Animal home spends more than £5k on food a week

Martin Morgan co-owns Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary in Essex

An animal sanctuary has pleaded for donations after revealing its weekly food bill for its furry residents stacked up to more than £5,000.

Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary, near Southminster in Essex, was set up in 1993 by Martin Morgan, 60, and extreme marathon runner Fiona Oakes.

However, Mr Martin said the sanctuary had just two or three months of financial reserves left due to the plunging number of donations.

"We are spending over £5,000 a week on food - when you track it back it works out less than £2 a day per animal," he explained.

"In the winter months the feed bills go up and in recent years with the various economic crises around the world the cost of food has escalated which has a knock-on effect at the sanctuary."

Fiona Oakes raises money for the sanctuary with her extreme marathon efforts across the world

The sanctuary has become home to about 400 rescue animals including pigs, sheep, geese, cows, turkeys, ducks and swans.

Initially the sanctuary was self-funded, until costs started to spiral.

Much of the money has been funded by Ms Oakes, who has set repeated world marathon records, which has included runs at the Arctic and Antarctic.

In December, she raised £70,000 by running 25 miles every day up until the Christmas Day - a total of 625 miles.