After a consultation earlier this year The Happy Pants Ranch animal sanctuary and rescue was chosen to be STAART’s nominated charity. STAART is a disability initiative and disabled led organisation (DPO) within the University of Greenwich. This is an exciting new partnership that will present several opportunities for STAART members while raising awareness and fundraising for The Happy Pants Ranch.
The Happy Pants Ranch animal sanctuary and rescue is an independent registered charity located in Iwade, near Sittingbourne, in Kent. The ranch is run by the wonderful Amey and a fantastic team of volunteers. It is home to around 350 rescue animals, including guinea pigs, goats, chickens, cats, cows, pigs, ferrets, dogs, sheep, terrapins, horses, ducks, and a even couple of emus! They have a caravan for cats, and pigs roam in woodland.
The ranch receives no public funding and rely solely on donations. They take in many rescue animals with medical or behavioural issues that have nowhere else to go. The sanctuary provides all their animals with the love, care, and rehabilitation they need.
Unfortunately, The Ranch has been having some recent difficulties with their local council as they have been refused planning permission. To assist The Ranch with their next appeal Dr Melanie Thorley, the STAART Manager, has created a petition to demonstrate to the council that the ranch is well supported by the local community and organisations. If you would like to sign and share the petition you can find it here.
STAART will be supporting The Happy Pants Ranch this year by completing a sponsored walk at Medway Campus on Saturday 30th July 2022. The walk will be 1 mile and the participants can do as many laps as they are able to. There will be 50 places for STAART ambassadors, graduates, members, and allies, and a further 10 spaces for Ranch staff, volunteers and sponsors. Dogs are also very welcome to join in the walk. These places will be split into two slots on the day to ensure the walkers are spaced fairly evenly. All of the walkers need to be over sixteen (due to the risk assessment) and we are hoping to complete 200 miles and raise £4,000. All the sponsorship money will be collected via the STAART JustGiving account.
Other exciting opportunities will be available as the ranch needs lots of volunteers. People can help in a lot of ways- from physical help volunteering with the animals’ care and upkeep, to online support by sharing posts and helping to raise awareness! There are many physical and mental health benefits when working with animals.
As The Ranch are always in need of donations of pet food, there are now donation boxes set up at all three University of Greenwich campuses. There is also a link to the Happy Pants Amazon wish list for those who would like to contribute items such as factor 50 sunscreen for the pigs and AAA/AA batteries for the radios which some of the animals have in their shelters. The Ranch also accepts many other donations as they need bedding for animals, larger items such as fences and equipment, and other items that can be sold at regular boot sales to help fund the ranch. If the items are local to The Ranch, then Amey can arrange for collection.
Other plans include a calendar of the STAART mascot, Flat Eric, visiting the ranch animals, and we hope to hold a fundraising stall at the Medway Campus a few times a year to help raise more funds and awareness.
If you have any queries and/or suggestions for additional fundraising and awareness raising ideas, then please contact me at staart@gre.ac.uk
Sophie
Happy Pants Liaison Ambassador
The Happy Pants Ranch animal sanctuary & rescue registered charity 1185169 | Facebook
