A FERMANAGH animal sanctuary has launched a campaign to save its sanctuary.

Irvinestown-based Husky Salvation is at risk due to its current premises being put up for sale. Now, Johanne Judge and her daughter, Jennifer, are asking to public to help them raise money to save the sanctuary.

Explaining the situation, Johanne told this newspaper: "My landlord wants to sell where we are now. He is absolutely fantastic – he wants us to actually buy the place; he's given us a first-option to buy.

"Where we sit, there were 20 acres around us, so we sit actually in the middle of the land.

"This is the reason why we can't buy what we use, we have to buy the whole lot.

"The problem is, the property is up for sale; our landlord has said himself he is not putting us out, but if someone else comes up with the money first, we will be put out.

"If we gather up the deposit, it means that we can then hopefully get a mortgage for it using our charity status, and that you know it can be bought that way.

"Of course, we have to raise the money for the £10,000 deposit first."

Johanne has been searching around for other homes for Husky Salvation, but said: "We have looked into other places, and we cannot find anything – there's nothing out there that's suitable, because everything that's here is already stable [for our specific needs], such as outbuildings.

"If we have to give up what we've got here, we would lose quite a lot of animals."

Johanne said that some of the animals at Husky Salvation must stay in residence, due to their needs.

She said: "We've got quite a few animals that have issues. They do bite other people – they don't bite us, because they've got their trust in us, but they would have to be destroyed [if we have to leave this site].

"We also have the 'golden oldies' that are too old to be rehomed, because they go in pairs."

Altogether, at the time of writing, the charity has ten cats, 25 dogs and two goats that it cares for.

The charity also looks after animals whose owners are currently in hospital, or are homeless if their owners cannot afford to put their pets in kennels.

So far, the charity has raised £3,500, mostly from those who are familiar with the charity and a few kind-hearted strangers.

Johanne is pleading for support for her charity. She said: "Our plea is to save us – help save Husky Salvation, really and truly that's what our plea is.

"There are only two [animal] rescues in Fermanagh, and there are times where both places have been overflowing with dogs.

"With this pandemic as well, we know what's coming – once people start going properly back to work, we are going to be overloaded with dogs."

This is a highly emotional time for Johanne. "I have cried and cried and cried, thinking about it. It's not about me, and it's not about my daughter, because we could get a house – it's the animals, the ones that are permanently here.

"I would hate to have to destroy any of the animals."

If you wish to help Husky Salvation with its efforts to save the animal sanctuary, you can do so by visiting https://tinyurl.com/nhuvmzvb.