THE owner of a North Yorkshire animal sanctuary is appealing for volunteers and donations after she has been left to look after over 300 animals by herself.

Sharon Lawlor, from Scarborough, owns the Sheep Sanctuary in Whitby looking after farm animals that are unwanted or have special needs.

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She used to own the sanctuary with her partner, however, they recently broke apart after a long-term relationship, leaving her to run the sanctuary on her own.

The Northern Echo:

Originally the sanctuary cared for around 13 cows, but soon Sharon was accepting unwanted sheep from across the country and now has over 300 animals to care for.

Now she is desperately seeking donations and volunteers to help her keep the sanctuary running and continue looking after the animals.

Ms Lawlor said: “I’m quite determined and I don’t want to give up, and I’ve had to employ a retired farmer to help me at the moment because I just can’t physically do it on my own anymore.

“It’s not just that, but I’ve started working with all the wools and that’s where my own personal income comes from.

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“I haven’t actually worked since April now because I took in about 40 lambs which were all bottle fed and it took a lot of time, some of them had very bad special needs, and now I still have two of them that have special needs."

Ms Lawlor is looking for help to run the sanctuary, feed the animals and keep the place clean and tidy.

She said: "I did give people a shout-out to come and volunteer and I did get stacks of people but just the odd couple to come and help me do the things I can’t physically do like the gardening.

The Northern Echo:

“There’s been a steady flow of volunteers, but it’s okay because now I just set people on a job, because at one point I used to pamper people quite a bit.

“I’m absolutely working my socks off to get the place running smooth, and I have actually got it going a lot better than it actually was when he was doing it.

“It’s just a matter of some help running the sanctuary actually, keeping it nice and clean, feeding the animals watering the animals, even down to the fact that I can’t actually physically work anymore.

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“I’m trying my best to get back to the wool making, so even people who would help me with the felting because I’m on Etsy and I have orders coming in and I can’t physically do them."

You can donate to help Sharon here

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