Sustainable future for Remus Horse Sanctuary – Dream or Reality?

With your help we believe that we can guarantee a sustainable future for Remus Horse Sanctuary and that together, we can make a difference.

Could you contribute just £5 a month to Remus?

We’ve estimated that if all 1,512 of our Facebook ‘Likers’ contributed just £5 a month we would receive £7,560 per month, which you may be surprised to hear is far, far in excess of our present situation! It sounds like a lot of money, but with 200+ animals at Remus to feed, house and keep warm, the bills soon mount up. Take a look at our monthly bills below:

• Each month our bill for hay alone is £5,000!
• The Farrier visits weekly and sometimes more and his bill is £1,200 a month
• The routine medicine bill from the Vets, without their time and any operations, is approximately £3,000 per month!
• Electricity costs us £1,500 each quarter
• Each year it costs £350 to shear our flock of sheep
• Water costs us £1,200 per quarter

 

We’ve put the monthly costs above into a simple pie chart for you to view above.

Then there is feed, worming, horse passports, microchipping, rent, insurances, printing, postage, vehicle costs, legal services, an accountant, staff wages… the list is almost, but thankfully not quite endless, but all of this makes up the £440,000 it takes to maintain and run the Sanctuary each year!

Your monthly donation would offer security and a sustainable future for Remus Horse Sanctuary, and help us address the escalating horse welfare crisis in this country. Together we believe we can make a difference! Security to us means we can offer homes for new animals, buy more food and rugs during the wintertime to help those animals in need, and pay our staff and suppliers regularly – again something which just can’t happen at present.

If you can and would like to create a monthly donation, whether £1, £5, £10 or £50, you can do so here, just click on the button ‘Make a Monthly Donation’.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this notice and for your ongoing support.

Please share our work with your friends and family.

Sue Burton – Founder

UK FIRST FOR REMUS HORSE SANCTUARY IN ESSEX

Ingatestone, Essex – Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary is delighted to announce that Reiki experts Kathleen Prasad and Leah D’Ambrosio will be returning to the Sanctuary this summer. Remus is proud to be the first UK sanctuary offering Reiki under the umbrella of SARA – the Shelter Animal Reiki Association. The dates are 27th-29th for a 3-day ‘Everything Animal Reiki’ training course and, on Sunday 30 August, a 1-day Equine Reiki training.

SARA was founded by Kathleen Prasad (Animal Reiki Source), and Leah D’Ambrosio in May 2008, to support the growing number of Reiki Practitioners who wish to establish programmes in their local shelters.

Reiki is a Japanese energy healing system used originally for spiritual development and used today for ‘hands-on’ healing, suitable for humans and animals alike. Reiki is ideal for use with animals because it is gentle, non-invasive and doesn’t require physical contact. It doesn’t cause stress, discomfort, or pain, and yet yields powerful results. Animals respond intuitively to Reiki’s power to support the healing of emotional, behavioral, and physical illnesses and injuries.

Founder of Remus Horse Sanctuary, Sue Burton, says, “it will be the most amazing visit with so much to learn from Kathleen and Leah. We’d love people to save the dates! Kathleen’s teachings are very inspirational and delegates will learn so much about the giving of Reiki to animals and understanding their space. Previous delegates have left here ‘blown away’ with the knowledge they have learnt”.

To book, please visit http://www.animalreikisource.com/reiki-classes/249-remus-2015. For further information on the Sanctuary, visit www.remussanctuary.org or contact Sue Burton on tel: 01277 356191.

WALLY THE WORM VISITS HORSE SANCTUARY

Ingatestone, Essex – Children’s book author, Chris Parmenter, and illustrator, Colin Wyatt will be hosting a ‘Wally The Worm’ workshop at Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary on Sunday 7 June, open from 1pm to 5pm. The children’s workshop will include: storytime, colouring, dressing up, music, and puppets from the story.

Wally the Worm began as a poem about worms and slugs, which Chris Parmenter wrote for her then 6-year old nephew who was being bullied and made to feel worthless and miserable. She says, “I wanted to show him that no matter how small or unimportant we may feel, everyone is special and has a right to be valued just for being themselves”. Although just a worm, Wally becomes the hero of the story and the musical play was first performed at Sheringham Little Theatre in 2004.

