Dearest Loveland community,
I hope you and your family are keeping safe in these challenging times.
Like many organizations, we’ve taken this as an opportunity to step back and evaluate how we can best serve in a world that is undeniably changing around us.
Our goal at LFS has always been to rescue and rehabilitate those beings who have unfortunately been subjected to the horrors of our current food system. Over the last few years we’ve built an incredible community and raised a good amount of money in hopes of opening a sanctuary in Orange County.
Over that time we’ve learned a lot. Land is at a premium in Orange County and large-scale financial support for acquiring property for non-profits is very hard to come by. These have been challenges we’ve tried to find a way around for some time without much success. Having exhausted a range of options, the reality is at the current rate of fundraising, we wouldn’t be in a position to open a sanctuary in this area for another 8 years.
On top of that, the challenges of climate change are accelerating faster each year, making it increasingly more risky to safely accommodate animals at any type of scale in Southern California. And now, it’s unclear and uncertain how deep the impact that Covid-19 will have on organizations’ abilities to carry out work in shared spaces.
Taking those factors into consideration, we’ve embarked on a journey with our board, to see how we could re-imagine Loveland in a way that would stay true to our core goals of helping to rescue and rehabilitate abused and neglected animals in a more immediate way that wouldn’t be dependent on the expensive acquisition of property in this area, and potential perilous risks of bringing together future residents.
There are hundreds of farm sanctuaries across the country doing fantastic work, and who have the infrastructure in place but who, at times, lack the funding needed to bring in new residents. We think there’s an incredible opportunity to combine the fundraising work of Loveland with the operations of these existing sanctuaries to roll out a collective effort to bring more animals out of harm’s way and into a safe environment. Loveland would offer the funding, resources and hands-on involvement of the initial rescue efforts, and the sanctuary would offer shelter and on-going care, while we collectively work to find avenues towards long-term funding support for new residents.
Imagine, if you would, a “Loveland Squad” of pigs in a sanctuary in Northern California, or “The Loveland Trio” of cows in a sanctuary in Denver. We’d still be rescuing and rehabilitating animals, we’d just be doing it in a more ‘virtual’ setting. And hey, who isn’t doing that more these days?
Stepping back and evaluating where we, as an organization, have shined to date, our strengths have been bringing people together in person and across social media, fundraising and event planning with the goal of helping animals. We believe this is where we can best put our time and efforts to good use to be a part of the solution.
We know this may come with disappointment for some in our community who have been so behind the mission of opening a sanctuary in Orange County, and believe me when I tell you that it was a long, hard decision for us. Ultimately, though, we believe it’s in the best interests of everyone to start putting this money you’ve helped raise to good use immediately.
Over the next few months, our goals are simple:
In the short-term, we want to identify 2 or 3 partner sanctuaries to work with us. The immediate support we will give them will be to help assuage the impact of Covid-19.
In the medium-term we will start to work with our partner sanctuaries to plan our first few rescues.
As we rescue the first groups of animals, we will start sharing their stories with our community so you can see the impact you are having first hand.
Longer term, we’d like to continue to fundraise to support larger rescue efforts for a wider group of sanctuaries, widening and deepening the impact that we collectively have.
We will also be finessing how we show up publicly through a website refresh and an organizational name change to reflect the new direction.
We’re excited about these plans to start making a difference in the short-term and hope you will continue to share in this journey with us. Thank you so much for all your support to date.
If you have any questions or potential partnership ideas for this new and exciting chapter for Loveland, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Stay safe and healthy, and please continue to be kind to one another. We’re all in this together.
All the best,
Paris