Sinking vegan sanctuary seeks donations to help pay for emergency relocation

A sinking vegan sanctuary in Ireland is urgently seeking donations to help pay for an emergency relocation. 

Located in Co Sligo, Heartstone Veganic Sanctuary is a veganic (vegan organic) animal sanctuary providing rescued animals with "a peaceful refuge to live out their lives loved and cherished". 

However, the safe haven is reportedly on the brink of collapse, primarily due to water logged land. 

Heartstone operator, Nía Ní Gréine, has created a Chuffed.org fundraiser to raise money for the purchase of another plot of land to relocate to.

Although the fundraiser has amassed over €35,000 so far, there is a long way to go. 

According to Ní Gréine's fundraising page, finding an appropriate property has proven difficult, with prices continuing to skyrocket. 

She wrote: "Please support Heartstone and this fundraiser if you can; please share, and forward it to anyone who might be able to help; especially philanthropists, donor syndicates, or other groups or individuals who might appreciate the unique holistic and intergrated concept behind Heartstone - to my knowledge also the only vegan organic sanctuary in the world - and who might also be in the position to help out with a larger sum.

"Given the disastrous situation at the current Heartstone farm and the developments on the property market, the clock is very much ticking!" 

In a post published to Heartstone's Facebook page yesterday (January 16), Ní Gréine stated: "I hope you are all warm and safe. It's snowing/sleeting... the weather is terrible. Anyone else having to work outside 12 hours non-stop without a chance to even warm up? Yep, nice. And for the gang of course it is horrible, too. It doesn't get much worse than cold and wet at the same time." 

The post was accompanied by pictures of rescued animals basking under heat lamps, which Ní Gréine clarifies are only on "for a little while" so they can dry off and warm up. 

She continued: "I will spare you the details about how everyone is - nothing matters but to find a sponsor or raise the funds for a new place so that we can move before March (if we're still alive). I know I have been vague and have to be; a friend and myself have frantically been working the last few weeks to find and organise a place for someone to buy so that everything would be set up and ready to move in - supply chains, volunteers, you name it - and then it fell through. 

"Then, another opportunity presented itself, even more less ideal, but possibly doable - and fell through this morning again. And of course, all of this effort has cost the time to do anything else in the few minutes I can make in a day, like finding another funder or trying to raise the funds by means of donations, or even get back to people who have contacted me.

"My email, message and comment backlog must be in the hundreds by now - please don't take it personally if I haven't seen/replied to your attempt to talk to me. After 16 or more hours of work there is simply no time left for messages, phone calls, or anything else but, if the connection allows, a quick post.

"And thus I'll leave it at that. Please take good care of yourselves and all you are able to; be warm, be safe, and do whatever you can to keep this planet liveable for humanity and all other sentient species. And, if you at all can, please keep supporting Heartstone since the donations for regular expenses have dropped to near-zero and the bills are already piling up again. Thank you!" 

If you would like to help the sanctuary by making a donation, click here.