From the play, Chris Parmenter was asked if there was a book, and set to work with her friend Colin Wyatt and the storybook was illustrated and self-published in 2007. Colin also provided the illustrations for the Poddington Pea books, which was also a cartoon series on television.

Chris and Colin donate their time freely to support Remus Horse Sanctuary along with 100 per cent of all proceeds from the book and CD sales.

Chris is a lifelong supporter of Remus Horse Sanctuary and first became involved with founder, Sue Burton, in 1983 when many horses were left to die on Rainham Marshes in Essex, before moving to Norfolk in 2001.

Says Chris, “I love going to Remus and giving what I can to help them. What they do there is truly amazing.The love, dedication and incredibly hard work is never ending and I like that they also have a vigorous programme of education; so important so that animals are respected, loved and cared for properly. There is no excuse for ignorance where animal welfare is concerned. Here’s to a great day on June 7th at the Sanctuary.”

For further information on Wally, visit www.wallytheworm.co.uk. For further information on the Sanctuary, visit www.remussanctuary.org or contact Sue Burton on tel: 01277 356191. 

LOCAL HOSPITAL BARN FOR SICK HORSES NEEDS YOUR VOTE

Ingatestone, Essex – Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary based in Essex and now offering safe-haven to more than 200 animals, is calling on the public to help vote for its ‘Hospital Barn for Sick Horses’ project with the Aviva Community Fund. Voting can be made online at: https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/Project/View/2828 and closes 30 May 2015.

Sue Burton, founder of the Sanctuary in 1983, says, “we have a special laminitic barn that requires special bark flooring to help the many sick and elderly horses at the Sanctuary. These horses suffer from laminitis which is driven by endocrine disease such as Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS) and Pituitary Pars Intermedia Dysfunction (PPID)”. Laminitis is a common, painful and ultimately devastating condition affecting the feet and hooves of horses and ponies. There is a lot of research into these issues and Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary is at the forefront of this research. The special flooring will make a big difference to the work that Remus Horse Sanctuary is able to do, both to help horses and horse owners now and in the future.

“The UK is in the grip of a horse welfare crisis.” says Sue Burton, “We are helping as many as possible and we’re also at the forefront of dealing with laminitis, PPID and EMS – all sever equine problems where we can learn and teach others. The Sanctuary is an amazing resource and we need everyone’s votes to help win funding.”

For further information on the Sanctuary, visit www.remussanctuary.org or contact Sue Burton on tel: 01277 356191. To vote, please visit: https://community-fund.aviva.co.uk/voting/Project/View/2828.

Introducing Wally The Worm by Chris Parmenter

If you’ve visited our Facebook page recently, or online shop, you’re sure to have seen a new item for sale at Remus – The Wally the Worm Book and CD!

Wally the Worm is a picture book and a musical play for children to perform and enjoy. It was written by Remus Volunteer – Chris Parmenter – and is beautifully illustrated by children’s illustrator Colin Wyatt (of Poddington Pea fame).

Wally is one of the many insects and creatures who live and work in the garden of Tony the gardener. He is considered to be dull and unimportant by his more colourful companions who don’t include him in their fun and games. But when danger strikes and the garden is threatened, Wally may be the only one Tony can turn to for help. Will his courage save the day and earn him the respect he deserves?

“I recently purchased the Wally the Worm book and CD for my 4yr old niece for her birthday. Although I didn’t listen to the CD, I did read the book. How absolutely delightful! It’s a story that reminds children (and adults) that it’s the heart of the person (or in this instance, worm) that is important and not the external finery. Its beautifully written, will delight adults and children alike and the illustrations are just glorious.”

If you’d like to find out more, visit Wally’s website here: http://wallytheworm.co.uk/ and buy the book online here:

https://www.remussanctuary.org/product/wally-worm-book. All proceeds to Remus Horse Sanctuary.

Furthermore, both Chris and Illustrator Colin will be hosting a workshop at our June Open Day. More details to follow in due course.

