An animal rescue organization that takes in senior and special needs animals is now hoping for some help from the public.
SANITS Rescue in Mission, B.C., has more than 100 animals, from dogs and cats to pigs, cows and goats who are all seniors with special needs.
One of the residents is a 24-year-old blind horse named Annabelle.
“She had a painful condition in her eyes called uveitis and her owners knew it would be unfair to board a blind horse, so they were looking for a sanctuary for her,” Ali Schumann, SAINTS barn supervisor, told Global News.
Most of the animals come to SAINTS for palliative care.
“She mapped things out,” Schumann said of Annabelle.
“She can walk any area that we have here that she’s been introduced to. And she navigates it like a pro. She doesn’t bump into anything. She can run through trees. She’s amazing.”
For almost two decades, SAINTS has operated out of a small converted house, but a new home is on the horizon as the rescue organization has purchased a larger property in Maple Ridge.
“We wanted to have better facilities, better medical facilities,” Schumann said.
“And more room for the animals so that they can have a better environment and we can just provide better lives for them, take better care of them.”
The non-profit relies entirely on donations and has launched a fundraising campaign to cover the relocation and construction.
They have raised $830,000 so far, but they need more than $1 million.
The move has not been scheduled yet as the animals need extra support during the transition.
“There’s definitely a lot of planning that’s going to come into moving the animals,” Schumann said.
“They’ll be moved within their social groups. There’ll be a lot of thought in making sure that their routines stay exactly the same, that we use, especially when it comes to Annabelle, we’ll be using like sensory items.”
Sanctuary manager, Nathan Wagstaffe, said the work that they do is so important as it provides homes to animals when seemingly no one wants them.
“SAINTS is incredibly important in what we do and very specialized as well in what we do,” he said.
“We take animals that are unadoptable or have severe medical or challenges and we give them that support.”