The current situation is that we are simply not bringing in anywhere near enough money to cover the work that we do, and we are starting to rack up debts. We have tried our best to muddle through the last few months believing that something will change, something will come up, but things have only got harder each day. Our bank account this morning had only £47 in, and many many bills sat waiting for payment.

We know that impression of Jackson’s can be that financially we are absolutely fine because we have shops and the cafe etc and the reality is so different. We have had the quietest two months across all of our shops and cafe, to the point where there are days where we have simply lost money. If we had a huge pot of reserves to help us manage during the quiet periods it would be ok, but we simply don’t have it. We don’t have anything.

We have dealt with the most complex cases recently and have many cats in our care that have cost thousands of pounds, Gordon has cost over £5000 alone, Angel’s litter of kittens all have complex needs and two have had to have heart scans at Leahurst with the bills on the way. We have had to place four cats into forever foster just this year because their vet bills are so high they are unadoptable and that responsibility has to fall to us. Greg, Bunny, Dorothy and Wilma. We have other cats with us right now who will likely fit this category too.

It’s our busiest time for hedgehog admissions, and we are often dealing with up to 10 admissions a day. We are the only rescue for them in the area with such capacities, and each hedgehog costs £40 to be examined at the vets, that’s before any potential treatment or medication. You can imagine how much this is mounting up.

We have to do the only financially responsibly thing we can right now and temporarily pause all animal admissions, including hedgehogs. We had to do this last year to allow us to catch up and people were sadly not understanding, our staff received daily abuse and there is a clear expectation from the public that we will just take hedgehogs, but sadly someone has to pay for them, and we can’t manage that right now.

There are animals on our waiting list that need us, pregnant cats, stray cats, and rabbits housed in unsuitable enclosures likely not receiving the bare minimum of care. It breaks our hearts to have to do this and have empty enclosures sat here.

Unfortunately we have to come to you with an emergency fundraiser to try and save us. We cannot continue how we are doing, and we know that in the future lies difficult conversations about seriously toning down how much rescue work we do. We try so hard with fundraising and have the most incredible volunteers for this, but at some point we have to say that it’s just too much.

We have created a Just Giving for emergency help, and this gives the different amounts we need to hit for various milestones. We know that these numbers are huge. These are the scary numbers we have to deal with each day, because unfortunately even the most basic of things to keep this rescue going cost a huge amount-

- charity insurance- £900 a month

- Waste collection across our sites- £950 a month

- Electricity across our sites- up to £2500 in the winter

This is before the biggest cost- vet bills.

We have been simply treading water trying not to drown for years, and if we can build up any kind of reserve fund from this it will allow us time to recover, instead of sheer panic each day that we don’t have the funds to meet the bills.

We need our regular donators to know that we see you, we appreciate you, and we never ever want you to feel like what you do for us isn’t appreciated or isn’t enough. We see the same names donating regularly and we value your support more than you can imagine. We just have to take this time to appeal to the wider reach of our social media following, and ask for a small amount from a lot of people.

What are we going to be doing at Jackson’s?

We are working full throttle behind the scenes with more fundraising ideas, approaching businesses, approaching celebrities, you name it we are going to try it.

We are going to bring you daily video updates of how we are getting on and about our progress.

We are going to be working every minute we can to try and fix this.

We are planning an open weekend at the rescue so that you can see exactly where money raised goes. Bare with us for these details!

How can you help without donating?

Simply like, share and comment on our posts. We are part of the Facebook Creator Bonus which means we get paid a small amount for interaction on posts, and it all adds up!

Can you take a donation tin in your work? Local pub? A shop you’re friendly with? Please message us and we can arrange to have one dropped off to you.

We are in the process of creating a poster with a QR code linked to our emergency fundraiser, could you print one and take it to work? If you have no access to a printer we will have some for you at the rescue sites and the cafe please do call and collect one.

FUNDRAISING MILESTONES

Totals raised

£2000 clears our wildlife vet bill

£4000 clears our domestic animal vet bill too

£6000 pays our vet accounts, and allows us to reopen to wildlife admissions with a month of vet bills saved

£10,000 allows us to reopen to domestic animal admissions with funds saved for future vet bills

£20,000 gives us at least a month of breathing space and allows us to recover with some reserves behind us

If you’ve read this far, or watched the video, we thank you so very much.