this for free, as adoption will also remain free.

What is going to change then?
- we’ll have to rethink admittances. We’ll have to make decisions regarding dog or cat-stops more often since the admittance of an animal is not only a question of space
- although we are full of plans we have to cut back on our improvements and the prime goal will be the maintenance of the already existing
- we’ll have to turn to our dear supporters more often since our budget has become even more sensitive towards unexpected and larger expenditures
Unfortunately two of our projects have already fallen prey to the infiltrating crisis. Our special rodent and the Schnauzer breed rescue had seized, due primarily to financing but also to staffing problems. This does not mean though that we will not help animals in trouble but we will not be able to do it in an organized way and we’ll not be able to take the responsibility.

We would like to thank all of you again who offered 1% of your individual incomes to support Noah Animal Shelter and all those who support us with even the smallest amount. We promise to carry out our work in the field of animal protection with heart and hand as far as possible.

The team of Noah Animal shelter