Hi all, well, over 2 years in and we have yet to have donated to anything animal related! I guess we should rectify that, right? These two lovely people that run the Viaduct Sanctuary do almost exclusively at their own cost and have put the rescue and nurturing of animals in danger or have suffered above their own self interest. We at 500 Reasons HQ find that both humbling and utterly commendable. We hope that our £500 both allows them to continue their selfless work but also to let them know that their wonderful work is being seen and our support I’m sure will be as valuable to these lovely people as our cash. All the best you lovely lot x
Hello Admins!
I would like to Nominate a small local charity close to me in Bristol- The Viaduct Animal sanctuary.
I met Sara and Ade, the couple who run it, a few years ago when I responded to a Facebook plea for people to foster turtles and snakes until permenant homes could be found.
They are a couple of animal lovers who started taking in stray or uncared for animals and it sort of got out of hand and they now run an animal sanctuary in a field and terrapin they have had to rent to accommodate the animals.
They are well known locally for taking in animals of all kinds- no animal gets turned away, day or night.
They have meerkats, ostrich, endless amounts of turtles, tortoise and snakes, goats, small monkeys, birds- almost anything you can think of!!
They receive NO FUNDING at all, they run the sanctuary on their own wages - each working a part time ‘proper’ job else where.
They pay for all food and accommodation - (often building ‘monkey houses’ in 24hrs, to home animals in desperate need etc )themselves with their own money and more importantly- vet bills!!
Almost every animal that comes to them has to have emergency vet care and we all know what that costs!!!
They have been open to the public as a very basic but amazing place to visit for a couple of years and charge an entrance fee of £1.50 towards costs, that’s it!! They also offer voluntary positions for people with mental health issues and kids in trouble.
They do open days and constant raffles to raise funds on days like today- After this month taking in a lamb that had a horrendous head injury- they have bottle fed it through the night in their home to keep it alive and paid out hundreds of pounds on his vet bills alone but it now looks like ‘Darwin’ the lamb is going to make it.
Tonight I looked on my Facebook and saw a post of her raffling off a Yankee candle to get £25 towards ‘vomit enducing’ vet bills for a sick turtle they’ve taken in tonight.
£500 is a huge amount of money to them and would ease their financial burden massively!!!
They are the nicest people you could ever wish to meet and after talking to them for a short time they make you realise how selfless and amazing many of the people we live amongst are.
I would love to help them out.
A lot of the hurdle with fundraising is that there are always people ill, dying or facing horrendous situations that over shadow a lamb with a head injury or an malnourished monkey etc.
Animals are so important and so is the service they provide to all the animals let down by humans!
Also they are two people breaking their necks to fund this themselves and I’d love to help them out and cut them a break xx
I really hope you can see the importance of it-
Also I don’t think we’ve donated to animals before...?!
(Yes I am playing that card 🤣)