Kate started an animal sanctuary after surviving the worst night of her life.
Now she’s fighting to save the 150 rescue dogs, cats and farm animals in her care as mounting debts caused by the cost of living crisis threatens to leave them homeless.
Deathrow Unchained (DRU) Animal Rescue operates out of a sprawling property in Burbank, Queensland, where Kate and almost 200 volunteers give “neglected, abused and abandoned” animals a second chance at life.
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The rescue had saved about 5000 lives when Kate received a notice stating that DRU had to pay $27,569 in arrears by the end of November or face losing the property.
It’s money they simply didn’t have.
”We spend around $250,000 a year in vet [care] alone, so it costs around $10,000 to $12,000 a week to run this place,” Kate told 9news.com.au.
Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Leach at mleach@nine.com.au
Those costs are usually covered by sponsors and regular donations from members of the public, but support has slowed to a trickle in the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Every day for the last 12 months, Kate has woken to more emails from loyal supporters having to cancel donations.
“The majority of people that help us are everyday people and everyday people are struggling right now. They’re struggling to put food on the table. They’re losing their homes,” she said.
“And unfortunately, places like us are first on the chopping board because we’re not an essential.”
As donations slowed to a crawl, debt quickly started piling up.
Though Kate and many DRU volunteers chipped in where they could, the rescue struggled to stay afloat.
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“We’re all pouring in whatever we’ve got. We’ve got team leaders that are paying for vet bills, we’ve got volunteers that are paying for medications,” she says.
“But we’re we’re all burning at both ends and I feel terrible. The amount of pressure that’s been on us in the last six months has been devastating.”
It all came to a head when she received the arrears notice.
After dedicating 10 years of her life to DRU and saving the lives of about 5000 animals, she couldn’t bear the thought of losing the rescue.
Kate started DRU after a surviving a horrific incident that left her with severe PTSD.
Unable to return to the field she’d originally worked in, she created the animal rescue as a way to save neglected, abused animals and heal herself.
With just a few weeks to scrape together almost $30,000, Kate started an online fundraiser with the goal of raising $10,000 towards the debt.
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Instead, DRU received more than $14,000 in donations in just six days.
“I can’t even put into words what it means to us,” she says of the incredible support.
Kate has now bumped the fundraising goal up to $19,000 and hopes to pay off DRU’s debt in its entirety before the deadline in 10 days.
Once the $27,569 bill is paid, DRU will turn its focus to its new NDIS Compassion Connect they established to help fund the rescue long-term.
Compassion Connect is an animal care program for individuals living with disability and aims to increase community participation, gain transferable skills, and create meaningful friendships for participants.
”We’re so close to actually having a program that’s giving the rescue a regular income,” Kate says.
“We’re hoping that this will secure the future of DRU.”