This article isn’t all about cats although of course as always, Kays Hill is overflowing with cats and kittens at present. But it does affect cats, because Kevin has to find the money for the following licences he has been told he must have.
The more money handed over for these bits of official paper the less to spend on the animals and the less number of animals they can help at Kays Hill. But he has no choice.
- A Pet Shop licence – So that the public can be allowed onto the Sanctuary site more than 7 days in a year.
This one also covers asking for donations, such as at the forthcoming Halloween Party to raise funds, admission is free but donations are welcome. It will also cover the sale of pet carriers, litter trays, etc. - A performing animal licence – To enable Kays Hill volunteers to go into schools and to fund raising events and fetes, with animals allowed out of their travelling cage in public.
- A falconry licence – To enable them to take a bird out of its flight in an area the public may have access to.
- A vehicle licence – For transporting any animal around, be it to the vets, to events, or to collect when rescuing.
Each of these licences cost £100 (160 dollars) plus vets fees!
It’s almost as if DEFRA want to make it harder, if not impossible, for Animal Sanctuaries to continue rescuing and caring for needy animals and to raise money to keep going. Also to do the very important work of educating people, especially children, as to the right way to treat animals.
Many animals and birds live unhappy lives or are abandoned simply because of people not knowing how to care for them properly. Being able to reach out to children at schools and at events is very important to the future animals in the care of those children. Also children are very good at educating their parents too.
We visited Kays Hill the other day with some cat food we had for them and as always, Kevin, Leanne and Dan were hard at work, they and their volunteers put in long hours and with winter coming on it’s not at all pleasant working outdoors most of the time.
Bureaucrats sitting in their cosy offices don’t care about that, they just come up with more ideas to get money out of Sanctuaries like Kays Hill, knowing they will have no choice but to find it somehow.
It’s not so long since Kevin was ordered to put fences up between different species, thankfully in the recent gale force winds only one and a shed blew down.
Those people sitting in their offices making costly rules and regulations have no idea what hard work and worry is, I think they should spend a day at an Animal Sanctuary and find out.
Another of your eloquent essays, Ruthie! One that raises questions.
The Kay’s Hill staff are working themselves into the ground trying to help unwanted animals. Measured against their dedication, what benefits are these fists-in-your-pocket ‘crats conferring on the commonwealth?
What service are they rendering? Or are they only meeting the costs of upkeep? Third option: do these license fees represent a smoldering, mass-euthanasia agenda?
With their manicured nails, petal-soft hands and ergonomic, buttocks-caressing swivel chairs, have these officials contributed to the Kay’s Hill endeavor? Or has it been funded by volunteers who drop off cans of food at Babz’s office, by troopers such as you and your sister who organize fund-raising events to bring in a few more donations?
If this isn’t naïve, a monetary transaction is a tradeoff – is it not? – of goods or services for currency. That being so, what goods or services does K.H. receive in return for being dunned with these fees? Or are the fees compensation KH owes for the world of hurt it’s caused the community?
(1) Is the ‘Pet Shop License’ repayment to the townships for losses sustained when KH is open to the public more than one week a year? If so, what is the nature of these losses? If they aren’t tangible, are they abstract? On second thought, were the three or four chairs, coffee & tea and cookies the Trap? So far from helping the animals, were these small refreshments a money-making scheme instigated to feather with mountains of goose-down the nests of Kevin, Leanne and their assistant?
(2) Does the ‘Performing Animal’ license cover the janitorial costs of cleaning up poo left behind in the school and at other locations? Do the KH staff and its charges cause still more mind-numbing damage to such premises and fairgrounds?
(3) What is the ‘Falconry License?’ Is it a fee to restore private property trampled by visitors?
(4) What is the special ‘Vehicle License?’ Aren’t vehicles already licensed in the UK? What convoluted logic justifies a SECOND license levied on a van carrying ill or rescued animals? Are these passengers so cumbersome, the wheels of the van crush the asphalt? Does this fee pay for filling in potholes gouged in the roads by Kevin in his Enemy of the People commutes?
