Animal hospital opens at former Kids Company base

Dave Cuffe owner of The London Animal Hospital, Kenbury St, Camberwell.
Alex Lentati
Ben Morgan10 April 2017

A veterinary practice was today due to open its doors at the former Kids Company headquarters in south London.

The London Animal Hospital has set up shop at the Kenbury Works in Camberwell, which was home to Kids Company until it went bust in August 2015. Workers were seen sobbing at the gates in footage after the scandal-hit children’s charity was told to wind down.

The site has been reborn as an animal hospital, which will operate 24/7 to cater to time-pressed office workers. Founder David Cuffe, 67, who has been a vet in south London for 43 years, said: “This is everything I’ve ever wanted to do. It’s been a dream of mine to do this and it’s exactly what people want.”

Within a year he hopes to recruit specialist vets such as neurologists to treat complex pet illnesses. It will open today with 15 staff but he hopes to double that number in 18 months.

Builders have spent months modifying the former Kids Company HQ. Mr Cuffe said: “It was decorated like a nursery so that took some time to change.”

Closed: the Kids Company went bust and shut its doors in August last year 
PA

He added: “If you’re working in an extremely busy job it’s difficult to find time to get to the vets. I want to make it easier for people to come in with their pets. Between 9pm and 7am we have an onsite emergency team. There is nothing else like it around here.”

Mr Cuffe said he had treated everything from injured police horses to farmyard animals during his career. He said: “When I started out in London people sold monkeys at Paddington and kept lions as pets.

“But now it’s mainly cats and dogs for us, you know, the smaller [animals]. We don’t tend to treat many farm animals ... but if anyone turns up with a goat, of course we will treat it.”

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