We spoke to our Co-Founder Vix about being a Rescue Awards judge!

Recently, our co-founder Vix Davy volunteered on the judging panel for the Pet Insurance Australia Companion Animal Rescue Awards, for the fourth year in a row! We were so overjoyed to be a part of recognising and celebrating the achievements of all the deserving rescue groups, shelters and pounds, including some amazing PetRescue members.

We sat down with Vix to discuss this awesome initiative, and why she loves being a part of this event. 

Vix believes that acknowledging, showcasing and celebrating the work that rescue organisations do is really important, and this is a driving force behind why she volunteers on the judging panel each year. Finding out more about the depth of what these organisations are doing, she is able to get more involved and see behind the scenes into the hard work they do every day - and this is why she loves being a judge! 

As Vix has now been a part of the judging panel for four years, she’s seen a few emerging trends and developments in the rescue community. She says that over the years, she’s watched rescue organisations improve at creating strategic plans that will ensure that their organisation and its operations are sustainable, so they can save more and more pets! Additionally, she’s witnessed a lot of new and innovative ideas emerge, particularly around keeping pets in the homes they’re already in, and lowering the numbers of pets coming into shelters and pounds. This new, holistic view of what it means to be a rescue organisation also includes those organisations working on desexing urban stray cats and helping their community to microchip their pets.

When asked what her favourite part of being involved in the rescue awards is, Vix couldn’t just pick one! She loves that it gives her the opportunity to discover the new awesome things organisations are working on, and looking through the organisations in each category and realising how outstanding the rescue community is here in Australia. And she loves being able to announce the winners of course!

Vix wanted to also take this opportunity to encourage all organisations who are involved in rescue to consider entering the awards - there’s a lot of different categories, from new rescue groups, to innovation and community programs. In particular, she’d love to encourage more council pounds to not only enter in the awards, but to look at the winners and the great work they’re doing - and think about how they can emulate this. 

Check out the 2021 Rescue Awards winners here.

You can learn more about the Pet Insurance Australia Companion Animal Rescue Awards here.