PET lovers have donated almost £1,500 following a Christmas appeal to help homeless animals.

Customers and staff at Pets at Home in Darlington ran the Santa Paws initiative over the festive period to help provide meals for abandoned pets.

In total £1,444.72 was raised by the scheme and the company has thanked the people from the town who made donations.

Store manager Mark Deighton said: “What a fantastic result! We had so much fun raising money and are so grateful to all of our generous customers for taking part and donating much needed meals for disadvantaged animals.

“It’s great to know that this money will go towards helping some these charities to keep abandoned pets healthy and happy until they find a forever home.”

Now in its sixth year, the scheme, which is run by charity Support Adoption For Paws, has managed to provide a total of 2,907 meals of dinners to local animals.

Since being established in 2006, Support Adoption for Pets has helped more than 1,000 rehoming centres and animal welfare organisations across the UK by awarding grants and running fundraising campaigns with Pets at Home.

Across the country more than 430 Pets at Home stores rose to the challenge to raise more than £1m.