Photo of two of my current foster dogs in post-IVDD surgery rehab - Audrey and PJ for your attention….Here at D2DR we have completed yet another record year rescuing and safely rehoming dachshunds across Australia. The simple reality is that D2DR would not be able to remain financially viable without the donations we receive. In the 2023-24 Financial Year just completed, nearly 40% of our total income has been from donations.

On behalf of the D2DR Committee, I wish to thank every single donor for their donations which keep D2DR operating and in particular, allows us to continue our work in the area of dachshund rescue. We have now sent out Donation Receipts to all those people whom we have contact details for. For those people who made donations in the 2023-24 FY via direct deposit into either our BOQ Bank Accounts, or direct via PayPal, and have not yet received an emailed Donation Receipt, can you please contact D2DR via email at info@d2dr.org.au with your details. Note that this does not apply to those very many generous people who donated via the DONATE button on our Facebook posts. At the time of your donation, you should have received an automated email acknowledgement of your donation from the PayPal Giving Fund.

This acknowledgement doubles as your donation receipt for taxation purposes.With the main message of this post out of the way, just some long-winded details of D2DR’s Financial Year for people’s information. Please note the financial numbers given here are preliminary only and still subject to an independent audit - although based on previous years’ experience it should not vary too much (if any). As with all Registered Charities, our accounts will be audited in the next month or so by a suitably qualified external auditor. That Auditor’s Report, together with a summary of our financial results will form part of D2DR’s Annual Information Statement (AIS) to the Charities Commission and will be published on their website (www.acnc.gov.au) later in 2024 for everyone to see.

D2DR recorded yet another near record Financial Year (FY). Our total income was about $5,000 less than the previous 2022-23 FY at a little over $255,000. Unfortunately, total spending increased nearly 14% to $279,000 resulting in an operating loss of around $24,000, or about 9% of our income. This followed the $14,000 Operating Profit we had in the previous FY. This $24,000 Operating Loss for the 2023-24 FY is the largest in D2DR’s 9 year history. But it could have been far worse. Up until the end of April 2024 with 2 months of the Financial Year to go, D2DR was looking at a small operating profit for the FY. Then over a 2 month period in May and June we had a total of six dachshunds surrendered to D2DR requiring IVDD surgery, with another 2 dachshunds already in care with D2DR also requiring surgery for IVDD (for a total of 8 IVDD surgeries).

Plus, three other major surgeries - a pes varus, a fractured leg and an internal blockage. D2DR’s total vet bill for May 2024 alone was nearly $50,000. The breakdown on our sources of income were roughly 45% from adoption fees, nearly 40% from donations, with the remaining 15% from our fundraising events. On the expense side, our vet bills increased 27% to just over $254,000 for the financial year. That’s an average vet bill of around $21,000 per month, or nearly $5,000 for each and every week of the year. Overall, 94.8% of our spending was directly on the dogs in our care – ie vet bills, physiotherapy, behavioural training, transport, food etc. The remaining 5.2% of spending was with fees and charges, insurance costs (both public liability and volunteer workers accident cover) and fundraising expenses. Every single person who works for D2DR does so as an unpaid volunteer.

D2DR has just gone through yet again one of the busiest years in its existence. In total, D2DR dealt with a new record of around 170 dachshunds in the 2023-24 FY. Around 120 or 70% of these dogs are our “straight forward” rehomes (and it’s the adoption fees from these rehomes that help to pay for our rescue work). The remaining 30% or 50-60 dogs is split between our rescue dogs and our permanent foster dogs. As of 30 June 2024, D2DR had a total of 32 dachshunds in permanent foster care with D2DR covering the cost of vet bills and any specialty vet food for the rest of their lives.

During the 2023-24 FY, 25 of the dogs D2DR accepted for surrender were what we classify as our rescue dogs. D2DR classifies a rescue dog as a dog that at the time of surrender (ie not after the surrender during a vet check), it is apparent we will be spending considerably more on veterinary costs than we would ever hope to recoup as an eventual Adoption Fee. And it’s the distribution of our vet costs between these three categories which is the real telling part of the work that D2DR does. The 70% of dogs which are our rehomes only make up a little over 20% of our total $254,000 of vet costs. The 15% which are our permanent fosters account for a further 10%-15% of our vet costs (around $30,000). But it’s the 15% of dachshunds which make up our rescue dogs which account for nearly 70% or around $175,000 of our $254,000 vet bill for the 2023-24 FY.The rescue dogs are typically those dachshunds that are surrendered to D2DR requiring major surgeries that their owners cannot afford.

The best example is of course our IVDD dogs but also include other major surgery such as pes varus. In the 2023-24 FY, a total of 18 dachshunds were surrendered to D2DR requiring IVDD surgery. In addition, there was another four IVDD surgeries on dachshunds that were already in care with D2DR. There were another four surrendered dogs required major surgery for deformities such as pes varus, plus surrenders for a fractured leg and internal obstruction. And as many would be aware, D2DR has already started off the new 2024-25 Financial Year with an IVDD surrender on the very first day (obviously not included in the totals above).D2DR remains the only dachshund breed-specific rescue group operating in Australia that wherever possible and practical, operates on an open door basis.

This means that D2DR accepts the surrender of every dachshund (and dachshund-cross) that is offered to it, regardless of its age, health condition, minor behavioural issues and in particular, regardless of the potential vet bill that may be attached to the surrender of that dachshund. D2DR is the only dachshund breed-specific rescue group operating in Australia that will accept the surrender of dachshunds requiring major surgery where the need for that major surgery is apparent at the time of surrender - and it is the cost of that surgery to its owner that is the major reason for the surrender of the dog.

And by “major surgery” we are talking about vet costs of a minimum of $5,000-$10,000 which is done at a specialty veterinary hospital and typically involves the use of advanced imaging equipment such as CT scans and MRIs.On behalf of the D2DR Committee, thank you all for your support through the 2023-24 Financial Year and we look forward to your continuing support.

Tony Brecht D2DR Treasurer