A woman who has spent half a century rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming animals in Swansea has been awarded the British Empire Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours.
Carole Stevens, team leader at the RSPCA’s Llys Nini branch in Penllergaer, receives the BEM for services to animal welfare and to the community in Swansea.
Over 50 years, the branch says Mrs Stevens has taken the lead in helping to rescue, rehabilitate and rehome more than 20,000 abused, neglected and unwanted animals.
She first joined as a teenager, working alongside Bill Deane at the old Swansea Dogs’ Home — and her care for the animals was obvious from those early years, according to the branch.
When the Dogs’ Home was badly damaged by falling trees in the storm of 1990, Mrs Stevens entered the wrecked kennels to save the dogs trapped inside.
In the decades since, she has helped develop the new Llys Nini Animal Centre into what the branch describes as a safe haven for people and animals, and a centre of excellence for training RSPCA inspectors, animal welfare workers and student vets.
Her work has reached well beyond the kennels. The branch says she has built its volunteers into a social network for people at risk of loneliness and isolation — organising out-of-hours events and helping many to overcome hidden disabilities and mental health barriers to become part of the team.
During an outbreak of feline panleukopenia — a highly infectious and often deadly cat disease — Mrs Stevens took the lead in working with local vets, boarding establishments and other welfare organisations to develop ways of treating it and stopping its spread.
The branch says she introduced training programmes and barrier-nursing protocols that helped halt the disease’s spread across the country.
Her dedication has become a family affair, too — her daughter Demi followed her into animal care, going on to become a full-time member of the Llys Nini team.
RSPCA chief executive Jo Rowland said: “Carole has been with our Llys Nini branch for an incredible 50 years.
“In that time she has helped to rehabilitate and rehome many thousands of animals and I’m delighted that her incredible dedication has been recognised.
“The staff and volunteers at our branches up and down the country are the lifeblood of the RSPCA and we couldn’t do what we do without them.”
The honour comes just days after the centre’s work was in the news again, when a Briton Ferry man was banned from keeping animals for seven years after three cats and two kittens were found living among rubbish — a case handled by the RSPCA.
Mrs Stevens is one of more than a dozen people from across Swansea Bay and Carmarthenshire recognised in this year’s honours list — led by a poignant MBE for the late Swansea councillor Robert Francis-Davies — with the full local list in our round-up.