Why so many horses and ponies are being abandoned

We found this interesting article on the Daily Mail Online website and wanted to share it with you. The article is about Rupert, a six-month-old foal dumped on the side of a busy road outside Southampton. Emaciated and riddled with worms, he was shivering pitifully in the winter weather and clinging to life by a thread! How could anyone dump an animal in this way, but sadly Rupert is not alone – you’ll recall that little Dante was dumped at our gate back in January.

People must consider the costs of keeping a horse, as they are far from cheap! Increasing costs mean few owners can keep up with looking after a horse – it costs over £3,000 a year to keep a horse, on stables, hay and feed alone! Last year, the RSPCA alone took in 1,500 horses and ponies, many of them family pets. With so many being abandoned, it falls on us and other charities to pick up the cost, at a time when donations are generally down due to the economic climate.

We have to pay for passports, as invariably these horses don’t have them, isolation and bio security, blood tests, vets fees – as there is usually a lot of routine things wrong with them, such as lice, laminitis, overgrown teeth ,no vaccinations, no worming etc – we have to provide all of that and get back on top of everything that has been allowed to slide, and then pay to keep the animal from there on.

It is so costly for us with our annual running costs already exceeding £400,000 per year. Owners have to be more responsible and not get a horse unless they can be sure they can afford it. They need to look ahead – what if they die, they become terminally ill, they lose their job, get pregnant, go to college, or get divorced? All of these factors need to be considered. What will happen to the horse as a result?

With dwindling buyers, more horses than ever are being abandoned, so people who breed horses also need to ask themselves – do we really need yet another horse, as for every one bred, another further down the line gets chucked out or abandoned. Harsh but sadly true!

You can read the full Daily Mail article here.

If you would like to make a donation to Remus to help save horses like Rupert, please visit our Just Giving page here.

OPEN SEASON AT REMUS HORSE SANCTUARY

Ingatestone, Essex – Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary is delighted to welcome visitors to its Horse Sanctuary for the first time this year on Sunday 3 May 2015. Further dates throughout the 2015 season can be found below:

• Sunday 7 June
• Sunday 5 July
• Sunday 2 August
• Sunday 6 September
• Sunday 4 October

Open on each of the above dates from 1pm to 5pm, the Sanctuary offers entertainment for the whole family including competitions and games, music from local band Midnite Blu, delicious refreshments including sandwiches and homemade cakes, lots of stalls and a raffle. Parking is available on-site, with disabled access and dogs are welcome on a lead. Admission will be charged at just £4 per adult, free for children.

Visitors to the Open Days will be able to meet foal Dante [pictured left], found dumped at Remus’ gate in January, a small Welsh pony named Toffee, Dolly the Sheep who escaped from an abattoir and Bramble the horse who has spent her entire 23 years of life tethered, all new to the Sanctuary for 2015.

The Sanctuary is currently providing rehabilitation and care for over 200 animals, including horses, ponies, donkeys, cows, goats, sheep and cats. The Open Days are a vital source of fundraising for the charity which, due to its location on greenbelt land, can only open to the public for a limited number of days each year.

Founder of the Sanctuary, Sue Burton, says, “we love inviting the public to come and visit the Sanctuary, and we always have such a great time showing off our premises and our amazing animals and giving people an insight into the valuable work that we do.”

 

For further information, visit www.remussanctuary.org or contact Sue Burton on tel: 01277 356191.

NEW POWERS FOR FLY-GRAZING

Ingatestone, Essex – Sue Burton, Founder of Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary, welcomes the news that the Control of Horses Bill has been passed by Parliament and will become law in the next two months, following royal assent next week, but says “there is still much more to be done”.

The Control of Horses Bill will make changes to the Animals Act 1971 and will:

– Enable local authorities, owners and occupiers of land to deal with horses left on their land more quickly (after 4 working days as opposed to the current 14 days) and,

– Provide more options for dealing with unclaimed horses including private sale, gifting them to a charity or humane euthanasia. 

