Kettering animal rescue at risk of losing its land launches fundraising appeal

Redhead Rescues Animal Sanctuary is a small animal rescue based in Woodford, near Kettering.

The sanctuary was started in 2020 by Teresa Underwood, who was determined to help animals who had nowhere else to turn.

It has since grown and Teresa now has a team of volunteers who help with everything from administration and fundraising to vet visits and hands-on care.

What started as a small idea shared online during lockdown has become a lifeline for dogs, cats, goats, donkeys, ponies and pigs across Northamptonshire and beyond.

However, the sanctuary is at risk of losing its land, prompting them to launch a fundraising appeal to raise the necessary funds to buy the land themselves.

A video about the fundraising appeal recorded by Teresa says: “We are really desperate to raise the money to enable our animals to stay on this lovely paddock.”

And writing on their fundraising page, they said: “We are losing our land.

"It is imperative that we can buy this land to ensure a safe place to assess and exercise our rescue dogs.

"It also provides an enriched home including a wooded area and grazing for our goats and ponies.

"Over recent months we have spent £9k on all of the the safety fencing and stabling for the animals, this would be a huge loss to the rescue.

"We also have our two storage containers on-site which enable us to store, rotate and distribute our supplies for both our fundraising and to foster homes.

"To lose this land would mean having to relocate the animals, remove the fencing and fund some way to move 2x20ft containers to another piece of land which in its self would costs thousands of pounds.

"The money would be used to purchase the land so we are not under any threat of being evicted.

"If we cannot buy the amount of land needed then the money would be used to buy or rent another piece of land equipped for the animals but would probably lose the containers and have to find storage elsewhere for all of our supplies.”

The sanctuary, which is completely self-funded, says it needs to raise a total of £150,000.

And they added: “This sounds like a crazy amount of money, but if 7,500 people can donate £20 each, that would be the target met.

"Please share our mission with your friends, family and animal lovers alike, we can do this for the animals.”

More than 240 donations have already been made, but you can still donate here.

To help with fundraising, Redhead Rescues is having a dog show and car boot sale at Woodford Community and Sports Club on Sunday (May 24) from 10am to 3pm.

There will be various dog classes and competitions, as well as pitches for cars and vans.

For more information about Redhead Rescues and their work with animals, visit their Facebook page.