The founder of an animal sanctuary caring for hundreds of vulnerable creatures says she is still fighting to save it more than five years after moving to the site.
Amey James, who runs Happy Pants Ranch, has been battling planning authorities since relocating the rescue charity to a farm in Newington, Kent, in January 2021.
The sanctuary is home to around 300 animals, many of them elderly, injured or with complex needs.
READ MORE: Seal pup found with deep neck wounds after getting tangled in fishing net
Among them are an epileptic pig, a blind and deaf dog and several three-legged cats.
The 40-year-old moved the charity after being invited to use the previously unused 20-acre farm.
Happy Pants Ranch later applied for retrospective planning permission to change the land’s use from agriculture to animal rescue.
However, Swale Borough Council refused the application and issued an enforcement notice ordering the sanctuary to leave.
Amey appealed the decision, but a planning inspector backed the council in December 2024 and set a September 2025 deadline for the site to be vacated.
The situation then became even more complicated when bird flu restrictions were imposed, preventing animals from being moved off the farm.
The council has said eviction proceedings will resume once the restrictions are lifted.
But Amey insists she will continue fighting despite the emotional and financial toll, as reported by creatorzine.com.
She said: “This has been going on since we moved here January 2021.
“It’s ridiculous.
“As well as unnecessary, stressful and costly.
“I’ve never worked out up how much the charity has spent on the planning expenses.
“We spent £5,025 on lawyers a few years ago responding to a noise abatement notice.
“But the whole thing is scary.
“And the cost in time and stress is completely beyond calculation.
“The emotional toll has almost been too much at times.
“The charity would relocate if it possibly could.
“If moving was an option we certainly would.
“We hope to stay but that’s only because we have no option to move.”
A spokesperson for Swale Borough Council said: “While the wider bird flu restrictions in the area have now been lifted, a site-specific government restriction on animal movement remains in place following the outbreak at the location.
“Once the restrictions are lifted, we will take the appropriate next steps.”
Amey fears that if the sanctuary is forced to close and no alternative site can be found, many of the animals could face an uncertain future.
She said she struggles to contemplate that possibility.
“If we can’t move and we can’t stay, the animals will have to find homes,” she said.
“But of course that will be very difficult as they all came here because no one else would take them in due to age, medical conditions or behavioural issues.
“And if they can’t find homes then there’ll be no choices left.
“But over my dead body will I let anything happen to these animals.
“They’re my family and I promised them they’d be safe for the rest of their lives.
“So I have to do everything I can do to make sure that happens.”
READ MORE: Horror moment shark bites tourist’s head during aquarium dive experience
