Swindon & District Animal Haven exposed for neglect and cruelty of animals
WARNing | 08.12.2007 17:28 | Animal Liberation
Swindon, Wiltshire, UK - Activists from Gloucestershire Animal Action and the Western Animal Rights Network were alerted by a tip of from a volunteer of Swindon & District Animal Haven in early November and were invited to film early morning on the 26th November 2007 by the volunteer who wanted us to gather evidence which she hoped would close the “sanctuary”...
Swindon & District Animal Haven exposed for neglect and cruelty of animals
For Immediate release:
6th December 2007
Contact:
Chris Potter (Gloucestershire Animal Action) – 01452 539673
Swindon, Wiltshire, UK - Activists from Gloucestershire Animal Action and the Western Animal Rights Network were alerted by a tip of from a volunteer of Swindon & District Animal Haven in early November and were invited to film early morning on the 26th November 2007 by the volunteer who wanted us to gather evidence which she hoped would close the “sanctuary” and stop members of the public unknowingly taking animals to this filthy, cramped hellhole where animals are routinely denied food, water and adequate shelter.
Those involved with the evidence gathering contacted the RSPCA who promised the place would be visited and the press should not be notified as to not give the owner a chance to make the place appear legitimate. The RSPCA then apparently let slip to the owner whilst visiting a kennels and the volunteers contacted us to say, he is making changed onsite and putting heaters in the caravans.
As our video shows, the Animal Welfare act which makes it an offence to not protect animals from pain, suffering, injury and disease has been ignored. The Animal Welfare act also means that animals should be able to live in a suitable environment we found multiple cases of animals being improperly housed exposing them to -6oc temperatures with no shelter from the frost.
The video can be viewed on the video site YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVBYTxywKLw
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The following is a statement from the volunteer Jean Walker who first alerted us to the conditions at SDAH:
“There is no hot water or disinfectant to clean anything. The cats and dogs inside the building have no natural light that includes the dog in the office. It is taken for granted that the volunteers will clean and feed the animals although there is little food available, the pig food is Sainsbury’s out of date stuff i.e. bread, cakes, sweets and some fruit along with ready meals of meat. He rummages through this and takes most stuff for himself.”
“Through the summer and autumn the pigs were kept outside in terrible conditions, the mud was so bad that they had difficulty moving around. The young pigs were much underfed to the point of starvation. My friend and I started to bring our own pig-cattle and cat food, also food for the geese; he said that the geese do not need feeding as they live on grass! The six large pigs and eight young pigs had no dry bedding; they have since been moved inside but still live in filth and still have no dry bedding.”
“The twenty geese are shut in a metal shed which is full of green stagnant water and no dry bedding. There is a caravan that contains five cats of various ages. During a cold spell twice we had to break the ice off their water bowls, needless to say that the food and litter trays had not been cleaned for a couple of days. The caravan held about seven cats, four of which were still there the last time we were there. The cats inside the building are not separated from the dogs, there was an incident when someone let a bull terrier out of its pen and it ran into the cat’s room and attached one of the cats, the cat escaped injured and after days of searching has not been seen again.”
“There is no information on the dog’s dietary requirements or their past history.
There are fifty-five rabbits in very bad living conditions. There have very little food and water and dirty bedding and no natural light. There are numerous chickens and bantams which had no water or food on all the occasions that we have been there; also there are six Muscovy ducks which are kept in a small hut in appalling conditions also with no food. There are three turkeys and eight cows kept in bad condition. There is a small room with chinchilla’s, white mice and gerbils in.”
“I discovered dead mice one morning which could have been killed by rats, as there was evidence of nibbling and rat droppings found in the dog kennels. A pigeon was found dead after the first three weeks of being there, the other one has been there for several years. We offered to re-home the birds in a bird sanctuary but he refused. There is a peacock roaming around the grounds and in a cage inside one of the sheds two tropical green birds. In the office three corn snakes, two in one tank and one in another. At the far end of the property we found two fighting cocks that were obviously hidden from the volunteers. I have spoken to various people who have helped there, they say that he does not know if anyone is going to arrive and sometimes does not show his face at the sanctuary. He has been caught out on various occasions telling lies.”
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According their website they still proudly display an old article from 1999 which describes them as being a registered charity (their about us page), after a short phone call to the Charity Commission we discovered that charitable status was revoked in 2005 although the site still gives the misleading impression that they are charity. We have yet to find out why SDAH had their status revoked.
We have also heard via another Gloucestershire based animal shelter that they would never take animals to them after a dog warden refused to take animals to SDAH as the owner always wanted to pick the dogs up at a service station and when asked if the warden could view the shelter the owner refused.
Gloucestershire Animal Action have asked the RSPCA to inspect and they have failed the animals so we are now calling for members of the public to write to their Local Council, local MP, RSPCA, DEFRA and trading standards to have the place closed down permanently and allow activists to remove and re-home the animals currently being kept in this disgusting place.
Our primary focus is to get this information out to the public, we do not want have animals taken to SDAH. We have heard that the RSPCA are also still sending animals here so we ask members of the public to contact the RSPCA to ask them not to send animals here.
We would also ask members of the public to make it a priority to get any companion animals spayed and neutered to help stem the fast growing population of abandoned pets that end up in sanctuaries around the UK. If you must re-home animals please ask for a tour of the facilities first or ring us on 01452 539763 for more advice and information on our re-homing network.
