An animal sanctuary which cares for more than 700 animals has been left reeling after thieves stole £1200 worth of equipment, including specialist horse medication.
Hallswood Animal Sanctuary, based in Stratton Strawless, near Coltishall with numerous locations across the county, was targeted on Wednesday, March 20, when thieves broke into a lorry container the charity used to store equipment.
Drilling through a padlock to gain entry to the container sometime between midnight and 7am, the thieves then made off with horse equipment, tools and medication including worming treatments.
The wildlife sanctuary, which takes in domestic animals in situations where they cannot go to rehoming centres, is currently home to more than 700 animals, from horses to alpacas, sheep and hedgehogs.
Lyz Hall, the owner of Hallswood Animal Sanctuary, said although the recent break in was not the first time the charity had been targeted over the years, it was 'heartbreaking' nonetheless.
She said: 'We're a charity organisation and we rely on donations so for someone to come in and nick stuff it's lower than low.'
Ms Hall said among the stolen items were tools the charity had acquired over the years either through donations or which had been purchased second hand and would be hard to replace.
She said the charity had also done as much as it could to secure its property.
She said: 'There is only so much you can do to defend your property so from our point of view we have already got reasonably good fencing and good padlocks, we have done what we can, but people don't care.
'It's heart breaking and it's so unfortunate because people work so hard [for us]. Some people might say £1,200 is not a lot but to us it is.'
A spokesperson for Norfolk Constabulary said anyone with any information relating to the thefts should call 101 quoting crime reference number 36/18766/19
Anyone who wishes to make a donation to the charity following the break in can do so via: paypal.me/hallswood.
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