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Humane Society BVI has to relocate URGENTLY

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Humane Society BVI urgently needs funds to relocate Animal Shelter.....
The Humane Society of the British Virgin Islands is located on the island of Tortola and opened its doors in 1975 offering shelter, love and care to unwanted, abandoned and mistreated animals.  Our shelter is almost always full with usually more than 70 dogs and 20 cats in the facility.  The Humane Society receives zero government funding and survives purely on private donations.  Unfortunately, we are now in jeopardy of closing our doors.  The shelter is currently in a rented location and the landowners have given notice that the shelter must vacate the premises before the end of 2019.  The Humane Society has been working on a plan to build a new shelter for many years; we have purchased our own plot of land and a large steel frame building to establish a new shelter.   However, we are now in critical need of donations to fund the erection of the building on our own land and to finish the construction; foundation, framing, plumbing, electrics, cages etc. Our situation is desperate; we must raise $500,000 to build the new shelter in order to continue providing care and shelter for the hundreds of unwanted animals on the island in need our assistance.  If we do not raise enough funds to build a new shelter, the Humane Society of the BVI will be forced to close. 

About Us:
Every year the Humane Society takes in hundreds of homeless pets.  Many of these are strays or just dumped/abandoned by their owners.  They are often sick, injured, malnourished, and sometimes aggressive.  We work hard to try and tackle this problem by educating members of the community about responsible pet ownership.  We encourage owners to spay/neuter their pets, train and socialise their animals properly, microchip them and to rehome them responsibly if they have to make that difficult decision.  But ultimately the Animal Shelter is the last resort for pets who fall through the cracks.  We have many animals at the shelter who will spend their entire lives there, waiting to find their forever home.

The land the shelter is currently on is rented from a private family.  The shelter has been in the same spot in Johnson’s Ghut for more than two decades.  The Humane Society must vacate the land before the end of 2019 as the owners wish to develop the land.  We are extremely grateful to our landlords for having accommodated the Humane Society in its current location for many years at below-market rent.  However, their decision does unfortunately leave the Shelter in a very difficult position with very little time to relocate. 

New Building:
The intention was always to build a new, larger and more modern shelter to accommodate the ever-growing numbers of animals needing our care.  In 2013 after years of raising funds we purchased our own land in Josiah’s Bay on Tortola.  We also purchased a few years later a pre-fabricated steel frame structure to serve as the frame for a new shelter.   We were continuing to raise funds for the erection of the steel building when our islands were devastated in 2017 by Hurricane Irma and then a week later by Hurricane Maria.  These category 5 hurricanes caused serious damage to the current shelter. We had no choice but to turn our attention to the urgency of the repairs needed at our current shelter to preserve the welfare and safety of the animals in our care.  Due to the hurricanes, our financial reserves were severely depleted. Through goodwill from the community, donations and our own funds we were able to carry out major repairs.

 See our plans: http://www.bvihumanesociety.org/new-shelter.html 

How You Can Help!:
We have established a Go Fund Me to specifically raise a percentage of the funds needed to build the new shelter.  The remainder will hopefully come from Corporate Donations or Private Sponsors. (The monthly expenses of the shelter (approx $10,000) are covered through fundraising events).  We have put out to tender with multiple contractors and estimate the amount required to build a modern, larger and better facility is approximately $500,000.   While we have been fundraising for this new shelter for some time, it is simply not attainable for us to raise this amount of money in only a few months, especially when our island has less than 25,000 residents.  We are in an extremely desperate situation and are asking for any financial help you can offer!

There is no other animal shelter in the BVI!  We are deeply concerned with regards to the future animal welfare.

Please help us save our animal shelter and donate to the building cost of our new shelter!  Your donation will secure the future happiness and welfare of so many animals!   We are happy to provide any financial information or plans to anyone that would like to see this.

 THANK YOU!


Humane Society of the British Virgin Islands.
http://www.bvihumanesociety.org/
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Donations 

  • Laura Engelbrecht
    • $100
    • 2 yrs
  • Tricia Wardell
    • $1,000
    • 2 yrs
  • Tracy Farrer
    • $100
    • 2 yrs
  • Deborah Baldwin
    • $20
    • 2 yrs
  • Riley McKernan
    • $30
    • 3 yrs
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Organizer

Sarah Gordon
Organizer
Windsor, CO

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