The animals are all at the new location, safe and sound. We had 4 weeks to run back and forth to take down fencing and caging material before the new owners took possession. In the end, we wound up short of help and ran out of time….
It seems a shame that with as many fantastic volunteers as we had to help us prepare for the move and then to accomplish the move itself, too many people had family emergencies at one time. We ran out of time and the new owners were completely inflexible about allowing us an extension of time to get our things.
[pullquote align=”left|center|right” textalign=”left|center|right” width=”30%”]We lost $50,000 in caging and fencing, a huge amount of building materials, most of the animals’ toys and heaters, a storage shed, many of our yard tools, and an RV and a 34′ yacht that we were selling to help buy more materials.[/pullquote]
Two regular volunteers had deaths in their families, two others had family medical emergencies. To make it worse, the sanctuary’s co-founder, Kurt, suddenly had heart problems and wound up in the emergency room three times during the first three weeks. He was unable to make the drive to go down and collect materials, and he was the primary organizer for that effort. (he is much better now)
Now, instead of having the materials on hand to immediately expand the animal habitats to the acreage sized they have grown accustomed to, we need to purchase new materials and start over.
In addition to the caging and fencing we need to buy, we need to build their platforms and dens again, buy new toys and heaters and find a shed to store things in before everything is ruined by rain.
We can do this! We are already well into the construction and although we don’t receive funding from the government, we have learned that animal lovers stick together. We have faith in our new community and all of our supporters; we know this will work out like everything else has.
For now, the animals are in secure but comparatively small habitats. These habitats are still larger than they had before they were rescued, but nothing near the acreage they had grown accustomed to at our old location.
It won’t be long and they will have the space they deserve. Once they are comfortable again, we will be able to rescue more animals and give guided tours of the sanctuary to our supporters, but the comfort of the animals in our care needs to come first.
There are many ways you can help us reach our goal:
– Donate an item from our wish list
– Make a monetary gift to help pay for special-order materials
– Volunteer your time (18 and older only)
– Help spread the word to others
If we all stick together, we can show the stingy new owners of our old property that we didn’t miss a beat. The animals will have their comfortable homes again with plenty of gifts from all of their friends.
Will you help us?
SO annoyed to read this! I can’t believe how insensitive people can be and wish I was there to help… keeping my fingers crossed for you! x
What a tremendous achievement in the face of adversity! We were that side of the pond in April and made sure our Stateside visit included Forest Animal Rescue. So impressed with what has been achieved in the new location. Lisa and Kurt certainly raised my spirits! Tremendous. Yes we loved Peace River but this move has to be for the better.
Legally, they could not have kept your things. and if they sell any of those items they are liable to you for the monies. Just because they owned or took possession of the property does not allow them ownership of other items unless specified in the legal agreement. For example, if you own a house and sell it – you must move the items that are not yours into storage. You cannot sell property that is not yours. If you take ownership of a restaurant and “keep” items from the original owners not specified in the legal agreement you must, by law, store them, albeit at the original owner’s expense – but you cannot keep or sell them. You have a legal issue here.
I know you are technically right – but we consulted with an attorney and it would be a long drawn out legal battle. By the time we would finally have it settled it would have already been necessary to purchase new materials to properly house the animals. For the length of time it would take, the legal and ‘storage’ costs would pile up to the point that it wouldn’t be much benefit in the end. There are also lots of politics in a very small town to consider, too much to write here.
Everything will work out in the end – we’re just going to focus on the benefits of the move and concentrate on getting the animals set up comfortably as quickly as possible. This move is the best thing that could happen for the animals and we won’t let this setback slow us down.