Visit to Raystede Animal Sanctuary

On Saturday 7 th of October Bexhill Rotary Club visited Reystede Animal Sanctuary.

We all met at the on site café at 12.00 and had hearty lunch before setting off on our tour of the sanctuary. We treated to a personal guided tour from the CEO Stephanie Smith and Alex Harman the events manager.

Our first port of call was to visit the bird enclosures where we were treated to an interesting range of exotic parrots and cockatiels. Most of these birds had been donated by people who could no longer give them a home or who had passed away. They were full of character and many of them could speak and mimic human voices. After this we were taken to the cattery,

Raystede are able to re-home most of the cats that are left at the sanctuary, however the black cats are not so popular with public. We then proceeded to the area where they keep sheep and goats and were introduced to a small herd of goats from various recue backgrounds. Of the goats there was a brother and sister combination who we told were expert escape artists and to prevent this from happening the fencing had to raised significantly. 

We went on to see the small animal enclosure with rats, guinea pigs, rabbits and hamsters. Raystede have a good re-homing record with these small animals and they are very popular. We were unfortunately unable to see the dogs kept at the sanctuary as they were all out exercising. We skirted around the lake which is being prepared for a large terrapin project. This is a closed project because the decision has been made not release these animals as they an invasive species and grow to become quite large and aggressive damaging native eco-systems. 

We were then taken to see the extensive horse and donkey paddocks. Raysted has a small herd of donkeys as well as number of horses. There is also a state of the art stables and welfare centre for the horses. After a pleasant amble around the paddocks we returned to visit the pet supplies and charity shops that the site has to offer, before departing on our separate ways. 

A good time was had by everyone and we all were impressed by the facilities for the animals and the quality of the care provided by the sanctuary.