Please save our Sanctuary!

Dear Sir,

For the past 6 & a half years, my wife Patricia & I have run Briarfields Animal Sanctuary, opening our doors to ill treated, starving, abandoned, injured & unwanted dogs.

During that time we have taken in & cared for literally hundreds of dogs many of whom have suffered extreme cruelty, (almost 2,000 at the latest count). All have been welcomed, given veterinary treatment as necessary, wormed, vaccinated & neutered before being found loving new homes throughout Ireland, many in the U.K. (via the internet) & some even as far away as Germany & Sweden.

We have completely devoted our lives to this cause, working 7 days a week 365 days a year existing financially on kind donations from members of the public, monies raised at car boot fairs & through raffles etc. all subsidised primarily by our own pension.

Now the sanctuary is under threat of immediate shut down. Roscommon County Council have issued a 3 months closure notice on the grounds that the sanctuary has no planning permission and is a nuisance & health hazard. (Incidentally the sanctuary is on 7 acres of land, down a quiet by road, the nearest neighbours on either side are a quarter of a mile away & to the front are literally hundreds of acres of open bog.) No earlier complaints have been made.

Official statistics for 2005 show that almost 17,000 dogs were euthanised through local dog pounds, the vast majority of which were beautiful otherwise healthy creatures who just happened to be unwanted & surplus to requirements.

Please see the ANVIL website.
http://www.anvilireland.ie

We have vowed to fight the closure, particularly since the sanctuary is due to close anyway in December 2007 as I will be 70 the following year and patricia & I are looking forward to a restful retirement after almost 10 years rescue work.

What we need is to collect as many signatures as possible, and to diffuse our call to as many medias as possible.
We have already supporters from several countries which you can check on our website (updated daily on http://www.maethelyiah.com/BASmain.htm), but we need your support too, and this is why this petition is on line.

So please, leave your mark here and invite friends, relatives, colleagues to take part in this petition.

You don't necessarily need to be an animalist to do this... all you need to have is a soul.

Thanks for your time.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Edward Preston

Briarfields Animal Sanctuary

Lisacul
Castlerea,
Co. roscommon
Tel 094 964 9911

[email protected]

www.briarfield-animal-sanctuary.org