Sue Burton met with Lord de Mauley, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, at Westminster to discuss the equine welfare crisis in July 2014, who stated at that time, that the Government would look favourably on this Bill. However, Sue cautions that although a massive step forward, there is still a long way to go to improve the horse welfare situation in this country.

“It’s important that everyone remembers this is not the ‘be all and end all’”, says Sue. “When they were first introduced, both horse passports and the Animal Welfare Bill were promoted as instruments that would ‘bring an end’ to horses’ suffering.” Sue explains further, “If anything the problem has worsened in recent years.” Defra and the larger welfare Organisations said passports would stop the welfare problems, then they said that the Animal Welfare Bill would stop problems and allow them to stop animals suffering before they died but, despite this, the problem has worsened and horses are dying daily. No one is tackling the Traveller Horse issue and many Traveller horses do not have passports. Sue wonders what will happen to those horses due to their numbers and whether it will encourage Travellers to ‘dump’ even more unwanted horses, knowing that someone else can now pick them up. Time will tell.

“Either way this Bill is another tool that will help in the fight against the horse welfare problem, so we welcome it, and thank Julian Sturdy for all his hard work.”

For further information, visit www.remussanctuary.org or contact Sue Burton on tel: 01277 356191.

Please, can you help me?

I am sure that, like me, you have serious concerns about the horse welfare crisis. The situation is dire and horses are dying daily in the most awful conditions. Over the past few weeks, we have witnessed:

• The skeletons of horses just left to rot in fields after they have died
• Horses being dumped dead, alive or dying
• Horses in awful conditions with every bone in their body on show – it is beyond me that they are still standing

There are worse stories but I don’t want to distress you.

Every time I see one stood painfully thin, hungry and thirsty and look into its sad and pleading eyes it tears me apart. It tears me apart because these animals are so innocent and so noble they don’t deserve to live or indeed die like this. The history of this Country was borne on the backs of these proud, noble, sensitive animals and yet this is how we now choose to repay that debt! Some of these horses stand tethered in the same place for days, weeks and months on end, never being given food, water or care. Sometimes owners come to see them just once a week, sometimes less often.

Over the last month I have spent some time in Southampton working with local people regarding a group of approximately 50 horses. One lovely young piebald stallion broke my heart – when we arrived with water he had learnt to bow! This poor skinny horse was so in need of water that he had learnt to beg for a drink. Water should be a basic requirement – not something that an innocent animal should have to beg for. One local lady carried water to him and he drank 15 litres!

Further up was an old mare – 23yrs old and her entire life had been spent on a tethering chain. She had a thin rug on and when I put my hand under it she was freezing – but day in, day out she stood tethered by her neck to a piece of ground that has no grass in the winter and in the summer is full of ragwort, which is poisonous to horses and causes a very painful and distressing death – which can include blindness and mental disorientation before death. This mare’s eyes were empty. She expected nothing because she knows she will get nothing. She has never played with another horse or run about in a field. She has all but given up. If death was to come maybe that would be a happy release for her.

There were a few horses that were loose on the fields and if any tethered horse was lucky to be given some bread or peelings from a kindly dog walker then these loose ponies would steal it as their need to survive is instinctive.

All over the Country these scenes are replicated – Dartford, Essex, Leicester, Southampton, York – everywhere – I hate to think how many horses are suffering and dying daily. We cant help them all but we can certainly try to help those we know about, but with the financial issues that the Sanctuary is facing at the moment we are so limited to what we can do. Last year we were able to take hay out to horses and keep them alive until the weather improved. This year we can not afford to.

Just a few weeks ago we were amazed to find a little foal dumped at our gates. We have named him Dante. He has a great thick woolly coat but this hides what’s underneath. This innocent little creature is skin and bone – he had clearly recently lost his mum and he didn’t even know what hay and food was. He stood terrified, depressed and looked so totally lost. He had just been left to die!

Because of the desperate financial situation we were hoping not to add to our numbers this winter but we could not turn this little fella away and more to the point, I know that you, our supporters, would want us to step in and help him. He was so terrified, he didn’t know what we were going to do to him but had clearly been badly treated prior to arriving.

