Urgent Charity Appeal....

jhoward

jhoward

Demon exorcist...
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Guys, please have a look at the thread below, when i was doing the operation esther campaign i helped these people out, they are now in trouble. with eviction looming on the 28th of this month, in what ever way even if its donating items so we can do a sale please help them. i shall be talking to them about doing a plea again in all my local press ect,...

if you prefure please contact myself.

http://ihdg.proboards91.com/index.cg...5406504&page=1

website... www.animal-sanctuary-devon.co.uk

ive just spoke to debbie, owner of the sanctuary, finacially they should be able to secure the farm, they are having a wildlife sactuary built that shall be opened by Chris packham, but weather and finances have delayed this.

they are also trying to get the farm up and running ready to open to the public, HOWEVER if any one wants to go and see them and the animals they will be most welcomed. please guys this is a wonderful and to all of us in the southwest, we should pull together, they understand if people dont want to give cash, but even some b and q vouchers for wood cement ect would really help

this appeal is also going on the operation Esther forum, ive spoke to michelle, and we will all be doing what we can, and hopefully once again operation esther can spring into action.
 
http://ihdg.proboards91.com/index.cgi?board=talk2&action=display&thread=1205406504
This needs looking into carefully, and a proper recovery plan set up, otherwise there is a danger of throwing anything donated away. The monthly mortgage repayments are £4,500, and they are talking about taking another one on. They are due to be evicted on 27th March, so they must already be well behind with payments. They have 100's of animals, and they are refusing to consider re-homing them (so what happens to them on 27th March?). There also seem to be quite a number of family members living on the farm, and yet no mention of how much they are contributing to the mortgage and other running costs.
To be honest, I think they've left it far too late to sort this out now, how on earth is a small charity going to manage to find maybe £15 - £20k immediately to avoid eviction, then £4k + each month from then? And that is not including the cost of caring for all those creatures. (Are they a charity? What is their reg number?). I'll probably be called mean, but I think the best recovery plan for the animals is for them to be re-homed, and then the people can sort out whether or not they can afford to run the place. When a "rescue" gets into this sort of state I start to worry about whether or not they can afford to do what they need to for the animals. I think they are being rather unrealistic - particularly in refusing to consider re-homing to relieve the burden.
 
Whilst I have sympathy for the Charity and hope they can save the farm, I do agree that they MUST rehome some of the animals. Sadly new charities always seem to go the route of keeping all animals, but there comes a point when they can take no more.
Non the less, the generosity of animal lovers will hopefully help them greatly and I wish them luck.
 
Several times they refer to her BUSINESS , business plan, etc
Then they moved the animals to suit the plans.

But then say they cannot upset them by moving them again.
Sorry, but this sems to be a lifestyle / business venture that went wrong, not a proactive welfare appeal.
 
I cannot find a listing on the Charities Commission with any of the names they use, and they give no charity reg number
 
I would love to own 60 acres - hell, I would set up a rescue place if I thought it would be paid for me. I will be brutally honest, who the HELL sets a place like this up with NO means to pay for it
confused.gif
I think it is utterly irresponsible. No, I won't be helping pay for these people to keep their large property - I will help rehome, but nothing more.

Sorry, but it stinks of people on the take if you ask me.
 
just had a good read of thier website , if we could be provided with charity number etc i,m sure some of us might be able to help , this sancturary is fairly local to me and i,ve never heard of it
 
[ QUOTE ]
I would love to own 60 acres - hell, I would set up a rescue place if I thought it would be paid for me. I will be brutally honest, who the HELL sets a place like this up with NO means to pay for it
confused.gif
I think it is utterly irresponsible. No, I won't be helping pay for these people to keep their large property - I will help rehome, but nothing more.

Sorry, but it stinks of people on the take if you ask me.

[/ QUOTE ]

well said Weezy.....

no money from me either....i do have some land to re-home, though....nothing more.
 