For interviews or a hi-resolution DVD of the unedited footage please contact Chris Potter
info@stopanimalcruelty.co.uk or phone Gloucestershire Animal Action on 01452 539673
Source: http://www.stopanimalcruelty.co.uk/sdah
For Immediate release:
6th December 2007
Contact:
Chris Potter (Gloucestershire Animal Action) – 01452 539673
Swindon, Wiltshire, UK - Activists from Gloucestershire Animal Action and the Western Animal Rights Network were alerted by a tip of from a volunteer of Swindon & District Animal Haven in early November and were invited to film early morning on the 26th November 2007 by the volunteer who wanted us to gather evidence which she hoped would close the “sanctuary” and stop members of the public unknowingly taking animals to this filthy, cramped hellhole where animals are routinely denied food, water and adequate shelter.
Those involved with the evidence gathering contacted the RSPCA who promised the place would be visited and the press should not be notified as to not give the owner a chance to make the place appear legitimate. The RSPCA then apparently let slip to the owner whilst visiting a kennels and the volunteers contacted us to say, he is making changed onsite and putting heaters in the caravans.
As our video shows, the Animal Welfare act which makes it an offence to not protect animals from pain, suffering, injury and disease has been ignored. The Animal Welfare act also means that animals should be able to live in a suitable environment we found multiple cases of animals being improperly housed exposing them to -6oc temperatures with no shelter from the frost.
The video can be viewed on the video site YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVBYTxywKLw ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is a statement from the volunteer Jean Walker who first alerted us to the conditions at SDAH:
“There is no hot water or disinfectant to clean anything. The cats and dogs inside the building have no natural light that includes the dog in the office. It is taken for granted that the volunteers will clean and feed the animals although there is little food available, the pig food is Sainsbury’s out of date stuff i.e. bread, cakes, sweets and some fruit along with ready meals of meat. He rummages through this and takes most stuff for himself.”
“Through the summer and autumn the pigs were kept outside in terrible conditions, the mud was so bad that they had difficulty moving around. The young pigs were much underfed to the point of starvation. My friend and I started to bring our own pig-cattle and cat food, also food for the geese; he said that the geese do not need feeding as they live on grass! The six large pigs and eight young pigs had no dry bedding; they have since been moved inside but still live in filth and still have no dry bedding.”
“The twenty geese are shut in a metal shed which is full of green stagnant water and no dry bedding. There is a caravan that contains five cats of various ages. During a cold spell twice we had to break the ice off their water bowls, needless to say that the food and litter trays had not been cleaned for a couple of days. The caravan held about seven cats, four of which were still there the last time we were there. The cats inside the building are not separated from the dogs, there was an incident when someone let a bull terrier out of its pen and it ran into the cat’s room and attached one of the cats, the cat escaped injured and after days of searching has not been seen again.”
“There is no information on the dog’s dietary requirements or their past history.
There are fifty-five rabbits in very bad living conditions. There have very little food and water and dirty bedding and no natural light. There are numerous chickens and bantams which had no water or food on all the occasions that we have been there; also there are six Muscovy ducks which are kept in a small hut in appalling conditions also with no food. There are three turkeys and eight cows kept in bad condition. There is a small room with chinchilla’s, white mice and gerbils in.”
“I discovered dead mice one morning which could have been killed by rats, as there was evidence of nibbling and rat droppings found in the dog kennels. A pigeon was found dead after the first three weeks of being there, the other one has been there for several years. We offered to re-home the birds in a bird sanctuary but he refused. There is a peacock roaming around the grounds and in a cage inside one of the sheds two tropical green birds. In the office three corn snakes, two in one tank and one in another. At the far end of the property we found two fighting cocks that were obviously hidden from the volunteers. I have spoken to various people who have helped there, they say that he does not know if anyone is going to arrive and sometimes does not show his face at the sanctuary. He has been caught out on various occasions telling lies.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According their website they still proudly display an old article from 1999 which describes them as being a registered charity (their about us page), after a short phone call to the Charity Commission we discovered that charitable status was revoked in 2005 although the site still gives the misleading impression that they are charity. We have yet to find out why SDAH had their status revoked.
We have also heard via another Gloucestershire based animal shelter that they would never take animals to them after a dog warden refused to take animals to SDAH as the owner always wanted to pick the dogs up at a service station and when asked if the warden could view the shelter the owner refused.
Gloucestershire Animal Action have asked the RSPCA to inspect and they have failed the animals so we are now calling for members of the public to write to their Local Council, local MP, RSPCA, DEFRA and trading standards to have the place closed down permanently and allow activists to remove and re-home the animals currently being kept in this disgusting place.
Our primary focus is to get this information out to the public, we do not want have animals taken to SDAH. We have heard that the RSPCA are also still sending animals here so we ask members of the public to contact the RSPCA to ask them not to send animals here.
We would also ask members of the public to make it a priority to get any companion animals spayed and neutered to help stem the fast growing population of abandoned pets that end up in sanctuaries around the UK. If you must re-home animals please ask for a tour of the facilities first or ring us on 01452 539763 for more advice and information on our re-homing network.
For interviews or a hi-resolution DVD of the unedited footage please contact Chris Potter
info@stopanimalcruelty.co.uk or phone Gloucestershire Animal Action on 01452 539673 Source:
http://www.stopanimalcruelty.co.uk/sdah
WARNing
Homepage:
http://www.animalliberation.co.uk
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