Our Sanctuary

The wonderful view from our sanctuary - why don't you come visit us, sit under our "monkey puzzle" tree and enjoy it with us!

Animal Sanctuary Hubasha is tucked snugly in between Lugnaquilla Mountain and Mount Keadeen in the beautiful and peaceful Wicklow Hills. Situated on 6 acres of land we have enough space to accommodate our animals.

Our 12 adult cats, obviously all spayed and neutered all have the freedom of the hills, most of them have lived here long, some most or all of their lives. Four or five come into the house regularly, the others are more at ease outside, were they stay around the dog kennels, and accompany us when we walk the dogs.

Occasionally we take in some young kittens, they live in Helena’s office, which is good for the socializing and we try our best to home them before they become adults.

Although cats are not our main concern, Ash rescue would not be the same without them.

Our dog population is made up of 4 groups, some small, some larger, but all important in their own right.

The first group are our puppies. We always have pups, usually between 15 and 35 of them. They may vary in age from newly born e.g. because mummy came in pregnant or because they were orphaned at a young age, to 5-6 months old and everything in between.

After that we count them as young adults if they are still here. Adult dogs looking for a home are the second group. We usually have 15 to 25 adults hoping for a home.

Our third group is the smallest, they are a mixture of dogs that have been chosen, but are waiting to join their new families, sometimes because the home check hasn’t been done yet or the dog still has to be neutered or spayed.

Which brings us to the last group, we have about 16 permanent residents that are considered to be no longer on the homing list, either because they are too old, not in good health, have a difficult temperament or simply have been here too long.

We take our ‘NO KILL’ policy very seriously and so these dogs just live here for the rest of their lives, some in the cottage, others in small groups outside.

This is not an invitation to offer/bring us dogs that are not suitable for homing, they really are draining our resources and keep spaces occupied that might be used to rescue more dogs from the pounds.

Do you remember that line from one of the Beatle songs ... ‘Where do they all come from’ ?
All the lonely people is what they were on about, well the situation with dogs isn’t unlike it.

So, where do they all come from? well, they come from:

Private people who have to reluctantly re-home their well loved pet because of changed circumstances

Private people who kindly took in a straying dog, which then gave birth to a litter unexpectedly. We help if we can, but having mummy spayed is a condition.

Private people who took on the responsibility of a dog or pup, but are unwilling to honour the commitment they made, in other words dogs that have outstayed their welcome.

Many dogs are from dog pounds, where dogs have limited time and where they will be put to sleep when their time is up, often frustrating staff who know them to be nice dogs that would make nice pets. We help the dedicated volunteers that try to take out and place as many of them as possible by doing our bit and take some off their hands.

Finally dogs are dumped on our doorstep, tied to our gates, left in our ditch etc. incredible but true, if you think they are the worst people you are wrong; the worst are the ones whose dogs/puppies never make it to a pound or sanctuary.

This is Gypsy, our "I love you, but on MY terms..." goose !

And heres a wonderful picture of "Omar" at home in the pasture