A north-east dog sanctuary is facing thousands of pounds worth of repairs following the weekend’s downpour.
Until Every Dog Has a Home is a rescue centre at Garmond, near Turriff, for dogs with aggressive pasts and behavioural issues that owner Karen Fairclough helps them overcome.
But after the site was engulfed by stream water on Saturday it has become clear the repair bill will be hefty.
Miss Fairclough, assisted by her daughter Abbi, spent yesterday clearing debris brought by the water including car parts, glass, piping and many things that could hurt any of the 19 dogs who live with the pair on the site.
She said: “We’ve had lots of damage to anything made from timber – the entire fencing for the training and exercise area is no longer safe or secure so will need torn down and replaced.
“Our office is timber and waist deep in water so it and the contents – training equipment, files and the like – is all destroyed. None is covered by insurance.
“Our road, which is the only access point, is also heavily damaged and trees have been ripped down. It is just utter chaos.
“It’s going to cost me a great deal to fix everything, though we’ll figure it out somehow.
“The show must go on.”
The kennels of some of the dogs, including Daniel and Maxi, were flooded but all are safe and the spaces dried out quickly.
In the three years they have been at the property, also operating the Dog School from there, the stream has not flooded and Miss Fairclough claims that boulders put in the stream by Aberdeenshire Council contributed to the flooding.
It’s understood the large rocks were introduced to help salmon, but she claims they have restricted the flow of water.
“As soon as they introduced the boulders we noticed a rise in the height of the stream and yesterday the water was unstoppable.”
The Dog School is closed until further notice and clients will be kept updated.
