Friday 19th June 2020
We know from all the calls and messages that you want to know when we will be open. We are hoping this will be sometime mid July, but that depends on future regulation changes. If we opened today the current Covid-19 regulations FORBID our visitors from doing all of the following: pet or touch any of our donkeys or other rescued animals, use outdoor play or indoor play or use the café. So all you would be able to do is just stand outside and look at our animals from a distance!
Providing things move forward and new rules are implemented we will open as soon as we can.
Our Donkeys need your help
Many of you have messaged us in the last few weeks to tell us that the Donkey Park is your favourite place to visit and you cannot wait to come back again, when this crisis is over. We want this too, but we need your help to get there. We have now been told by our insurance broker that the underwriters will not entertain a “Business Interruption” claim from us as in our policy under the list of “Notifiable Diseases” Covid-19 is not listed!
The donkeys now need your help as we are unlikely to be able to welcome you back until maybe sometime in July. Our funds are approaching rock bottom, after the hard wet winter which used up all our available reserves. Normally by now we would have had income from the Easter holidays, which with income from May and June would keep us going to the summer holidays. By next week we are going to need to buy a month’s worth of hay (£500). We also have feed farrier and vet bills to pay plus all the other usual expenses like water, insurance, electricity etc.
Pplease donate if you can, we do understand it may be difficult in these uncertain times.
Tamar Valley Donkey Park & Sanctuary
Wednesday 18th March 2020
Following days and days of deliberation and following the request for social distancing from the PM and HM Government, we have taken the very sad decision to close the Park and Sanctuary to visitors for the foreseeable future.
As a duty of care to our visitors and staff who we value highly, we feel that there was no other decision we could make. Our animal care staff will continue to look after the donkeys and all the other animals until we can open again.
Our family also needs protection as not only are David and Julia both 77 years old this April; we have other “hidden” medical conditions in our family.
Julia, Tamsin and young Bethany have Ankylosing Spondylitis (an autoimmune arthritic condition).
Bethany has just started Biologic treatment which affects her immune system even further.
We plan to keep you all updated via our home and news pages at donkeypark.com as well as our Facebook page Tamar Valley Donkey Park. Lots of photos and videos to look at.
These are very uncertain times ahead. Following an extremely hard winter, finances as always at this time of year are low and we are normally looking forward to a busy Easter to catch up. This obviously is not going to happen this year. If you are able, you can help in one of the following ways:
- Adopt one of our donkeys, via the adoption page on our website
- Donate through PayPal, info@tamardonkeysanctuary.org
- We are also on the TotalGiving website as Tamar Donkey Sanctuary
- If you are shopping on line you can donate by going through the Easyfundraising portal
We hope and pray that it will not be too long before we can welcome you all again.
Stay safe and Best Wishes from David, Julia, Tamsin, David and Bethany xxx
Tamar Valley Donkey Park and Sanctuary. Charity # 1138221
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Aug/Sept 2016
It's nice to know that some of our visitors understand what we are about.
Thank You and big Eeyore from the donkeys
This was posted on Facebook.
"First time we have been there and we had a brilliant time. I think people need to realize that they are a charity and not a fully equipped themed park. The animals obviously come first as all were in fantastic condition, all were friendly and this is obviously due to the care they receive from the staff. Our 18 month old loved learning to feed the goats and donkey's and the inside play area is safe and big enough for tons of fun. The staff were all friendly and helpful, stopping to tell us the names and histories of the animals there. A big thank you for taking these animals in, and long may you continue."
