Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hillside in Crisis http://www.hillside.org.uk/HillsideinCrisis.htm

Hi, for those of you who don't know - this is where Richard and I work. Rich works with the animals at their main sanctuary in Frettenham. And I work seasonally in their vegan cafe at their more visitor-orientated site in West Runton. Hillside is amazing, they not only offer a safe, caring home for hundreds of rescued critters, but they also actively campaign against animal cruelty, especially factory farming and puppy mills, and they promote a cruelty-free lifestyle. The founder, Wendy Valentine is vegan too.

I've known so many of the animals that they care for, both at the Frettenham and West Runton site, for many years, since they were born or even just bumps in their mother's tummy's - I'm scared to think what will happen to them if Hillside doesn't make it. There are so many lives at stake here so please, please give them a little support so they can get through this hard time.



http://www.hillside.org.uk/help.htm

Thank you so so much,
~ Ellie x

fuuuuuuck i feel bad for not having enough money to give.

There are a lot of British and European AR people on veganfitness.net. It might be useful to tell your story there as well. Good Luck.

Just PayPal'ed over a donation, hope it helps a bit!

Thanks dude. Yeah, it's not clear exactly how bad this is going to get. Many people worried for their jobs, but the primary concern is what happens to the animals should the place go under. Running out of money for feeds is worrying, we only have so much hay left, and I don't know when we're meant to get more, or what we'll do when it's out. It's a bit crazy

Just seeing this now......any updates?

I can try to get some funds out too.

Let me know.

Thx.

I really don't know, they management don't talk to us about the financial situation very much, and when they do it's pretty vague.

I'll send a small donation later but it will only be small because money is in short supply in this house.

As a supplement to hay, could you make silage? You could ask local councils to supply you with all their grass cuttings that have come from unsprayed grass. Grass on council-owned land is not sprayed as far as I can tell. It is cut every now and then, and some machines collect the grass. Or the grass could be fed directly to the grass eating species. Or use the grass to make hay because making silage is a rather complicated process.

Perhaps schools and hospitals could supply their leftover meat and greens from the meals they provide. Meat could be kept separate to feed dogs and cats. School children could be rounded up to collect leftover food from their homes and could take it to school.

You might be able to rope in the local scouts and girl guides to collect food or help with the haymaking.

Heye, a quick update...



Thankyou so so much to everyone who has helped, it really does make a difference and thankfully things are now starting to look a bit brighter


Hi MartinVegartin, unfortunately round here there just isn't much grass at all, also, being only just spring, councils aren't cutting it yet. There's also the risk of toxic plants being in the verge cutting too Thankfully, now spring is here there is a bit more grass in the animal's fields so that'll help.


Another good idea in theory Again unfortunately it wouldn't be possible as it is illegal to give waste food like that to the animals. Also the risk of plant-based food being contaminated with meat is too high, the recent outbreaks of mad cow disease a few years back were reported to have been caused by feeding meat to herbivores (which is why it is now illegal). And although I'm sure kids would be very enthusiastic, it'd be a messy, smelly job so parents might not be!

We used to feed the cafe waste food to pigs at an animal attraction I used to work at and every time I'd have to go through the food really carefully by hand and pick out the unsuitable foods and the bits of plastic, napkins, bottle tops, drinking straws etc It took ages and that was just one small bucket load - the quantity of food needed for Hillside would be enormous and it just wouldn't be possible to check it all.

Another point is that because the vast majority of the animals at Hillside are rescues, many are elderly, ill or on special diets for some reason, they need a correctly balanced and tailored feed. They may become really ill if given human food waste. Hillside are a farm animal rescue, they can't take in cats so most of the animals are primarily grazers or browsers so human food waste wouldn't be suitable anyway Aaaagh it really is such a shame as the amount of food our society throws away is staggeringly wasteful


Bet they would love it too but again, sadly this wouldn't be possibly either Hillside don't grow their own hay as all the land is used for the animal enclosures and grazing, plus hay making round here is done by combine harvester by the farms themselves. Thankyou so much for your suggestions though

It's not that there is a shortage of feed, hay, medicine etc, it's that Hillside have been so hard hit by the recession, the rise in feed prices and the large number of animals that have recently come in their care, that they are running low on funds to buy the supplies. So the best way for anyone who wants to help is to donate a little money, that way Hillside can buy the correct feeds, hay, medicines etc that the animals need

They have lots of lovely gifts, animal sponsorships etc too http://www.hillside.org.uk/acatalog/index.html so I've been buying stuff from Hillside for birthdays, Christmas etc, it's a great way to help.

But.....on the plus side things are looking a bit brighter, now the tourist season is starting the sanctuaries are opening up to visitors again so that's a little bit of income

Also some very cute news - a rescued muntjack deer that was brought to the sanctuary after being hit by a car has not only made a full recovery, but gave birth to a very healthy and bouncy fawn the other night! It is so cute! I saw it bouncing about like a rabbit, it's not much bigger than a rabbit actually either! And we have the first piglets born at the sanctuary since it was founded 16 years ago. Most pigs that come in are farm rescues of pets, not breeding sows but lucky Annabel was saved along with her partner Tom from slaughter. She has had nine of the cutest little piglets ever!

This is Hillside's Youtube channel where they have lots of videos of the animals around the sanctuary, recent rescued and undercover investigations into the cruelties of farming etc if anyone is interested in fining out more about them http://www.youtube.com/user/HillsideAdoptAnimals

Thank you all so much again!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Hillside-Animal-Sanctuary/135561519840094

I hope more money comes in soon. It's a pity there isn't some well known person who can auction one of their daft hats.

If I wasnt unemployed right now, I would donate for sure.

Oh some news just makes me grumpy. That story DEFINITELY qualifies.