Hey there everyone, Vanessa here. It's time for some transparency. I typically keep my 9-5 job as a government employee separate from sanctuary work, not just because that’s the ethical thing to do but also because I need that separation for my sanity. But that separation thins and cracks sometimes. Like now.
The fact is, our sanctuary is not fully funded, meaning that my income supplements almost 70% of our expenses. And that is no one’s fault but ours. We hope to be fully funded one day in the future, but we’ve never shied away from putting our own resources towards the cause we care so much about. This was okay for years because of the job security of being a federal employee. A job that I deeply love and that I’m damn good at.
Photos of me while working for the National Park Service over the course of my career that started 20 years ago this year.
But I’ll confess that I’m not feeling super confident that I will even have a job soon. I’m not a heavily political person, nor will this be a heavily political blog post. Still, with everything happening within the government workforce right now, I’m concerned for my future as an employee, despite 20 years of working for the National Park Service. If it was just Lonnie and me and a few pets, it would be bad enough. But there are over 100 lives that count on my income here at the sanctuary.
We established Six Paws Farm Animal Sanctuary after the 2018-2019 government shutdown that lasted 35 days. I was the primary income earner then too, and it was during this time of uncertainty, when I didn’t know when I’d get my next paycheck, that the seed of our sanctuary was planted. We only had a few rescue animals back then, but we worried about having the resources to care for them. Friends and family stepped up then, and we made it through okay. But then our rescue family grew, and we established the sanctuary to grow our purpose and try to be better prepared for the future.
This time, photos of me with some of our residents over the years, and one where I do official things like looking at fecal samples under a microscope. All unpaid work, but worth it!
For the first time since we started our nonprofit, I’m worried we won’t have the means to take care of everyone. Again, it’s no one’s fault but our own that we are not a fully funded nonprofit. We have amazing supporters and donors who step up when we desperately need it most: hay fundraising, emergency vet bills, storm recovery, and others. But regular income from outside donors is minimal. While we appreciate every dollar we receive, it is currently not enough if I lose my job.
So what? Well, the first thing is that we are going to be taking a hard look at our budget and books. We’re already penny-pinchers thanks to Lonnie’s regular mindset of price-checking, cost comparing, and material reuse. But more can always be done.
We’re also closing fully for intakes. We need to make sure we can afford to feed the mouths we have now. We were already closed to specific species due to space constraints (i.e. pigs) but now we must restrict it even further. We’ll still do our best to network any intake requests to other sanctuaries, of course. Emergencies will have to be handled on a case-by-case basis, but we’ll have to be careful about incurring veterinary costs both in the short and long term.
We are also exploring additional avenues for income. We’ve been hoping to set up sponsorships to have a steady income, but with our small-time operation, that’s not been a priority. Now it is. Merchandise hasn’t been a big sales item, but I’ve done a little bit of artwork that’s still sitting in a closet because I’ve been too shy to share it. Perhaps people would be interested in it. We have ways the residents could make art too!
Some photos of random selections of my artwork, including framed fun wallpaper samples that I've even personally decorated our own home with.
One thing we won’t do is compromise our residents’ health, happiness, and autonomy. We’ve always considered the possibility of giving special tours to bring in funds, but many of our residents don’t want or don’t like human contact. We don’t want to push them into something that will stress them out. Perhaps we can consider ways around that, but only if there are funds available to accommodate this kind of offering (which right now we don’t).
This wasn’t meant to be a doom-and-gloom blog post, but more just being as real as possible. Everything we do, we do for them. If we have to eat nothing but ramen noodles and ketchup so that every resident here has the food, shelter, and medical care they need, then bring on the carbs and salt. And of course, should things become dire, we will network with other sanctuaries to rehome residents. We hope this won’t be the case, as we know everyone is at capacity, but we won’t let anyone in our care go without.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading. If you’re wondering how you can help, even for free, there are ways to help.
FREE Ways to Help
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To donate funds, we have so many ways! You can do so directly on our website OR any of the following:
Six Paws Farm
P.O. Box 743
Berkeley Springs, WV 25411
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