I wasn't insinuating that they are cynically on the take (although of course they could be!). I think that maybe they are rather naive. Yes, of course a lot of people would love to buy a big farm and rescue animals, surrounded by friends and family to help. The reality is that only people who have sufficient resources can do that, and the people involved tend to have to be able to support themselves and the premises - at least in the early years and often for ever. The most a "charity" like this could normally hope for would be to be able to raise enough money to pay for the keep of the animals.
I agree that there is confusion between their business plans and the worthy cause. It appears there was a business plan for a retirement livery business, and now that has failed the whole burden of keeping the place running is supposed to fall on the "charity". I have fundraised for charities in the past, but I would need to know a lot more about who would actually benefit from my efforts before supporting this one. And as I said above, I think it's too late. If they are expecting to retrieve this situation only by raising money from the public then I think they are being unrealistic. Sadly I think any widow's mites sent to them will be wasted and, at least from the info given, they will close anyway.
(The stuff about the problems with banks etc are a red herring, if they couldn't fund the place properly from the start they shouldn't have proceeded).
2 weeks to repossession - if they care about the animals they will start re-homing PDQ!
p.s. I've had a look on the other forum, and people are talking about donating. They are very kind, but I hope they've checked exactly what the money is going to be spent on.
 
hi all i will post this link for debbie so that she can answer questions, and give the details asked for,

on talking to her last night shes very aware of the critisum and questions shed come under for posting about the finacial stuff, its also another reason ive stayed away from asking for cash donations,

most of the animals cant be rehomed, some shes taken and given the owners conformation they have a home for life ect. a lot of cats ect are very old.

i do know from a close friend of hers that they are very genuine, the doors are open for anybody that wants to go and meet them and have a look around.

as i said i understand the concerns, and i wouldnt want to get involved in anything that wasnt genuine, debbies plan were to open to the public with a pets corner ect, its been money that is holding this back, ie getting the place up to scratch.....
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I would love to own 60 acres - hell, I would set up a rescue place if I thought it would be paid for me. I will be brutally honest, who the HELL sets a place like this up with NO means to pay for it
confused.gif
I think it is utterly irresponsible. No, I won't be helping pay for these people to keep their large property - I will help rehome, but nothing more.

Sorry, but it stinks of people on the take if you ask me.

[/ QUOTE ]

well said Weezy.....

no money from me either....i do have some land to re-home, though....nothing more.

[/ QUOTE ]

i could do with re homing....
 
How much debt are they in.

To me it seems more like a failing business than a true charity.

If it really was viable to keep the place going then surely the banks would have helped get them back on track.

How on earth do they propose to make £4000+ a month to pay the morgage, let alone feed animals, themselves and pay off debt .....

If they really care about those animals then the fit and healthy ones should be rehomed and the old and not so healthy PTS
 
I'm really sorry, but I think they've left this too late. Facts and figures would help to assess this, but even larger and more well-known charities would struggle to raise the sort of money these people need in the timescale given. And it's not just the current crisis, it's the on-going running costs. A pets corner etc isn't going to be the answer, that won't raise the sort of income they are talking about, and it's seasonal.
If the animals have been promised a home for life then that is what they need to be given. If this place gets reposessed then they won't have a home for life will they? It will be a matter of new home or pts.
 
Im sorry but right from the start it was blatantly obvious this was not going to work. Why on earth should we help bail out incompetants?

Sorry but if they cannot pay their bills then do what the rest of us RESPONSIBLE animal owners would do.....get the residents PTS.

Opening a pets corner is not going to sort this out.

Oooh look everyone I over spent this month and am overdrawn....help me help me....yeah right.

Furious of Somerset.
 
i do belive they are a regisiterd charity but will let debbie confirm that,

the eviction has been stopped, the money problems have come because of bad financial advise and things only just coming to light, i dont know enough to comment., they have always been pushed for cash as any self funding charity would be,

she does also do alot with wildlife, and most of the time the wild animals get re relised, hence the clinic that they have been building ect.

although in some ways i agree, sometimes it can be better to have old animals ect pts, we have to remember some of them are pets that people have taken to her for various reasons, they do have a right to live out their days.

i personally would NOT fund somebodys mortgage or sainsburys shop, i will however do all i can to help the animals. and if we can help them to get the place open to the public then i think its worth the effort, because then its not only the animals that benefit but also the public, we all love to see bunnies dont we!

