Maynard loves his toys!

 This new website  has been dedicated to Maynard!       

 A serious situation developed at our Redmond location of Sara’s Sanctuary. One of our neighbors filed a formal complaint against Sara’s Sanctuary. When King County Animal Control responded to the complaint and conducted an  on-site inspection, they found NO code violations with our sanctuary.  ONLY because of this neighbor’s persistent threats and efforts against us, our case was transferred to King County DDES.  This neighbor then obtained a petition against us. This petition action resulted in an investigation of our property. King County is  now questioning  our animal enclosures, in proximity to the  property lines/and the property line set backs laws.  The set back laws for a private farm or a Sanctuary for animals,  is 10′. We are a Sanctuary for animals, not a shelter. A shelter, is a temporary housing facility, which adopts out animals.   Because we are a Sanctuary the setbacks are “10 ft” . King County now wants to change our classification to a shelter instead of what we are a  “sanctuary”.  This will change our set backs to 50′ for any animal enlcosure and even our pasture grazing area.  There is No grandfather clause for buildings for a shelter.  Although, this property was bought for the sole use of the “Sanctuary”, our barn, that was built over 20 years ago, (not by us) is not safe from the Neighbors and the County. Because of the neighbors threats, the County now say’s it’s too close to the property lines.  Our barn is 48′  from our surveryed property line, but we have been told to tear it down. Just one of many enlosures where our babies call home.      

We are USDA licensed and exotic animals do not fall into the the same  laws of domestic animals. Maynard, was not an issue  – he was protected as an exotic endangered species. Sadly to say, many of  any of the other animals living at the Sanctuary were not protected by this same act because they were not exotic.  The  injured little dove, an abused and injured goat, or the goose that was shot in the head, are not protected  because they are not exotic endangered species. We are working with King County to try and resolve these property ”set back” issues.
read more…

Maynard the Gibbon

We are a Sanctuary, not an animal shelter. An animal “Sanctuary”, is a no-kill, “Lifetime Haven”, where animals are not bred, sold, traded or adopted out. We should not be forced to break this commitment to any animal we give refuge to.

Sara’s Sanctuary’s policy & pledge to any animal in our care is that we will give them the best life possible.  If there is a situation where an animal needs to be relocated, we will only relocate them if we can find a home that will give them as good, or better quality of life than we can give them here.

One of our neighbors, literally threatened Maynard’s safety and all the other animals living here at our Redmond location. Because of this one man and his legal postures against us, we are no longer operating out of our Novelty Hill location. Prior to this neighbors threats against us, we had been aggressively looking for a new home for Maynard. Ultimately, we were looking to find a female Gibbon who could be his life long partner. Placing a Gibbon in a primate sanctuary is an extremely difficult task. We have had a skilled team of primate specialists searching for a new home for Maynard.  
read more…