'Forever home' needed for 180 sheep

Sheep love and cry, said Ms Hubbard

A woman has told the BBC she is scrambling to build a "forever home" for 180 sheep and other farm animals.

Hayley Hubbard, who runs Lotus Lamb and Sheep Sanctuary, said she has to leave her "beautiful, idyllic" site in Woodmancote, West Sussex, by 11 July.

Though an "incredible" donor has withdrawn part of her pension and bought the sanctuary some land, the 53-year-old said she needs £20,000 and other items to ready the site for the rescue sheep and other in-need animals.

"We are just begging people for help," she added. "These animals are sentient beings. They feel. They grieve. They love. They cry."

'Sheep are lovely'

The sanctuary - named after Lotus, a "very special" sheep that used to live inside her house - is home to many animals that have been neglected and abused "in the most horrendous way", said Ms Hubbard.

She told the BBC she had rescued sheep that had been left in a field without shelter during winter and starved of water and food.

"If that was a field of dogs, everybody would be in uproar but because it is sheep people just go, 'oh, it's just sheep'."

Ms Hubbard said she wanted to help every animal she could

Ms Hubbard added: "Sheep are lovely. They give so much."

"Some don't always want to snuggle, but they'll sit with you. They're just incredible."

Another animal at the shelter, she continued, is a pig called Clarence that escaped a local slaughterhouse and lived wild in Henfield.

He escaped death a second time after Ms Hubbard said she intervened and took him in when a local landowner planned to shoot him.

"We literally want to help every animal we can," she said.