We didn’t know if he would survive, but a stable was set up for him with a heat lamp to give him heat, a nice deep bed, special soft food, fresh water and hay. Initially he slept on the concrete floor as he did not know what the bed was and it took him a few days to learn what hay was and about a week to learn to eat food.

He now gets so excited when his food comes in to him that his legs shake (we have named this The Dante Quiver!!). He has a big belly but this is full of worms and although he has been treated he still carries a large burden. Many horses die this time of year when, if they have a large infestation it can cause severe colic and a very quick but very painful death.

The next few months are critical for this little guy – he is such a little fighter and we have all grown so attached to him in such a short time. We would all be devastated if we lost him after all the work we have all put into him and having got to know him. We are starting to see his character shine through and he is the sweetest of little creatures partly because he is so lost and alone from losing his mum and being treated abysmally before he was dumped with us that he just wants our company and to feel loved and secure.

Look at Dante prancing in March and meeting new friends, what a difference, compared to his arrival in January when he looked very forlorn!

The suffering is dire and we can help them and we want to help them but with our finances being so tight we are unable to step in and help many of these animals who will continue to suffer and even die. To see them and look them in the eyes and have to walk away as we cant afford to help them is just the most awful feeling – it rips my heart apart. Please help me to help these horses who suffer in silence. Please can you help by making a donation to help us step in and help these beautiful animals? I look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will feel you are able to help.

Thank you, Sue x

Sue Burton – Founder of Remus Horse Sanctuary

HORSEMEAT TRADE IS NOT THE ANSWER SAYS WELFARE FOUNDER

Ingatestone, Essex – Sue Burton, Founder of Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary in Essex, is calling on Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) to abolish any further thoughts of creating a market for horsemeat and to right the wrongs of the current horse welfare legislation. In July 2014, Sue met with Lord DeMauley, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, at Westminster to discuss the equine welfare crisis that exists in this country. Some months later, Sue received a formal response to that meeting, whilst the situation continues to escalate and horses continue to be dumped anywhere and everywhere.

The letter from Douglas Potter, Defra – Customer Contact Unit, states, “Human slaughter for human consumption provides a practical option for the disposal of older, unsaleable or unwanted horses. Most welfare charities are supportive of legitimate slaughter as a means of reducing the number of cases of abandonment and other welfare incidents”.

In response to this statement, Sue says, “I am absolutely stunned that Defra can actually be putting this forward as a viable option and that other welfare organisations are sanctioning it. We need to be reducing the number of horses in this country in order to improve the welfare crisis, not breeding them for consumption, thereby worsening the situation.”

There are over 1.35 million horses in the UK with the largest proportion in the South East. Undeniably, many of these horses live a much loved and pampered life, but sadly there is still much cruelty and suffering, including Travellers’ horses, which are often tethered without food or water, either in sub-zero temperatures or searing heat, old horses left in fields in poor condition, malnourished foals and cases of cruelty just through ignorance. Sue explains that she has spoken to various Travellers over the last week who have said that they are reducing their numbers due to the lack of financial return. One individual said he was taking the stallion away from the mares.

“This is what we have always needed”, says Sue, “for the Travelling community to start reducing the number of horses. But now we’re talking about opening up a market that is going to increase demand, lead to more horses being bred, used as breeding machines, and allowed to suffer. And their offspring can be slaughtered for an industry that is already struggling. This just seems madness to me!”

Sue further explains that the letter states, “”It is an offence for any person to own a domesticated adult horse which is not properly identified”, yet we know that many people including most of those within the Travelling Community do not have passports. We also know that no one will do anything about it. It states that, “you should note that in 2012 Defra approved The Traditional Gypsy Cob Association to issue passports”. This means nothing, as most of these horses do not have passports, and the welfare organisations are required to pay for microchipping and passports every time we step in and help a Traveller’s horse.”

Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary is putting together a Lobby Group to further raise awareness of the horse welfare crisis in this country and to put pressure on the government. Individuals wishing to receive further information can register here: http://eepurl.com/bfHBrj.

For further information, visit www.remussanctuary.org or contact Sue Burton on tel: 01277 356191.