Their last days - unless we raise the funds needed

Friends,

Absolutely BEYOND URGENT.

Please, please help Heartstone Sanctuary.

We have literally no time left!!!

Update from Nía at Heartstone (May 2, 2024):

Hi everyone,

I have to rush writing this, much too late already since I had to unload another 130 hay bales this morning (which will last 11 days).

But, I need to update y'all, and I don't even want to, because things are always getting more and more complicated, and time of course has long run out. To still attempt relocation within the time we have left borders insanity, but you will all agree there is no other option.

The farm we have been fundraising for is completely out of reach thanks to the last minute bidding war the other parties have started. All the special arrangements and possibilities out the window in the face of more money. But, I guess we need not be surprised that (ex) farmers are not sympathetic enough to forsake money for the sake of rescuing animals, and/or taking the farm out of animal agriculture.

With that gone, and yet another one fallen through we have been scrambling to make possible the last few days, there is, once again, one tiny last hope: a property I was very fond of in the past but that had been sold - or so we thought - has been put back on the market. It is still out of reach with the money we already have - in the fundraisers and what kind private donors have promised - but much more affordable now than the farm you have seen in the photos.

The place doesn't have any human accommodation for either volunteers or me, not enough land in the long term, and the location is far from ideal, too, but the setup would provide the lifeline we so desperately need. With all the funds we hopefully have available, we would be back to needing another 150k, roughly - no price has been agreed upon yet - to make that work.

Do you think you can find it within you to try one last time? I can't promise it will still be possible, but I found a solicitor who's willing to push it all through in the time we have, and the setup allows for a very quick changeover and immediate possession.

I am aware it seems, for a long time, like magically a little more time and just one more property show up when the time has run out, but that's not magic or falsities, it's simply due to a small handful of people refusing to stop fighting. Will you help us?

Update from Nía at Heartstone, April 28, 2024:

Hi everyone,

Tomorrow (Monday, April 29), 5pm Irish time/12pm EST is closing time for the sale of the property I have put an offer on - the last and only half-suitable farm available - and a new bidder has emerged yesterday, pushing the price above the original asking price. As a result, we now still need to raise nearly 200k EUR, on top of what has been raised already - by tomorrow.

Otherwise, the farm pictured in the last photo, the last and only half-suitable property available, will be sold to someone else, and it is too late to relocate before the deadline I mentioned below is reached. This would be the end of Heartstone, and the gang.

You might imagine the despair I am writing this in. Please help. Please.

Please, please, please be so kind to spread this fundraiser as far and wide as possible; please give what you can, if you can; and please be so kind to reach out to anyone you can think of who might be in a position to help us make up the remainder of the needed funds.

Please do whatever you can to make it happen. We must believe in miracles - as magical as they are, they still require humans to do whatever is in their power. Thank you so much!

UPDATE from Heartstone (April 7, 2024);

Hi everyone,

As you can see, this fundraiser has not been able to raise remotely the money needed to buy a suitable place that Heartstone could realistically relocate to. At least not yet.

Another winter is nearly over, and we are struggling, but still alive. Under regular circumstances a time for the worry and tension to ease up a little, to feel some relief we somehow got through the winter and there is hope we might be able to relocate before the next one hits or a storm will finally bring the remaining infrastructure down.

However, additional circumstances are now imminently putting the cows' lives in danger. Laws, focusing on the protection of the animal product loving consumer, apply to farmed animal sanctuaries, too. The literal deadline for that has already passed; the sanctuary got an extension, but only for a few very short weeks. These weeks are now the last and final chance to relocate; no other option would solve the problem. In fact, there is no other option that would not mean the immediate destruction of the whole herd. Being considered a part of animal agriculture, in legal terms, comes with its own set of rules, despite they will of course never enter the so-called food chain. And it is also one of the reasons caring for cows is not remotely the same as rescuing companion animals, horses, or even pigs or sheep. They are the most highly regulated species of domestic animals.

But, there is a glimpse of hope left: we finally found a farm that fulfills the most basic requirements for a place that we could realistically relocate to. It has sufficient land and shelter space, the yard and sheds are solid and able to withstand the weight and impact of fully-grown cows, and it has the infrastructure required for keeping cows (and sheep and ponies). And, a very good price (and urgency) make it the last hope, the last and only option. The now-or-never chance. We need to make this happen.

