Appeal From Horse Charity Following Devastating Flooding

Sue Burton, Founder of Remus Horse Sanctuary is appealing to the public for their help and support after what has been a disastrous start to the charity’s fundraising efforts this season.  The recent flooding has left the Sanctuary short of funds and struggling to cope.

Sue Burton said “We had to already cancel our May and June Open Days due to the wet weather and, to make matters worse, after spending two days under up to 5ft of flood water last week we had to take the desperate measure of cancelling our July Open Day and Dog Show too, another huge major fundraising loss.”

This year the Sanctuary has been extremely busy working to and succeeding to help horses in Essex that are in distress through neglect and starvation, whilst of course still giving all the care needed to the 200 animals at the Sanctuary.

Sue further explained, “To lose our major Summer fundraising events is a very hard blow indeed. These events are essential to us in order to replenish our depleted coffers to help fund the Sanctuary through the rest of the summer and most essentially the Winter season.”

Recently Minstral, one of the Sanctuary’s rescue horses, had a severe eye problem.  Her eye effectively exploded, which ultimately meant very expensive surgery by a leading eye surgeon from Newmarket to remove the eye completely. Sue said, “We cannot plan for these sorts of problems and therefore need to have the necessary funds in place to make sure that should the animals need urgent help that we can provide it for them and maintain the high standard of welfare that they deserve.”

“We would be very grateful for any help that the generous public can offer us by way of making a donation, organising a fundraising event to raise money for us, sponsoring one of the animals or by donating to one of our appeals.”  There are lots of ways to help the charity through this very difficult time and Sue would love to hear from anyone who can help and will be so appreciative of anything that be done to assist them care for all the deserving animals at Remus.

To make a donation click here, to contribute to our appeal click here or, for more ways to help Remus, click here.

 

And the animals went in two by two…

And the animals went in two by two… alongside is Amber and Blossom slowly making their way to shelter following the horrific flooding experienced at the Sanctuary recently.

For those unfamiliar with the Sanctuary, there are no lakes within the grounds (or at least not normally!).

On Thursday 23 June, all three roads into Buttsbury were flooded and the road direct to the Sanctuary was 5ft deep! Our muck heap collector lorry got stuck in it! The staff all had to walk across fields to get in. The cows shelter was under water and the cows and some of the ponies needed to be moved to the back fields for safety. One of our volunteers was up to his chest in the flood water on the road and nearly floated away!

Five days on and the road into us was still flooded and the water on the fields lasted for a further three days. In addition to our own problems, a large fish was left flapping in a field and was rescued and returned to the river by Charlotte, and Alex, whilst taking one of the horses out heard screaming and rescued a woman who had fallen into the ford!

This is an extreme situation. Once again we will have to cancel the Open Day, now for the third time in a row. The last time we saw it this bad was in 2012. We are so proud of our staff who walk in and out before and after work and continue to care for the animals and still smile.

We need to get ourselves back on our feet and we can only do that with your help. Please contribute to our Cry For Help Appeal today! We will also be holding a Summer Sale at Stock Village Hall on Saturday 2nd to help raise funds following the floods and cancellations. Full details here. If you can’t donate, please visit us on Saturday and vice versa!

Thank you!