A note from our Chief Animal Lover
We believe that our humanity is defined by our commitment to ensure the happiness of our animals. Therefore the conservation of animal well being is a vital service
Fur Kids Farm is a culmination of years of hard work, sweat, tears & love. I grew up afraid of cats & dogs. Until one day Ruff, a mixed Golden puppy, showed up at my gate in bad shape. Over the next couple years Ruff was followed by Tiff, Zaff & Day, all abused animals, just walking up to my gate. I never meant to keep them permanently. But as I nursed them back to health, as I tried to find homes for them, I realized that I was in fact all they had. I had become their entire world & they in turn had attached themselves to me. Somewhere along the way, they had become my babies. We had become a family. There was no way I could let them go now.
This was how FKF began. And so my family grew, till I became a mummy to 200 cats and dogs.
At that point, I realized that my family gave me both great joy & great parental concern. The joy has always been the love I have experienced with my furbabies. Their unquestionable loyalty & devotion, along with those cute eyes, has always filled my heart with a sense of contentment & delight. My concern has always been for the babies that are out there in danger every day, especially the ones we never hear about & therefore never get rescued. In order to save these babies that I cannot reach, FKF has dedicated itself to combating animal abuse and strives every day to ensure animal welfare is guaranteed everywhere. But this is not a journey that can be made alone. We believe that animal welfare is a shared responsibility of every human being. We believe that an integral part of humanity is the love and bond we've created with animals.
Therefore we need you. Please join us on this journey & let us together celebrate this love. Let us together do all we can to keep animals everywhere safe and happy.
Present Shelter
Our center is not equipped with sufficient facilities. We build temporary enclosures as we need them to house the animals. The reason for this is space constraints as well as financial strain. Our major financial strain is the medical cost of our animals as well as providing them food. Abused or seriously injured animal are costly to treat and usually come with prolonged medical needs.
Looking forward to the future shelter
We hope to acquire a 3-acre piece of land to construct a permanent shelter. Preferably the land is of flat terrain in a accessible location. This will reduce our land clearing cost as well as make the center available to local communities to come meet & interact with our animals. We need to find sponsors to spay/ neuter our animals. Also, we need to find vet services that can provide free or low-cost treatment to our animals. We are also trying to make the center generate income to fund itself. The plan is to set up social enterprises with sustainable business models to cover the center’s expenses over the long term.
Our ideal farm
In Asia if an animal is considered ‘damaged’ either physically or psychologically, the animal is put to sleep. Millions of animals die where they could easily have been given a second chance at life. Many are put to sleep because proper vet care is inaccessible to the owners and the animals simply wait in pain to die. Most owners do not even know of the importance of vet care. We at FKF, envision the establish Asia’s first ever comprehensive animal treatment & rehabilitation center right here in Malaysia.
“MY PHILOSOPHY WHEN IT CAME TO PETS WAS MUCH LIKE THAT OF HAVING CHILDREN: YOU GOT WHAT YOU GOT, AND YOU LOVED THEM UNCONDITIONALLY REGARDLESS OF WHATEVER THEIR PERSONALITIES OR
FLAWS TURNED OUT TO BE.”
Gwen Cooper, Author
The main components of the sanctuary are:
- The free-play animal homes
- The veterinary area
- The physical therapy area
- The psychology rehabilitation area
- The animal awareness & interaction center
Our center can help 20,000 animals per year in Malaysia alone. The center can help save hundreds of thousands more in Southeast Asia simply by raising awareness and establishing a working example.
Our History
On 23 July 2011, Manju Appathurai rescued her first dog. This was followed by 5 other dogs and 7 other cats in the same year. They were not active rescues as these dogs & cats showed up at her gate, however, the treatment & rehabilitation was just as hard as they too were abused & severely injured animals. These animals were treated at home.
As neighbours & friends heard about Manju’s animals, they started to highlight cases of animal abuse to her. This initiated her active rescues for the next two years (2012 & 2013) where Manju had to face the abusers, secure the animals & move them back to her home. All the rescues were self-funded.
Operating from home, the rescue efforts ran into multiple problems. There were neighbours who were killing Manju’s cats that got outside the gate. The dogs had hot water thrown at them when they were taken for walks. This required Manju to urgently move her shelter elsewhere but financial conditions did not permit this.
At this point, the shelter was at risk of closing down due to financial constraints. This called for immediate measures to save the shelter in order to continue saving the animals. This was the beginning of FKF as an organized charity. The idea came to take our rescue efforts online. FKF also began its process of getting registered. However, funds were still very low & FKF was still in danger.
In 2015, FKF started engaging communities & government agencies to secure animal wellbeing in Malaysia. The work carries on.