Organisational background

What is Animal Trust?

We are a Community Interest Company first opinion vets – that means we don’t have shareholders taking profits from the organisation. Instead, our aim is to deliver value to provide high-quality accessible veterinary care to pet owners.

Our values are: Breaking Barriers, One Community, Never stop Learning, and Trust. We want to be straightforward with our pricing, accessible to all especially those who need us, and consider our social, environmental and financial impact.

We have over 300 people working for us, across 11 sites in England and Wales.
Some of these sites are large, 24/7 hospitals: Bolton, Ellesmere Port and Shrewsbury.
The other sites work very closely with these hospitals and are usually just as busy!
They are Failsworth, Blackburn, Ashton, Wrexham, Dewsbury, Barnsley, Rhyl and Birkenhead.

Organisation vision & mission

Our vision is that no pet goes untreated or faces euthanasia for a condition that has a good treatment option.

Our mission: We believe in universal pet healthcare and we work to help all the pets that need us. By offering sensible veterinary care options, we not only help clients earning the real living wage to benefit from the joy of pet ownership, but we also help animals enjoy a life without the burden of treatable or preventable diseases.

We think that our customers are people who can afford to keep a pet, but struggle to afford veterinary care when their pet gets sick. They can’t access help through charities, so they are stuck in the middle. Sometimes for those pets, we are their only option.

All of us at Animal Trust work towards a shared set of values. These values help us to understand what we need to achieve, and understand how our own behaviours contribute to achieving our mission and vision.

• Breaking Down Barriers: We do everything we can to help the wider population of pets access care, and we’ll always find a solution to allow a sick animal to be seen. We give owners a straightforward choice and are transparent in our pricing.
• One Community: Social inclusiveness and poverty reduction matter to us. We are efficient with the resources we have, and care about environmental protection and climate change.
• Never Stop Learning: We want to keep improving, and to help others to be the best version of themselves.
• Trust: We build trust through responsible actions and honest relationships. We treat every person and pet as we would want to be treated ourselves. We trust our colleagues and have their backs – we can only succeed as a team.

Becoming a B-Corp

At Animal Trust we are on our way to becoming a Certified B-Corporation. B-Corps are businesses that give as much consideration to their social and environmental impact as they do to their financial returns.

B Corporation certification (assessed by the not-for-profit B Lab) is given to for-profit organisations that achieve at least a minimum score against a set of social and environmental standards.

What does this mean for our employees? Well, we ask them through everything they do to consider the environment and our impact on our stakeholders, whether that be our clients, our suppliers or our colleagues. For example;

• Always using the correct bins when disposing of waste;
• Following our purchasing policy when buying things through the company, and always using local businesses where possible;
• Ordering stock twice a week instead of every day;
• Using the train to get to your CPD course rather than your car;
• Cycling to work;
• Getting involved in our sustainability projects by volunteering as a site sustainability lead.

Working for Animal Trust comes with the job satisfaction of working for a social enterprise and giving back to the pets and clients of your community. But working for a not-for-profit also means that we see a charity caseload, without the workup limitations of a charity. Treating a high number of sick pets means that you have the opportunity to develop clinically at a fast rate.

Check out our new grad program here!