Over the past ten years, Dean Farm Animal Sanctuary has grown from the humblest of beginnings to now providing 204 animals with a home for life.

Our animal residents have been rescued from neglect, abuse or the threat of imminent death and given a secure and caring environment to enjoy their natural lives to the fullest. But the Sanctuary has also always addressed a wider agenda: to help all animals that suffer at human hands by helping the public find more compassionate ways of living our own lives, ways that treat our fellow animals as our friends, not as sources of food, material products or entertainment.

As the Sanctuary enters its second decade, we find ourselves confronted with both existential threats and transformative opportunities like never before.

The recent pandemic and the ongoing cost of living crisis have served to underline what is at stake with the long-term security of the Sanctuary. We need to ensure both a reliable core income and outright ownership of the land on which the Sanctuary stands if we are always to be certain of providing our residents with this home for life. Simply put: until we own the land we occupy the Sanctuary’s future remains uncertain.

Please help support our residents in our Home 4 Life Fundraiser

OUR HISTORY

Right from the start, the Sanctuary has had the mission of saving animals from the horrors they face and educating the public about these campaigning for a more compassionate way of living. It took almost a decade before the funds were raised to welcome the first residents, Sooty and Pudding, in 2013. In our first year, we were also able to rescue our first hens and sheep – Donny, Percy and Clive – with our first mini-shetlands and puppy farm survivors arriving the following year.

Our move to our current home of 62 acres, which include 10 acres of woodland yet to be fully used, located near Chepstow, South Wales, took place in 2016. Soon we were home to the ten species, including cows, sheep, ponies, donkeys, goats, turkeys, hens and pigs, who today think of us as a home for life. Many of our earliest residents are still with us, such as Billy, our blind pig, rescued from a life of unimaginable pain and suffering, left to rot in his own faeces. And our rescue work continues unabated: only a few days weeks ago in May 2023, we provided sanctuary for life for Wilbur, a piglet abandoned and left to die amid the rubbish of scrubland.

At first, all daily work to look after the animals had to be done by hand: only recently have we been able to afford a tractor or proper irrigation of the land. We had to contend with adverse weather, battling mud and snow with wheelbarrows full of feed and straw. But we were soon able to welcome the public to the Sanctuary, with a series of popular open days and outreach and educational initiatives that are at the heart of what we do.

Now as we enter our second decade, we must build on these achievements and efforts to protect the Sanctuary and its 204 residents for the future. Significant challenges remain and we need your help to finally overcome the last of these once and for all.

These are just a few of the lives we have saved:

Mirella: Our adorable sheep, she had her eyes pecked out whilst in labour and was left for months only to then have her babies taken away. We rescued her, gave her treatments and veterinary care and today she lives in peace with her friends.

Billy: Left to rot in his own faeces causing irreparable damage to his feet. Completely blind he is now living his 7th year of freedom at the sanctuary thanks to our team who provide him with daily medications.

Elkie Poppett: Our Exmoor Pony, Elkie, she had 11 home in her 13 years of life, being passed from one home to another. Elkie arrived at the sanctuary with chronic sweet itch, a severe allergic reaction to a certain midge. With careful management, including; creams, a special rug and medication we have this chronic condition under control.

Wilbur: One of our newest residents, little Wilbur was only a few months old when he was found amidst a building site in Kent with burns and lesions to his back and ears. We had to step in and provide him with a home for life that he can enjoy with his new friends at the Sanctuary.

Hens: Many of our hens arrive to us in appalling conditions as victims of the poultry and egg-laying industry, living in cramped cages, with little room to move around, in big windowless barns and almost no light. All our hens at the sanctuary are housed together, with open spaces where they are free to roam, communal feeding areas and enrichment in the form of delicious vegetables, fruit and seeds.

ONGOING CHALLENGES

We have all faced difficult times recently and for many of us these are not yet at an end. The Covid pandemic really brought home to us how fragile life is, for both humans and animals. Existing as it does purely on the donations from our generous supporters, the Sanctuary was hard hit by the pandemic as income streams and opportunities for public engagement dried up. The stark truth of the matter is that without sufficient funding for the Sanctuary the lives of each of our 204 residents is at risk. The ongoing cost of living crisis has aggravated the situation severely as the price of feed, bedding, fuel and other necessary materials for a working sanctuary have shot up.

These twin crises have highlighted like never before how even after a decade of hard work the life of the Sanctuary and those of its animal residents is nothing like as secure as we would like. We have become ever more aware that it is not only public health emergencies and financial crises that pose existential risks to us. At present, we do not own the land on which the Sanctuary stands, leaving us vulnerable to forces beyond our control. Should that land be taken from us, relocation for many of our frail residents would simply not be a viable option.

For this reason, we see the next great challenge for the Sanctuary as building long-term self-sufficiency through first taking full ownership of the land our residents call home.

CREATING A HOME FOR LIFE

HOME 4 LIFE FUNDRAISER

As we start our second decade this summer, we are turning our attention to addressing what is both our greatest threat and our greatest opportunity: purchasing the land on which the Sanctuary stands.

We need to raise just £650,000 for the purchase of this – to secure for each of our current and future residents the forever home they deserve.

Although the work of the Sanctuary has grown greatly over the past ten years, we have not yet reached our full potential. However, once we fully own our land, we shall then be in a position to start making use of all the space available to us to build a caring and financially secure future for our residents. For instance, we want to develop our 10 acres of woodland into both a wellness resource and to build on the work we already do there providing a protected environment to wild animals, not just our residents, like bats and dormice.

The work of the sanctuary isn’t just about standing still, with our plans for making full use of our land we will be able to do so much more, especially in terms of our public engagement and education agenda. Through improved facilities we will be able to welcome many more visitors, including schools visits, to show what compassionate life choices mean in practice. Through public engagement, both at the centre and online, through a new educational centre we are planning, we will be able to improve the lives of many more animals beyond those of our residents.

We already offer popular public activities, such as yoga, at the sanctuary. With full intelligent use of the land available to us, we will be able to increase these and improve public access to allow more people to experience the very special ambience of the Sanctuary. We have plans to open an onsite cafe and farm shop, where we can sell wood. This will create a virtuous circle, allowing us to open up reliable new revenue streams which in turn will support our core activity: giving our residents a secure and compassionate home for life.

PLEASE HELP US, HELP OUR RESIDENTS

Our philosophy is to treat every animal as we ourselves would wish to be treated, in a safe and secure home, free from abuse, suffering and the ever-present threat of sudden death.

As we look to our second decade, we are uniquely placed to build on ten years of hard work saving the lives of animals and promoting compassionate life choices to the wider world. This means both securing what has been built up and protecting it from further serious external threat, increasing the work we can do to protect our animal friends.

As the land on which we sit cannot be purchased in sections, it is important for us to stress that we must raise the entirety of our 650K goal in order to succeed in securing our residents forever home. If we are fortunate enough to exceed our target, all funds donated through our JustGiving page will go towards the continued general welfare of our residents.

We have always relied on the compassion and generosity of our supporters to give our residents the home for life that they deserve. Now is the time for us to secure the sanctuary’s future, and theirs, by securing our ownership of the land they think of as their home.

With your help, we can do this. We will do this.

Dean Farm Trust is registered with the Fundraising Regulator.