Dear Friends & Supporters

We hope you are in good health as we continue to work forward with the current issues of COVID-19 which were unprecedented and difficult times for us all.

Having closed the Sanctuary to the public for two months we were delighted that in mid May we were able to open our doors again on an appointment based system and then finally at the beginning of July we were able to open to the public again albeit with restricted times.

Many challenges were faced by us all but thankfully we were able to assist the cats and dogs who needed to be relinquished to us by their owners and have been busy rehoming; this year to date we have successfully rehomed 144 dogs and 156 cats which I am sure you will agree is fab news!

Our work continues however allowing for all the restrictions in place it is unlikely that any fundraising activities will take place in the foreseeable future. We will however continue to interact via our social media outlets and with some virtual activities, including our Paws for a Picture Competition

We had the good fortune to hold our ‘Strictly for Strays’ event just before lockdown on Saturday 7th March. This was the most successful fundraising event we have held in a number of years with a profit of almost £15k being raised and was particularly beneficially in offsetting for the lack of income we experienced during the following number of months. We cannot thank those volunteers enough for taking part and for their commitment and enthusiasm; this together with the support of our sponsors made it a night to remember.

The development of our piece of land to the rear of our current premises continues and as we await planning permission we are all extremely excited about the benefits this development will bring to our dogs on a daily basis. We’ll keep you posted on the progress over the next number of months.

We were thrilled to open our second charity shop in Larne however with COVID-19 we had to close the doors again both at this store and our shop in Antrim. Now both are up and running again – should anyone wish to volunteer in either shop then please do get in touch.

We will be ready for the new normal, whatever that brings, and this is due to the AMAZING support we receive from yourselves.

We hope you enjoy our latest newsletter and please take care and stay safe!

Best wishes

From all at Mid Antrim Animal Sanctuary