Is there only one explanation? Do these fees reflect the wanton destruction Kay’s Hill inflicts, blow after blow, on the public weal?
There’s a saying reminiscent of what you describe in your essay, Ruthie: ‘If you could sell excrement, poor people wouldn’t have a******s.’
I had to read your comment twice before Babz and I decided it was just irony and you were not getting at the hard working caring Kevin, Leanne and Dan who work from dawn until late night, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, caring for 300 + animals and birds. Their volunteers too work with enthusiasm and with love for the creatures they help care for. I already said this area would be a terrible place for the unwanted, some abused creatures if Kays Hill was not there. The licences are truly necessary for the Sanctuary to do a good job. No healthy animal or bird is killed there, if they can’t be rehomed, they stay there for life. RSPCA reports say the North East is one of the worst areas for cruelty to animals, so education by Kevin and their crew is desperately needed and Babz and I fully support they need those licences to be able to do a good job. Another thing is that if Kevin didn’t comply, those bureaucrats would be on the look out to swoop on anything they could. A few weeks ago they were fund raising in a supermarket car park with one quiet well behaved goat, we called to see them, people were admiring the goat and giving a donation. Along came an ordinary looking man with a shopping bag, oh but he was someone official and made them take the creature back to Kays Hill because they hadn’t got the bit of paper needed.
As I already said, it’s as if those people think up things to make the hard work and worry of keeping a Sanctuary afloat even harder and that makes me feel very annoyed and more determined than ever to help them when we can.
It gets from bad to worse for compassionate animal rescues.
These licenses are mandatory?
It says a lot that they stay so positive considering all that happens to them. They have had more than their share of hard times and tragedies.
I admire so much.
Without these licences they’d be very restricted as to what they could do, so even if not mandatory, they are for the good of the Sanctuary.
They have come on so much from when we first met Kevin, it must be around 10 years ago now and have survived through all sorts of hardships!
They never turn a desperately needy animal away and every single one is loved and cared for and they somehow find wonderful homes for the ones who can be rehomed. The unrehomable ones staying there for ever look very content and happy.
I really don’t know what we would do in this area without Kays Hill.
It’s a shame that they have no luck because they’re such genuinely nice and kind hearted people who only want to help the animals, they seem to have been bogged down by red tape for years and just as it seems they’re making headway along comes some more rules and restrictions. But they will carry on as they always do, fundraising and caring for the animals that no-one else wants, I don’t know how they keep it up, from early morning till late at night in all weathers and still cheerful!
Further troubles, Kays Hill was hit by a storm last night which has devastated the Halloween Party preparations…..but as Kevin says
‘The show will go on’
We can only admire him.
this pic shows the second time the gazebo up-ended. we had already got it back onto its feet when the wind caught it again and as you can see i’m climbing under it and you can just see dans feet as we are going to lift it up and start putting it back together again!! by the time we were finished there was so much ‘duck tape’ bamboo rods and who knows what else holding it together we decided that if it went again it would have to stay over!!!!! however it stayed up and the party seems to have gone well. we had a ghost walk with me telling the tales of our meetings with spooks on site, and a few scares on the way, thanks to dan, dressed as a zombie hiding in a chicken pen and Helen, dressed as a long dead miner standing in a corner staring intently at visitors. it was all fun and im sure the screams could be heard in west Auckland. haha. we had games for the bairns and a fancy dress competition with very good prizes donated by jan, who also organised and ran the games all night. all in all it was a fun night after a VERY stressful day. after it was finally all over and the last visitor left at about 11.30 last night we went round the animals to make sure they were all well and the day finally came to an end sometime after midnight. people are now asking us to do another party for Christmas. I think I may hibernate instead. if anyone would be interested I could ask kevin to put some photos on of the Halloween party.
Oh dear thats sad to hear 🙁 It seems to happen everywhere these days. Sad for the Cats. 🙁
This is depressing but it is inline with what we hear about businesses in the UK being bogged down by bureaucratic regulations, some or a lot of which stem from European Union membership.
Everyone knows that red tape needs to be reduced to allow businesses and charities to flourish.
I am saddened to read about this.