A NORTH Devon animal rescue group is celebrating its 10th birthday.

The Society for the Protection and Re-homing of Animals (SPRA) is run by Stuart and Fleur Ford from their home at Castle Hill Gardens, Torrington.

As well as celebrating its anniversary the charity is also welcoming a new patron — North Devon's naturalist and Journal columnist Trevor Beer.

Stuart, 49, started rescuing and re-homing animals from North Devon and surrounding area in October 2010.

And 10 years on Stuart says he is still fully committed to his aim of securing permanent homes for unfortunate animals.

His wife Fleur, 40, got involved with the project five years ago and both now work full-time for the charity.

Their home has provision for five dogs, nine cats and five kittens and 15 rabbits and is often full.

Along with the hundreds of cats and dogs the couple have homed, they have also helped a woodpecker, ferrets, parrots, snakes and a llama.

The couple said the charity does more than rescue animals and aims to give advice, support, education and training to owners struggling to deal with their pets.

Stuart said the charity does vigorous checks on all new owners to make sure they understand the commitment they take on with an animal.

He said this training is why the charity has a 97 per cent success rate at finding permanent new homes for the rescued animals.

He said: "Every time an animal comes back to us it comes back to us with more history than it went with. I would rather keep hold of an animal than re-home it in the wrong place.

"Very rarely do you see cases of cruelty. A lot of the problems are down to a lack of knowledge or negligence and that's when our training comes in."

SPRA has seen an increase in cases since the recession. But Fleur believes for some animal owners it is being used as an excuse and people do not take enough time considering the responsibilities that come with a pet.

The charity has shops in Torrington, Bideford, Minehead and Barnstaple which raises funds to run the service, but Stuart has big plans for the future.

He wants to see a new centre capable of homing more rescued animals, but believes the project could cost £500,000.

SPRA is setting up a new fundraising committee made up of volunteers to achieve the goal. For more information and to contact SPRA contact 01805 624438 or log on to www.spra-uk.org.