12/10/2026
An Important Update About the Future of Our Rescue
After a great deal of thought, and not without sadness, we need to share an important update about the future of our rescue.
We are now permanently closed to new intakes and will no longer be rehoming the ferrets currently in our care.
This does not mean that we are abandoning the ferrets in our care or walking away from ferret welfare. It means that we are moving into a different phase, one that allows us to focus on the ferrets who already depend on us: those who are here now.
The ferrets in our care are staying with us. These are complex hybrids or have health and welfare needs that make them unsuitable for rehoming. They are settled here, they know their environment, and they deserve the security and stability of a permanent home.
We will continue to care for them as a sanctuary for the rest of their lives, providing the individual care, attention and commitment they need.
They are not being moved on or forgotten. They are home.
We also remain committed to taking back any ferret previously adopted through us who may need rescue or sanctuary again in the future. And these may be put up for adoption if it is in their best interests. Our responsibility to those ferrets does not end simply because they have left our care, and we will honour that commitment.
Why are we making this decision?
For 16 years I have largely run the day to day rescue on my own.
That means sixteen years of taking in ferrets, arranging veterinary care, managing their health and welfare, finding suitable homes, dealing with enquiries and emergencies, answering messages, organising adoptions, fundraising, running the practical side of the rescue, accounts, and everything else that comes with keeping vulnerable animals safe.
I have done this alongside a full time job in the NHS and for a very long time my life was on hold just balancing this. I have always tried to do the best i could for every ferret who came through our doors.
But I am only human.
This decision has not come about for one single reason. It is the result of many years of rescue work, the increasing complexity of the animals in our care, environmental changes that have a huge impact on the welfare and management especially during heatwaves, the ever rising financial costs, the realities of running a rescue alongside other responsibilities, and the need to recognise my own limits.
We also need to be honest about the impact that rescue work can have on the person doing it.
Over the years I have received abusive messages, unreasonable demands and hostility when we have been unable to give someone the answer they wanted. Those experiences take a real toll.
There is also a wider issue that we can no longer ignore: the growing expectation that animals can be treated as disposable, with rescues expected to continually pick up the pieces.
Ferrets are living animals, not possessions that can simply be replaced or passed on when they become inconvenient, difficult, expensive or no longer fit into someone's life. Yes lives change, and there are real genuine reasons that animals need rescue care, but these days those reasons are so often outweighed by them just no longer being convenient for some people.
Rescue work is already emotionally demanding. Caring for vulnerable animals, managing health problems, making difficult welfare decisions and trying to find the right homes takes considerable time, energy and emotional investment. Being subjected to abuse while doing that work makes an already difficult job considerably harder.
I am not saying that everyone who has contacted us has behaved this way. Far from it. I have met many wonderful people through the rescue, and i have made some really wonderful lasting friendships. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported us, adopted responsibly, donated, volunteered, shared our work or simply understood what rescue actually involves.
But we would also be dishonest if we pretended that the negative experiences have had no impact.
My own health, life and priorities have changed too. As have those of all our trustees. Our trustees each have their own roles within the Trust, but cannot offer physical support for the day to day work of the rescue.
After 16 years of giving so much of myself to rescue, I have reached the point where I need to acknowledge that I cannot continue running an open-intake rescue indefinitely. That isn't failure. It is recognising what is sustainable — for us and, importantly, for the ferrets in our care.
Our commitment to ferret welfare continues. Although we are closing to new intakes and ending rehoming, our commitment to ferret welfare has not ended.
We will continue to care for our resident ferrets for the rest of their lives, and to those in supported adoptions (where we fund their ongoing veterinary care) and honour our commitment to ferrets previously adopted through us.
We will continue to raise funds through our webshop, selling our oil and toys, to continue to provide the best care for the ferrets who remain here under sanctuary, and to continue to support ferret welfare wherever we reasonably can. That may mean sharing knowledge and experience, offering guidance, supporting other rescues and helping where our experience and resources can be useful.
Our role is changing, but our concern for ferrets and their welfare remains.
To everyone who has supported us over the years — whether through donations, adoptions, practical help, sharing our work, veterinary support, kind messages or simply believing in what we were trying to do — thank you, we could not have achieved what we have without all of you.
There have been extraordinary highs, laughter, heartbreaking lows, difficult decisions and an enormous number of ferrets whose lives have been changed for the better.
We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved.
This is not the end of our care for the ferrets who depend on us. It is a decision to give them the stability they deserve while allowing us to move forward in a way that is realistic and sustainable.
Thank you for being part of our journey, and hope that you continue to support this next chapter and respect our decision.
