insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 23 - January 2017 | Page 90

CHARITY

CHARITY PROFILE:

HOLBROOK ANIMAL RESCUE
Based in Horsham, Holbrook Animal Rescue aims to rehome all abandoned and unwanted
animals, many of whom are on their last chance of finding a loving home. We spoke to Laura at
the rescue about Holbrook’s plans and why the work they do is so valuable. BY LISAMARIE LAMB
Hi Laura, can you tell me a bit more
about Holbrook?
We are a family-run animal sanctuary that,
with the help of some wonderful volunteers,
comes to the rescue of animals that need us.
We work hard outside the sanctuary to earn
enough money to keep things going here
and about 20 per cent of our funding comes
from donations.
Our animals can come from anywhere –
the UK and abroad – as we feel that every
animal deserves a chance to feel loved. This
work is so important as without help, many
dogs, cats and other animals would have to
be put to sleep.

When was the charity set up?
We started up about 24 years ago, helping
mostly horses, but over the years we have
swung more towards dogs, cats, rabbits
and other animals. There is no set number
of animals that we rehome – last week for
example, it was six caged birds, two cats and
four dogs; this week, three dogs, two rabbits,
and one cat.

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When are you most busy?

Any memorable stories?

December and January can be very busy
months, but to be honest, we don’t usually
have quiet times. Ideally, a few more hours
in each day would be handy! Every week is
different and it can be a bit slow sometimes
as we take in animals with tricky problems
like feral cats and dogs with behavioural
problems that need to be addressed slowly.
We also often need to neuter and vaccinate
animals before they can be re homed, so
this takes time too.

One story that sticks in my mind was
concerning three rabbits that a lady contacted
us about. She emailed on a Friday to say
she could not afford to feed her rabbits, so I
offered her a sack of food, but she said she
wanted to get rid of them as she did not have
the time for them. I asked her for her address
to pick them up and waited for a reply, which
I didn’t get. So, I contacted her again to get her
address and she told me one had already died!
Once I had her address, I went straight round
with my mother to collect them, but there was
no response. I could see the rabbits over the
fence, so I climbed over to see their condition.
I was shocked to see the dead one was still
in the hutch with the other two rabbits who
had no food, no water and no bedding, so I
handed both surviving rabbits over the high
fence to my mother. The shocking thing was
that there was foot-high grass and dandelions
in the lady's front garden, so there was no
excuse for letting them starve.

Do you take in any animal?
We try to help any animal that is desperate,
and because of this we have two resident
sheep, two pigs, and a handful of cockerels
and chickens! These animals are hard
to rehome, as are dogs with behaviour
problems. We also put a lot of animals onto
our website for owners that cannot cope or
keep them – we do home checks, organise
homes and, if we are lucky, can do all this
without the animals having to come in here
at all.

Both rabbits we saved were skeletal and it
took weeks to get them back to fitness, but
at last they found loving new homes, which
they thoroughly deserved.