About Us

Hollyview animal sanctuary is run by myself (Claire) with the support of my partner Jill. We don’t have any staff working with us in the actual sanctuary.
My partner Jill works full time as the local postie, I run the sanctuary full time and work part time to support the cost of food and vets bills.

We are not a big charity or an income-based animal centre, we are just two dedicated animal lovers who had a dream to offer a simple loving home to those who need it. Since our dream began, we have grown to having over 170 animals at our sanctuary and our family is ever growing. We don’t single out types of animals we save, we just save who we can. We don’t have benefactors or piles of money, we are both still working while loving and looking after our ever-growing menagerie.

We do rehome animals where we can but often those that come to us, have come from such difficult and abused backgrounds, we simply could not rehome them into domestic life. So instead we integrate them into our pack and they live a free life with all the care and love they need.

Our sanctuary is not open to the public as we are both still working and we have some animals that must be protected, we call this our 'witness protection programme' and unfortunately you won’t be able to meet these animals on our webpage for their safety but we have put as many of our family as we can on our webpage for you to meet and learn about.
 

We do also have a rehoming centre where any of the cats we rescue that have previously been domesticated are available for you to view and fall in love with. If you are looking to give one of our furry friends a forever home then please check out the rehoming centre page.

To help us save more animals and give them their forever homes we need your help! Please look at our donate page, even a small amount or a bag of cat litter can help.

Our sanctuary has grown exponentially over the years with now over 170 animals living with us including:​​ 6 Dogs, 28 Tortoises, 2 Giant Geese, 18 Ducks, 3 Alpacas, 4 Donkeys, 10 Goaties, 2 Horses, 2 Guinea Pigs, 12 Rabbits (Jill’s favourite babies), 40 + Cats, 42 Budgies, 1 Cockatiel, 4 Sheep, Guinea Fowl, Chickens and a swimming pool full of Koi, Goldfish and Tench.

SO.... a little bit about us.... 
Well our day generally starts with feeding our gorgeous baby girl or should I say sheep Alice... if we are not up and out by 6.30am with her bottle she will be in to wake us promptly.

Then its waking and feeding time at the zoo, we start with the cats and dogs as they shout the loudest... well that’s mainly because there are 50 of them in total!
Then onto the rabbits, tortoises, fish, birds and lastly to the stables to feed the donkeys, goaties, alpacas. horses and sheep. Doesn’t sound a lot feeding the animals does it, well thats till you have 170 mouths to feed! After the feeding has been completed its then onto the cleaning duties, I know it’s a rock and roll life we lead.

Once all the stable animals are out for the day it’s the fun job of cleaning up the poop and turning over the bedding. Then onto the cattery where we have to change the bedding, clean out all the water/ food bowls and sort out the lovely smelling cat litter trays. 

At this point its time to get us something to eat and of course a much-needed coffee! After a short break its time to sort the rabbits and the tortoises! Chopping the fruit and veg for the day and cleaning out the bedding. When the weather is nice, we will open up the paddock for the tortoises to stretch their legs outside. Once these dudes are all sorted then we are onto the sorting the fishes and the birdies to ensure they have everything they need for the day.

Once all the animals are sorted its time for any deep cleaning and to work on our improvement projects for the last couple of hours and normally Jill’s lucky enough to make it home from work to join me by this time.