It will hopefully save the lives of the current gang, and allow for many more in need to find a safe space to live a life worth living, as free as possible. After all, the need for sanctuary space for cows is exorbitant in Ireland; there is only one vegan sanctuary with a handful of cows, and no place to go for the many cows and calves on the waiting list, and the ones both of our places constantly get asked to save from slaughter. Please help. Please donate as much as you can, if you at all can. Please share this fundraiser as far as wide as you can, as often as you can, and specifically try to share the details and reach out to anyone who might be in a position to help with a larger sum that will get us closer to safety in the short time frame we have left.

Thank you so much!

P.S. The last photo is one image of the the premises we are hoping to move to.

(Below are the original details from the fundraiser, which still stand, but I've added the current update from Heartstone above.)

This is not a drill. I know this is a massive amount of money. Especially to be able to fundraise in literally a few days. (But there might also be some people who have larger funds available to them to help save Heartstone--Please please help us reach them too! Ask them to donate too. Please!)

But, these are literally some of the last pictures that will exist of the gang if we aren't able to come up with funds to move in the next several days, as they are up against a deadline that the sanctuary has no control over, and no control over what will happen to them. (Please note: the deadline is not about animal welfare concerns.)

This is totally out of the sanctuary's control; the literally only way for them to be saved is to secure funds and purchase a property before the end of the week, that has cattle handling facilities, sheds, and land (or, alternatively, a suitable property with sheds and cattle handling facilities (and land) be donated to Heartstone).

I wish so much that this were an exaggeration of the situation, but unfortunately it is not. Lives are literally, imminently, at stake.

As many of you know, Heartstone has also been up against a deadline (not set by the sanctuary), and it was essential that the sanctuary relocate before the deadline. The deadline has now passed, without being able to secure enough funds to move (despite immense effort) and everyone is now in absolutely unquestionably imminent danger.

Heartstone has been struggling and desperate to relocate for quite some time (as many of you are probably aware) as the situation has been becoming ever more desperate by the day. The sanctuary urgently needs to move because of the severe flooding conditions on the farm which have resulted in sheds and useable ground breaking up, making the conditions and the work impossible and situation unliveable for everyone.

Heartstone has been fundraising for over 2 years for a new property, and every avenue has been tried as far as other options for the gang to go to. There are none. All options have been explored and exhausted. Heartstone is the only sanctuary in the whole country that has provided safety for a large number of cows; in fact, there are only known to be THREE other cows in the whole country in sanctuary (and that sanctuary is not taking in more). There is nowhere else for the cows to go, no other sanctuary or private home for them to go to. Either Heartstone secures a new property immediately, or these are the cows' last days (again, not by Heartstone's choice, and against Heartstone's will).

Through some miracle (and huge amounts of enquiries) we have been made aware of a property that while not perfect, will at least suit enough to save the gang and give them a chance at a future.

We have scoured properties for months, only to have suitable ones snatched from under our noses because we didn't have the funds.

It is D-day now, there is no time left. We have pared down what is required for a property to the absolute minimum, compromising on the amount of land needed (even though more is really needed), there are literally zero properties on the market that meet even the pared-down requirements. The fact this one has become available is something of a miracle in itself.

Angel and Bailey, Ernie and Samira, Stevie, Saffie, Ivy and Baby Boris, and all the others who have found sanctuary at Heartstone--they have only us. With galactic amounts of luck we may have a last chance to save them but there are only days left.

Please, please, can we pull together as a community and save the gang? Before it is too late? (As it is very, very nearly so already). Every donation helps.

Thank you so much.

(And please, please share with anyone you know who might be able to help, especially those who might have the resources to donate larger sums.)

(More info about Heartstone, and pics, can be found on their social media pages; the links can be found here https://linktr.ee/heartstonesanctuary )

*fundraiser written by me, Kay, a supporter, on behalf of the needs of Heartstone

**if this property is sold before we can secure it but another suitable one miraculously becomes available, funds will be used for whichever suitable property we can secure.