i have given debbie the link to this thread, and have asked her to come on and comment ect, as i appreciate that ive just thrown this all at you wanting help, and 1st of all you all want to know the full story.
 
jhoward - I understand that you are doing this for the animals, but look at the cold, hard facts. These people have taken on a property that they CANNOT AFFORD TO PAY FOR. That really is the crux of the matter. If they were raising money to pay for a new barn for instance, then OK, but they want help with their mortgage! Am sorry, but charity begins at home and I would say 99% of people struggle to make ends meet when they have horses and are careful NOT to over extend themselves. You read sad stories every day of people having to sell their horses/dogs/etc because they can no longer afford to keep them. This family should NEVER have set this centre up and promised people retirement homes for their animals., without having the herewithal to be assured they could give what they offer!!! Whilst I am sure their hearts are in the right thing, I still consider this whole story a huge debacle and their reluctance to rehome and be proactive now is beyond reprehension.
 
I agree with all above. She needs to rehome what she can now and PTS the problem or oldies.
I for one would never donate to pay someones mortgage.....can barely afford my own at times.
They sound silly and incompetant. How do they think a pets corner will bring in £4500 a month????? how much is their mortgage for god sake?
 
Their mortgage is £4,500 a month! I've been having a good read on the other forum, because I'm not as cold-hearted as I try to appear and would help in some circumstances. However, as far as I can see there is a large family of adults involved here, all living on the farm and apart from some money from a "cleaning busines" there is no mention of anything much being done to contribute to paying that mortgage. I'm all for supporting a worthy cause, but if these people seriously think that the charity fundraising should support them living on the farm and simply looking after the animals then it's not on. Someone said above, many would love to live on a big farm and devote our time to caring for needy animals, but in my opinion if you are going to do that then you need to have the personal resources to do it.
I think they've completely over-stretched themselves here and are expecting the general public to bail them out. There are 400 animals involved! I wonder if the RSPCA are aware of this situation because looking at the facts these animals are going to be homeless very soon.
Why the heck didn't they set themselves up with a property they could work to support, and then start rescuing on a smaller scale and staying within their resources?
I hope they come back and answer out points.
 
My you guys are harsh on here….

Thanks to everyone who has posted. (good or bad)

Ok, I have not had the time to read ever single reply, so I will be as honest and up front as I can be, baring in mind I my brain is pretty fired with having to hang this Burdon, and admit to us having messed up and needing help.

Ok, we have nothing to hide, as I said its been a mix of bad advice and being sentimental in wanting to help animals. And every penny I earn is for the animals, can I also point out that everything anyone of us do is because of these guys.

Right, the eviction has come about because our mortage company tried to repossess the farm, back in march 2007, I went to court and made a plea, to which the judge gave us 8 weeks to pay off the arrears owing, to the tune of twenty thousand. there are many reasons why we came to be in this situation, and I think I have covered this before so won’t waste time going over this, if I haven’t I have a letter we have sent to friends and family to let them no what is going on and why we are in this mess…I can post this if anyone is interested? my aunt, (my dads sister) and founder of QOLAS back in jersey and a reg charity in the royal court of jersey back in 1995, decided after my grandmother passed away last march to sell up and move to Devon, to help us get the sanctuary open to the public and to run it as a not for profit business as well as a charity, once she had sold up her home she and the rest of the sanctuary animals moved over and financed the arrears and invested five thousand pounds to get us started, to all intense and purpose we have done what we set out to do, in the interim I lost two big cleaning contracts for holiday homes, (I own and run a cleaning company to help towards the sanctuary costs and so that we can eat a few times a week) because they went bust, and our income dwindled down to not very much, we have been to business link, financial advisers, and an array of finance and mortgage company’s seeking help.

