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.
your getting confused in your old age mr. plummer. Ollie was about 10yrs when she came to us so will now be about 13 yrs. I agree she is a total sweetie though.
OMG IM GONNA KILL HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I totally agree with Michaels comment on cat behaviour we find when cats come into rescue already labelled by previous owners, their behaviour and temperament does change dramatically once they settle into a safe environment and a steady routine as most cats are creatures of habit we find cats can tell the time better than us, this is also why we try and keep the same volunteers feeding and cleaning cats as something as simple as a strange volunteers that smells of the wrong perfume or their own cats can have a dramatic effect on a unstable resident and knock them back even set them off spraying in their pens
Ollie sounds beautiful. Gentle, loving character.
Also Kevin when a cat behaves “badly” it is not the cat who is behaving badly but the person who is making the cat anxious and defensive. Almost all bad cat behaviour is related to bad human behaviour in one way or another.
It’s sickening the stories people make up to get rid of cats and it’s a sort of blackmail too, like with Ollie ‘If you don’t take her in she’ll be put to sleep’
He’d probably have dumped her somewhere if the truth was known rather than paid a vet’s bill.
Anyway she’s obviously happy at Kays Hill with her job as feline receptionist and who can blame her for fancying a rabbit for her lunch sometimes after the life she had before she came to you 😉
Ollie is a beautiful loving friendly cat you could not wish for a gentler nature and she adores every new visitor to kays hill but her past is very shady she was brought to us by a guy saying she was so nasty he could not keep her it belonged his new girlfriend and hated his dog no good with his kids, if we did not take it, it was going to be put to sleep well we thought it must be a mountain lion the way this guy described her yet we felt so sorry for her as she has a damaged eye and metal plates in her leg from an old road injury so I agreed she could hopefully join our feral cats here well within hours we could see this is no bad cat she was a sweet baby and has been ever since it just goes to show people will tell you any old lie if they don’t want an animal any longer we don’t know her age for definite but she is around ten years at a guess and is beautiful we love her so much even when she brings back a wild rabbit for lunch but hey ho that’s nature for you cruel sometimes