Break Away is the animal fostering service run by Raystede, focussing on helping people who are fleeing domestic abuse or facing short-term hospitalisation and can’t take their animals with them.
Animals who join Break Away will be matched with one of our wonderful foster families and they will stay in the foster carer’s home for the duration of their time with us. Animals on Break Away will be provided with any veterinary care they need, including neutering and vaccinations where appropriate.
Once the owner is in a position to have their animals back, we will arrange for their animals to be returned to them.
We are able to assist with a variety of animal types (not just dogs and cats), and cover East Sussex, West Sussex, and Kent. Break Away is run by an all-female team and all cases are handled confidentially.
Our ability to help is entirely dependent on the availability of our foster carers and as we are a small organisation, we can only help a limited number of animals at any one time. If we don’t have any available foster carers and your animal isn’t able to join Break Away, we will suggest alternative organisations to contact.
If you have any questions about Break Away or require fostering for your animal(s), please give us a call on 01825 880468, please leave a message if we are unavailable and we will call you back. Alternatively, please email rehoming@raystede.org.
If Break Away is unable to help, we advise contacting the Links Group, who may be able to offer further support.
We are always looking for more foster carers to look after animals joining Break Away, if you are interested in finding out more about becoming a foster carer, please take a look at our fostering webpage.
Break Away focusses on people who are fleeing domestic abuse or facing short-term hospitalisation. If you need fostering for another reason, please give us a call on 01825 880468 to discuss your individual circumstances. We cover East Sussex, West Sussex, and Kent.
I’m afraid this isn’t possible. To maintain confidentiality owners and foster carers aren’t able to meet up. It would also be confusing for your animal to see you for such a short time. We are able to update you on what your animal is getting up to and can send photos and videos of their time in foster.
Break Away is free to join, we accept any donations towards your animals’ care as this will help us keep the scheme running and allow us to care for more animals in the future. We will suggest set donations for things like neutering and vaccinations.
Yes, we don’t require animals to be neutered or vaccinated before they join Break Away. We will discuss neutering/vaccinating your animal whilst they are in our care if this the best thing for their welfare.
We understand that finding housing that accepts animals can be extremely challenging and that it often takes longer than 3 months. If, after 3 months, you haven’t been able to find suitable housing, we have several options which we can discuss with you.
Yes, we can collect your animal. If you move out of our catchment area and need your animal dropping off, we can discuss options for this.
Sadly, we aren’t able to provide animal fostering in these circumstances. Our Rehoming Team can discuss other options, including giving up your animal(s) for rehoming if this is the best option for you and your animal(s).
When Topsy arrived with us, he was severely underweight and needed a lot of care. We couldn't help the amount of animals we do without your support. Please donate to help more animals get the care they deserve.
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