A LONG, wet winter has caused hardship for the Beara Farm Animal Sanctuary in Adrigole, as almost constant rain over the past few months has meant that animal bedding has needed to be changed on an ongoing basis and this, added to regular feed and welfare costs, means the sanctuary has launched a GoFundMe in a bid to raise much needed funds.
Jacquie Young, who runs the sanctuary with her husband Alan, said: ‘With all the wet weather, we’re getting through ten to fifteen bags of bedding a week, and each bag costs €10, plus we need to get the farrier to come and look at the goats. That will cost in excess of €600, and we also need the animal dentist, and feed is an ongoing cost for us.’
Jacquie and Alan moved back to Beara from the UK, and Beara Farm Animal Sanctuary began after a request for a neighbour to help some orphaned lambs.
‘We helped her with feeding the lambs, then ended up taking them in and it went from there,’ Jacquie said.
Jacquie had previously been involved in dog and cat rescue in the UK, and originally planned to help neuter feral cats in the area.
However, not long after taking on the lambs she heard that the ISPCA were looking for a home for two kid goats.
‘The ISPCA came to do a home check first which we passed, but by then we’d taken in three cats in addition to our two cats we’d brought from the UK.’
Their menagerie soon grew, as a friend asked if they could take in a goat found on the roadside, and the ISPCA then contacted them to see if they could accommodate another kid goat which had been found in woods beside it’s dead mother.
Jacquie and Alan take in mainly farm animals. ‘We have four acres, and when word got out what we were doing and when people heard of a farm animal in need, they knew to contact us,’ she said.
The couple currently have 80 animals, including birds, all of which means considerable costs in food and vets fees.
Whilst they have received generous support from people in Beara, they are dependent on fundraising.
‘We don’t get any Government funding for what we do, but people have been fantastic and paying money to our account at Barrets Agri to cover the cost of feed. The sanctuary now has charitable status which allows them to fundraise to help the animals in their care.’
Search ‘Beara Farm Animal Sanctuary’ on GoFundMe to make a donation.
