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Regional daily appeal tops £1m after dogs’ home blaze

Readers of a leading regional daily have pledged more than £1.4m after the blaze at a dogs’ home that claimed the lives of 60 animals.

The Manchester Evening News has thanked the public for the “absolutely phenomenal” response to its donation page set up within hours of the fire ripping through the Manchester Dogs’ Home in Moss Brook Road, Harpurhey on Thursday night.

The MEN launched its charity appeal at 10.02pm through Just Giving and had raised £450,000 by Friday morning.

Over the weekend the total continued to rocket has now passed £1.4m with 160,000 people making individual donations.

Editor in chief Rob Irvine said: “We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our readers in Manchester and around the country who have rallied round the Manchester Dogs’ Home.

“The response to our appeal is also an unequivocal reminder of the power of Trinity Mirror’s news brands to make a difference to the communities they serve and to work with our readers to be a force for good.”

“This is a tragic story and the fact that it is believed to be an arson attack has left people shocked and angered.

“But we’ve also seen the very best of people in Manchester. Some residents risked themselves to help save the lives of many dogs trapped in the fire. And so many people have contributed not only money but blankets and dog food.”

At the height of the appeal readers were making four donations every second.

The appeal smashed all records for volume of donations and Just Giving had to increase their server capacity to cope. Between 8am and 9am on Friday, the website processed 8,600 donations – twice the amount of its previous hourly record.

Ricky Gervais, Graham Norton, Nigella Lawson and Nick Grimshaw all tweeted links to the appeal.

Manchester Dogs’ home bosses have said they will use the money to rebuild the home. A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of arson.

Commenting on the appeal in a blog post, Trinity Mirror digital publishing director David Higgerson called it “the ultimate digital news success story.”

Wrote David:  “It is impossible for any journalist who has worked in the regional press, and who has worked on fund-raising newspaper campaigns in the past, not be staggered by the result here.

“The MEN set out to raise £5,000 – and only lifted the target to £1m when it became clear that the donations were going to just keep on coming.

“I’m blogging about this not to brag – it’s nothing to do with me, although I’m very proud to work with a website which makes great stuff like this happen – but because I believe it demonstrates just what newsrooms everywhere need to become if they are to survive in the digital age.

“The newsroom of the future needs to be full of people who spot communities forming on the spot, be it around an event or an issue. That could be outrage at the closure of a hospital, or it could be the reaction to a fire at a dogs home.”

To support the appeal go to https://www.justgiving.com/ManchesterDogsHomeMEN

10 comments

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  • September 12, 2014 at 1:05 pm
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    I just hope all the money raised will actually go to rebuilding the Manchester Dogs home and will also be used to help keep this place open as I know its a charity based organisation. Great Manchester people you are amazing and I feel so proud to be part of it.

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  • September 14, 2014 at 7:40 pm
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    I wonder how much has been raised for the family’s of the murdered hostages…………. Puts it in perspective…… Shame on you lot. Shame.

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  • September 15, 2014 at 9:08 am
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    Voice of nonsense… While it is truly appalling what’s happened to the murdered hostages, you can’t nock people for helping raise money in response to this. The dogs that were in the rescue place had no choice over it. The hostages chose to go into a battle zone and surely understood the risks.

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  • September 15, 2014 at 9:14 am
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    I’m fond of most types of dogs and I’ve got zero tolerance for people who mistreat them, but I do have to lean towards what Voice of reason says.
    Would such a huge amount of cash have been raised in such a short space of time if this building housed a charity which helped humans rather than dogs? I think some people have rather strange priorities.

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  • September 15, 2014 at 9:29 am
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    Manchester Dogs home is great in the work it does with dogs wegot one of ours from here we was a fantastic dog.

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  • September 15, 2014 at 11:01 am
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    Well done Rob, a cracking great idea for a truly local press to run with. Glad you got to it first and knew how to treat this story properly.

    But I can’t help wondering if we – as an industry, as a whole – should be putting as much into helping people in need too, now that we know it can be done.

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  • September 15, 2014 at 11:05 am
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    “Voice of reason?” There are millions of dogs (and animals) left abandoned and abused because humans don’t do the right thing. And anyway, many of us have been treated better by dogs than by other humans – hence the reaction! Sorry you don’t understand, but this is a good thing, especially in light of the fact some low life little rat sets a dogs home on fire. Who does that?! Why do some have to be so negative in the face of one of the few news stories that has a positive outcome? I totally agree with all of Phil’s comments above, BTW.

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  • September 15, 2014 at 11:57 am
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    Don’t recall the MEN launching an appeal when firefighter Stephen Hunt was killed fighting a Manchester fire.

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  • September 20, 2014 at 4:03 pm
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    Blimey, some of you are a miserable old lot to whinge about money donated to help this dogs home.
    1) The fire was a heartbreaking and sadly great story.
    2) The donations response makes it a heartwarming tale.
    3) Some of the comments here are mean spirited and hard hearted!

    Have a heart… Journos or flinty miseries?

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