Animal sanctuary boss in Angel of the North protest

Jul 18 2009 by Joanne Butcher, The Journal

ANIMAL sanctuary boss Paula Campbell has chained herself to the Angel of the North in a desperate attempt to save more than 300 rescue animals.

The 43-year-old fears her animals may have to be destroyed if she is evicted from the sanctuary at Milkup Bank Farm, Willington, near Crook, County Durham.

Mother-of-four Mrs Campbell, a widow, has been managing to feed her menagerie including horses, goats, dogs, feral cats, canaries, Shetland ponies, ducks, geese, chickens, pigeons and other species at her sanctuary, called Rainbow Ark, against the odds.

Along with children Jayne, 25, James, 17, and Joseph, 13, she has been running the farm successfully for 20 years.

But now she is currently in a costly wrangle with a firm of surveyors over a previous property she sold, which she claims was severely undervalued.

And she faces eviction from the 45-acre holding, having been served eviction notices three times.

Mrs Campbell said: “Desperate times call for desperate measures. We have more animals than ever at the sanctuary because of the credit crunch. People are dumping animals because they can’t afford to feed them.

“Though we’ve tried to keep numbers down, we’re finding it hard to re-home animals, especially the older ones.

“Other shelters, especially for larger animals are closing because they can’t survive. People bring unwanted animals here from all over Britain. There is nowhere else for them to go.

“It costs me a minimum of £1,100 a week to feed the animals. We were not millionaires before this happened, but we were doing well. Now, we are really struggling.

“I don’t really want any money from people, I just want to keep this place going. If I am evicted from here and these animals are destroyed, it will destroy me too. I have put my heart and soul into this place.”

Mrs Campbell, who took a farm management course at college and is also a talented artist and author, chained herself to the Angel last year shortly after the crisis first hit. She said other people have now joined her calls.

“It’s not just me, this has affected a lot of other people as well,” she explained. “We have to fight for ourselves. As Martin Luther King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Ms Campbell and other volunteers spent yesterday chained to the Angel - with Mrs Campbell dressed as Norah A. Chicken, a character from her childrens’ book. The sanctuary can be contacted on (01388) 745380.