With the interest rate on the mortgage hitting a height of 11% we were sinking fast, we managed to keep with our payments for a few months then lapsed again, in this time I was sending weekly letters to the mortage company to ask for a payment, break or for an interest only deal, they did offer an advance of twenty four thousand pounds to finish the work needed on the farm, and to cover a few payments, and to get us to April o8, we had a valuation done on the farm, to which we paid seven hundred pounds, and it came back at under value, so once again, we had to try and evolve, again I asked for help, and got knocked back, I managed to scrape the money together to pay a few more months this led us to December 2007. since then with it being winter, our costs are higher towards fuel and feed for the animals (can I just point out that in comparison to many husbandry systems our is much more cost effective because of the unique way we keep the animals) and we stupidly thought that if we could just get to April and get open, we could find our way to making this work....

The company had kept a repossess order over the farm from last march , which gave them the right to evict us at any point, we found out yesterday when Lucy our solicitor made inquiries to the court, we had NO idea this possession order was being held over the property, to which our three months in arrears have given them the right and reason to serve us with an eviction notice.

I then went and got employment at a local care agency doing home care, to which I still do as well as continuing with our cleaning commitments, I also started a communities magazine, which was a success as everyone loved it but I failed to break even and it was taking up to much money and time for me to continue with it.

ITS NOT THROUGH A LACK OF TRYING THAT WE NOW NEED HELP.


So this is how we ended up in the situation we are today, yes we have made some bloody stupid mistakes, yes we are guilty of having a lot of animals and yes we are guilty of being HUMAN!

I have been thankful that yesterday we have been offered some sound advice, (we hope) and that we can save the farm, for the animals and move on. I do have a plan of action (what woman dosant) if my efforts fail. And I can hand on heart say that we will always put the animals first and foremost.

Ok I wanted to cover the reasons why we don’t rehome. When the sanctuary was set up, it was designed around the fact that many animals end up on death row because of there age or the fact they have some issues offensive to us humans. The sanctuary constitution was designed around the need for animals to be given a last chance at life, but in a natural environment, I am a applied ethologist and have studied animal behaviour for some years now. And my research is put into practice with the animals at the sanctuary, and it works.

The mere fact that the sanctuary is suffering financial hardship is as I have said bad advice and lack of support because we are not well none, but also because the currant economic climate is in dire need of help. High interest rates, costs of everything going up, it’s a round about that everyone seems to be on at the moment and as a result animals are the first to suffer, in this case we are getting daily calls from people wanting to place there cat or horse or rabbit with us because they are moving over seas.

I hope in some way I have been honest enough to you good people for you to see that we have put everything into this (money and effort) we WILL save this farm, I have to, I am not being unrealistic but I will give it my best shot (she who sits here and has not eaten for two days or washed her hair!)

If you want to help, please get in touch, my email address is animalsanctuary4 at aol.com

If you don’t because you feel we are living in cloud cookoo land, then watch this space, I have proved many people wrong over the years and have accepted this challenge, as I have done to keep the sanctuary going for the past 5 years.
 
Can I ask how many people live on the farm and how much they contribute monthly to the mortgage? If you don't want to share that then fine, but I think that in all of this, if you want people to help with donations, they should have this information. There are 3 figures missing from all this that you have posted:
How much the farm costs to run per month.
How much the people there pay towards it.
And therefore, how much money you need to raise each month to continue to run.
 
Whispers much as I admire the thought behind this venture I genuinely cannot put my hand in my pocket.

Maybe being a third party with no vested interest allows me to see things more clearly but given you are already hanging by a thread with no (stated) rescue in sight I truly cannot see how this is ever going to be resolved.

You are in exactly the same situation as some good friends found themselves in a few years ago and the only way ended up being down. They sold the property they had tried so hard to hang onto (and that was 6 people all earning) and after a terrible struggle it was clear the ONLY thing they could do was to sell the property back to the mortgage company and then rent it back off them. They are still struggling to pay rent although this is slightly less than the mortgage they were paying.

EVERYTHING (including animals) that was not a basic necessity has been sold or given away - no choice, no arguments, no options - so they can keep a roof over their heads.

Im sorry that you have made such bad judgments or had bad advice but the state you find yourselves in now does NOT warrant having total strangers bail you out.

Sadly many charities shut up shop every year and an alarming number of equine and animal charities become victims. This gives the well funded ones such as RSPCA, ILPH etc added work because its organisations such as these which have to go in and remove animals for their own welfare.

