Amey has been left gutted over the council’s decision (Image: Amey Jones)
The Happy Pants Ranch in is being forced to close by the local council – putting the lives of its 400 rescues at risk.
Amey Jones opened the in 2021 and it currently cares for more than 400 , many of whom are special needs and include an epileptic pig and a blind-and-deaf dog.
The three years since the sanctuary opened have been plagued by noise complaints from neighbours, however, as well as a legal battle with Swale Council to redesignate it as an animal rescue rather than agricultural land.
The change-of-use application was denied and Amey learned that an appeal to overturn the decision had also failed when she was handed an eviction notice last week.
The small business owner has been given nine months to vacate the site but says she doesn’t have enough money to move the animals to an alternative location.
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The sanctuary is home to a wide range of special needs animals (Image: Amey Jones)
“Although I’ve always known there was a chance of this utterly heartbreaking outcome, I’ve always tried to be so positive,” she said.
“I’m beyond devastated and feel in fact that my world, which is what this sanctuary is, [has] just collapsed. Right now, my head and my heart both physically hurt.”
She added that while “anything happening to the animals” would be “over her dead body”, Swale Council was effectively “signing [their] death warrants”.
“If we can’t move and we can’t stay, the animals will have to find homes,” Amey said.
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The sanctuary’s animals include a blind and deaf dog and an epileptic pig (Image: Amey Jones)
“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 behaviour issues.
“And if they can’t find homes, then there will be no choices left.”
A council spokesperson said: “The Happy Pants Ranch applied for retrospective planning approval in 2021 and after assessing the application against national planning policy and our own local planning policies this was rejected. A planning enforcement notice was issued in 2022 to rectify these breaches, in line with our policies.
“The notice was subsequently appealed by the applicant, and an inspector appointed by the Secretary of State dismissed the appeal, upheld our notice – subject to variations and agreed with our original refusal of planning permission. The enforcement notice requires that the mixed use of the site stops and that the land needs to be restored to its original condition before the breaches took place.”