Manchester Dogs' Home fire: 43 dogs confirmed dead and youth arrested Rescue

The BBC online news says he is 15 - the Mail Online says 14.

Yes Malka I still think he's 14/15 & not 9 years old, but there are that many pages now on fb about MCDH that its hard to figure out who as correct info & who as false info, have given up reading some pages as they are not up to date, VioVets, Dog Trust & Battersea seem to be bang up to date so is Park Beach & The small dog big personality page (JRT page) so am flicking through them & asking my friend Christine as she lives in Manchester if they have heard any breaking news on local radio/tv news channel.

Workers' tears for Manchester Dogs' Home fire victims at church memorial service as £1.5m appeal fund is boosted by £25,000 from Simon Cowell

Reverend Mike McGurk led emotional service at Christ Church, Harpurhey
He paid tribute to the dogs' home's role in the community in Manchester
Home staff and members of the public wept during last night's candle-lit vigil
Donations to a fund to rebuild the home have soared to more than £1.4m
X Factor judge and dog lover Simon Cowell was among those to give money
He also vowed to take three men who rescued dogs from flames on holiday.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-appeal-fund-boosted-25-000-Simon-Cowell.html
Im not a fan of Simon Cowells, but credit where its due .

personally I think the youth should have the book thrown at him,you can't justify what happened.he's a wrong un now. But nice of simon cowell to show his support..fair play..and all those millions of animal lovers who have rallied round

Had to do it! I put as much as I could spare, not much really, into an international money order and sent it off this morning. I can't help but think about what could have happened to this boy to make him want to kill dogs. Of course there is no justification for his actions, but what makes a child hate that much? I was a truly rotten kid growing up...a terrible problem child with no reason to be that way, but I never wanted to kill an animal.

This has been a huge topic on conversation at work today at our monthly meeting. We have had a good look at our evacuation plan and a box of 120 slip leads has been ordered so we can get dogs out the outdoor runs so we dont have to risk going inside where the leads are kept and we also dont have enough leads for every dog anyway as we have our walking leads and not all owners leave their dogs lead clipped to kennel. High viz jackets, face masks and head torches are also in our new box and i have been and spoken to the surrounding farms asking them to be included in our evacuation plan to come help get dogs out if they hear the siren and to help us house them in their farm buildings. Due to the lay out of of kennels we would need to be bombed to include all 6 kennel blocks and 2 cattery's as they are so spaced out but better safe than sorry.

We to Katy have been doing full evacuations at different times of the day & different days, 7am - 11am - 1pm - 3pm - 5pm - 8pm & at 11pm, staff & volunteers were all very tired at 11pm evacuation, but dogs thought it was great being let in outside pens at 11pm.

We are have had extra sprinklers put in all Kennels, meeting rooms, nursery, play rooms, store rooms, shops & offices, just in case the unthinkable happens x

Only partly on topic, but I have been reading about the problems that the shelter in Kiev (Ukraine) are having. Volunteers have gathered dogs and cats which have been deserted by people leaving areas of conflict. The very basic facility is based out of town, in a field, but there have been several attempts to set fire to the compounds. They appointed a security guard, who has now been stabbed whilst trying to avert an attack. The reason seems to be that some people are resenting any resources being used for animals while humans are suffering. It is a very sad story, as they have such limited resources themselves, and have only enough kibble to give to the puppies.

That's so sad but very true people are starving over there & so are the animals but people don't think they just want to "kill" the animals in the hope they can have the food themselves x

@CaroleC - in an indirect way, that is similar to how I came to adopt the then tiny six-week-old puppy now known as Pereg.

Due to Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 I received an email requesting not only funds to help pets in the south of Israel but also the animals in the Gaza zoo. Following this up I telephoned the organisation dealing with this and they told me about a non-profit volunteer-run organisation in Ashqelon.

I called them and said I had been looking for a tiny bitch puppy for about two years as I knew that Little One would not live forever and I was then still able to look after and train a puppy - they sent me an email with pictures of the dogs and puppies they had which were looking for forever homes, including this one:

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[Pereg is the puppy on the right] - and I telephoned for a taxi and went to collect her and bring her home.

And yes, of course I helped the poor animals in the Gaza zoo. They did not choose to be in such a situation, did they.

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Wow that is so sad Carole. Some people do amaze me

What a lovely picture Malka, I'm not surprised that you went for her. I hope the other sweet puppy found a forever home too - they are both beautiful.

There were five puppies in the litter Carole and the sheet of photographs that was emailed to me showed them all as "Beauty's puppies" - Beauty being the name given to their dam, who was also up for adoption. There was another photograph of Pereg taken at the same time as the one above, this time curled up asleep in the arms of the person who had fostered Beauty until the puppies were ready for adoption, but I do not have that one.

Not knowing that the rescue organisation changed the photograph sheet weekly I did not save the other pictures but luckily had posted the two of Pereg on a now long closed forum and someone had actually kept them, as when I went to look for them they were no longer showing on that forum. But I asked if anyone had them and someone had kept this one, so emailed it to me.

When I went to get her I said that I had come for one of Beauty's puppies - was taken to the kennel where they were and there were five almost identical tiny heads all round a bowl of kibble, tucking in. But I recognised Pereg instantly - pointed to her and said "that one".

So the guy picked her up, looked at her tummy and said that the puppy was a girl, which I already knew from the photo sheet, and handed her to me. We went into the office, I gave him my ID card so he could fill in a form, handed it back and asked me to sign the form - and home we came.

No home check, no donation asked - nothing. But I telephoned Etti, who was in charge of the organisation in her spare time and who had organised the various volunteers, and gave them a hefty donation. It was recognised as a non-profit charitable organisation which is still going strong. Ram, my vet, does a lot of work for them for free, in his spare time, and has one of their collecting boxes in the waiting room of his surgery.

This is Etti when she came round to visit us - Pereg was just coming up to five-months-old at the time.

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She was a doctor at the hospital in town, training to become a GP and that was the first time she had had enough free time to come and see us - and she could not believe how much Pereg had grown as it was the first time she had seen her since she was at the home of the person who was fostering Beauty and the puppies!

Unfortunately she said she had no information about the other puppies of or Beauty - or maybe she did but did not want to tell me.

Sad story Carole.these kind of stories are so distressing