I would admit defeat now rather than prolonging the agony of what is, quite obviously, a lost cause.

Sorry if this seems harsh but pure economics have to take precedent over dreams or ambitions in the real world and you cant expect to be bouyed up by the banks etc when they can obviously see what those of us unconnected can also see.
 
Yes, you think we are harsh, but I think we are being more realistic than the people elsewhere who are trying to scrape together a few quid to bail you out. There is something that I have to admit is really bothering me -
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our income dwindled down to not very much

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and similar comments. If the income of the people who live on the farm has dwindled, then they need to get it sorted on a personal level. My concern is that money raised is going to go, at least indirectly, towards keeping a roof over the heads of people who should be paying their own way. You have the business of the charity too tangled up with your own expenses, failed business ventures etc. and that bothers me I'm afraid.
 
There comes a time when people with good intentions have to stop and look and realise that when you are begging for mortgage money/living money etc, then that surely is the time to pull the plug?

I totally agree with Spaniel et al.
It isn't a shameful thing to say you cannot carry on, it is more a decision to be proud of, before you see your home and animals taken from you.

Charities struggle immensely, and the ones that are not high profile even more.Unless the family can pull it together, by getting jobs, earning money until such a time that charitable donations can run it, then it is time to go.
More so, if you are now not eating, then it is just plain ridiculous! Animals should not come before people, you get ill, who the hell is going to take care of them then?

Sorry, I wish you well, but you need to look at this clearly and as Talan said, money to keep the roof over your head rather than the upkeep of the animals is wrong. Fair enough if you can live on whatever the family earn to keep the farm, then ask for donations to keep the animals, but otherwise no. Many of us struggle to keep our own roofs on but have to work to pay our way.
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From what I have read on other forums this 'sanctuary' do not hold registered charity status within Britain, only in Jersey. Certainly no registered charity number has been given, and there seems to be no listing of it as a registered charity within Britain. Why isn't it registered? It seems this is not the first time things have gone wrong due to bad management. According to a poster on another forum this has happened before. I think these people are living in dream land. They have 400 (?) animals and need to raise 20k to pay arrears then another 12k a month to keep afloat. How do they propose to do this without charity status? Why don't they have charity status in Britain? Is there some reason they are not allowed to? Are they purely relying on the public to pay these costs? Why aren't they fund raising? Are all these public appeals legal if they don't hold registered charity status in Britain? Even if they raise the initial amounts needed, how are they going to be able to guarantee to raise the amount needed each month to feed their vastly overcrowded farm? What happens 6 months down the line when it all goes wrong again? I live within 20 miles of this so called sanctuary and have never heard of them until I read about them on some forums. I have never seen any fundraising or even advertising. They do not re-home animals, just keep collecting them. How do they propose to keep afloat when they are continually adding more mouths to feed? The amounts needed will just go up and up. This smacks of someone who likes to collect animals in the name of rescue and has now got way out of their depth, as many sadly do, then other charities are left to pick up the pieces. Why are they not doing the decent thing and looking for homes for these animals? Why are they not making arrangements? I think it's time they got real. They have less than two weeks before their eviction date yet it seems there are no plans in place to find the animals they have homes. Don't they realise that if they are repossessed EVERYTHING becomes the banks property. Animals included. I think they are living in cloud cuckoo land. I think instead of trying to save a sinking ship, they should be helping some of the inhabitants to swim to safety before the boat goes down.
I have sympathy for genuine cases but to me this seems like one of those sad cases of someone trying to do good, but causing more harm by taking on too much. I will not donate to a non registered charity that has no reg charity number. I will not support someone who just wants to collect more and more animals. I will not pay for someone elses farm when it's more than likely going to all go wrong again anyway. If this makes me heartless then so be it. I call it realistic. Do the decent thing people and start looking for homes for the animals you have and put them before your own ass*s.
 
They need to get other charities to help asap. For older dogs try http://www.oldies.org.uk

For cats try the Cats Protection League, I believe they have a no destruction policy. Not the RSPCA, they have a dreadful record for putting animals down.

They sound well intentioned but really have to very urgently look to the welfare of their animals.
 
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