Welfare Update

We’ve had many welfare calls so far this winter both from the floods and then the severe cold. We dealt with a particularly bad case of a whole flock of sheep in a field in Boston, Lincolnshire, where the field was so wet and boggy (this was prior to the countywide flooding) that the sheep were black as they only had wet mud to lie on and one ewe was stuck up to her knees in thick mud.

The sheep were all trying to lie as close to the fencing as possible, to keep out of the wet mud. It was pitiful to see so many animals affected. All animals are entitled to somewhere dry to lay down, and food to eat.

In the photo there is a line of electric fence between the sheep in the thick black wet mud and the soft grass which would have given her somewhere dry to lie down and something to eat, but the electric fence prevented it and everything on the field had been eaten as the animals were starving.

Thankfully we were able to get these sheep moved onto better more drained land.

As we have said repeatedly in our Born to Die Campaign no one wants to take responsibility and often authorities don’t know issues are their responsibility. It took us over 4 hours on the phone going round and round in circles to try to get help for these poor sheep, and we knew who to contact! What on earth does a concerned member of the public do?!

There are many ways you can help us through 2024 and beyond:

• Make a regular donation. Can you spare even just £5 a month?
• If you are clearing out your wardrobe, please do consider donating your clothes to the Sanctuary as they have become a very good fundraiser for us, we can also take shoes and handbags.
• If you aren’t close enough to drop them to us you can use the i-collect clothes website and they will collect from you. So long as you click on the Remus logo all funds will come directly to us.
• If you have any unwanted gifts after Christmas or items that might just sit in a drawer unused, we would love to have them to help raise funds for the animals.
• Let your love for animals continue in your memory, with a legacy. Do consider leaving a donation to Remus in your Will, if you are able.
• Do make a donation towards our winter hay appeal and general winter feed, bedding and vet costs.
• If you have any jewellery or even broken jewellery, we can turn that into funds for the animals.
• Organise an event to raise funds for the Sanctuary and/or support our events.

And finally, thanks so much to everyone who purchased tickets for our Christmas Draw last year. Our congratulations to the winners were: John and Brian from Rayleigh, Philip from Billericay, and Mrs Jeffery from Chelmsford. Our sincerest thanks go to Bridgit Tappin for all her hard work and effort in producing these amazing hampers for us at her own cost.

Thank you so much Bridgit, and to all our supporters – your help is so very much appreciated.