About Us

About Our Shelter
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Our History

Skibbereen Animal Rescue was founded by Anita Douglass in 1998, starting off at Skeag, between Skibbereen and Ballydehob. Anita acquired the use of the these premises in exchange for looking after and milking a herd of cows.

An animal sanctuary more than an animal rescue centre. Some of the dogs and horses became permanant residents since SARCs inception. Of the dogs normally kept, about half of these would be residents unable to be re homed due to breed, temperament or just bad habits. Most of these animals will spend the rest of their lives with Anita.

Anita has a number of cats most of whom are feral. She manages to re-home many of the tamer cats and kittens but there are those who will always live on the farm. All cats live loose in groups on the farm with free access to the buildings and each group has a special feeding station. There about five groups based on personal preference. The female cats are in charge.

Anita rents a separate piece of land with farm buildings for the horses, ponies and donkeys. In winter the cost of renting the premises and feeding the animals costs approximately €500 for each week.

Horses and donkeys don’t mix

Looking after donkeys is specialised and we currently don’t have the ideal facilities for this. Eg, donkeys need to be indoors all the time in winter because they are not waterproofed and they have a lot of potential foot trouble.  As a matter of some urgency the donkeys need to be re-homed. Very few people want donkeys. We are hoping the Donkey sanctuary will take those remaining.

 

Inspections from the Ministry

Every year SARC is subject to an inspection from the Ministry vet who comes at short notice. He is always amazed and happy to observe how much freedom the horses and dogs have to exercise and play outside their kennels together in harmony. In contrast, most other kennels etc keep their animals well segregated.

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