First of all thank you guys very much for the response to the calendars and Christmas adoption appeal, it really helped get us through December and the beginning of January, but unfortunately things are still very quiet!
In December we took steps to reduce our costs by re-homing 6 animals, 5 went to live on a huge farm in Huelva. There new owners are a retired vet and her Husband. So Sevilano, Espanyola, Paloma; David and Platero went there. Then Ginny who gave birth to Ozzie in March 2012 went to a local home after her foal had been weaned.
This helped a little as it has reduced our monthly feed bill, and a lovely lady donated the money for a 6 week supply of Hay and a months rent. So just as we thought things where getting better we had some news from the town hall!
Well 2012 ended with a surprise, we have finally been told officially by the town hall of Nerja that we are not going to be given the right permissions to stay in our current location!
So after a few panicked weeks and sleepless nights, we have come to an agreement we will start looking for an appropriate piece of land more that 500 meters from the town which is the legal requirement and we will apply for all the appropriate licenses, which means we will be able to sell merchandise provide horse rides out, pony club and many more activities and in return they will leave us in peace until an appropriate area can be sought out and prepared which could take anywhere from 6 months to 18 months. At this moment in time i submitted the first requirements for a piece of land behind Lidls Supermarket, 3 weeks ago and i still haven’t had a response!
So we can only move as fast as Spanish bureaucrats allow!
The Next Step
As Harriet has been struggling to get everything done all by herself we now have a committee. So we have new people and existing volunteers helping with admin and marketing, as well as a fund-raising committee to try and raise funds for the impending move.
But times are hard and due to the increase in Spanish tax I.V.A we are really struggling. To try and increase or online adoptions and regular giving we are building a new website! Same address but a lot more interactive, we will also be selling ad space on the site and you will be able to adopt any of our long term residents! We are hoping to go live on 1st March 2013!
We do still need more regular giving at the moment we have around 400 Euros monthly giving our running costs are 4000 Euros a month!
We are appealing to people to organise there own fund-raisers maybe sponsored walk or school own clothes day for any more info or sponsorship forms please email harriet@donkeyaid.com
To end the news on a happy note, some of you may remember Rosie a 30 year old horse we rescued on 31st December 2011, the poor thing was skin and bones and was suffering from colic due to eating the ground as she wasn’t getting enough nutrients!
Well now Rosie is around 250 kgs heavier and loving her new curves!
When She came to us on 31st December 2011, She was in a dreadful state, as she had no teeth to chew! Rosie is a prime example of why we will not put an animal that has a chance a life down
For more information on the Donkey Sanctuary and a link to the website, see this page.
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