The Donkey Sanctuary Reviews 23

Lovely visit and very tranquil place

I am pleased with the donkey sanctuary as they do not keep on at you for more money, I give them £6 a month and have not been harassed in the last 3 years.

We have been supporting The Donkey Sanctuary for a while now, until recently, when we realised that there is no customer service when it comes to making an enquiry about an issue with a shop order. We received the wrong item, so we tried to follow the instructions on the invoice. There were a few order numbers on the invoice, which was confusing. We tried emailing via the email provided. We tried communicating through the website, and there was no response. We later researched The Donkey Sanctuary and did not like what we found, so we have decided not to support them anymore.

UPDATE: The shop issue has now been resolved since posting this review. It just took longer than expected.

We went to the Donkey Sanctuary just outside Sidmouth, Devon. We haven’t been for about 10 years and it was truly lovely…they have added so much more to the site.

Great for walking dogs on leads, nice and flat for the older humans too. Dog bowls all around the main central site.
Loads of donkeys to stroke..super friendly and instagrammable!
Massive shop full of donkey cards, tea towels, T-shirts etc.we bought loads of cards and 3 felt Xmas decorations in September! lol !
The coffee shop has an inside and outside and dogs are welcome in both. Our loves food, so sat outside with a sea view!
Toilets on site
We noticed wheel chairs in the foyer, so I assume you can hire them…but please check with the site.
Plants for sale too!
A Maze
Kids play area
Free to enter, but a donation is a must!

We only live 40 minutes away and we will be back next year…the dogs loved it too!

Just spent the best part of the day here with my grandson and meeting up with old friends for lunch in the cafe. Excellent day all around. Brilliant to see the donkeys looking very well cared for despite the heat wave. Well done.

Biggest con ever went to visit the sanctuary in Birmingham they had 1 donkey in a small field overlooking the bosses mansion

Despicable company. I was happy to donate to the sanctuary to help the poor donkeys but found out the CEO is earning in excess of £90,000 per year plus they are shutting down sanctuaries probably to sell to unscrupulous builders for more housing. All the money should be put into saving the donkeys not being paid to greedy selfish people. Shame on you.

I was about to donate to this charity after seeing their advert on the TV. However, the fact that no one has responded to all the negative reviews strongly indicates a lack of communication and care for those who donate to this charity in good faith.

Took out a subscription February 2024 for my daughter. Booked a visit to nearest donkey sanctuary in Leeds. Cancelled by Donkey Sanctuary just days before, as about to undertake supposed review about closing virutally all sanctuaries. Doubtless decision to cut sanctuaries already made. 90-day review made. Surprise, surprise, vast majority of sanctuaries shut, leaving just Sidmouth, Devon, 300 miles away and Belfast. During the 90-day review period I kept receiving online adverts for Donkey Sanctuary sponsorship. No reference made in these ads to review or closures. Very misleading.
Donkey Sanctuary are symptomatic of the current malaise of charities that appoint crooked executives to cream off sponsorship money by brining in massive cuts. Pure corruption.
I won't be renewing my sponsorship with Donkey Sanctuary or any other charity for that matter. Charities are not to be trusted. The Charity Commission needs to investigate Donkey Sanctuary. If enough of us complaint to them they just might.

Donkey sanctuary lottery is a con. I text and paid the £1. A stranger then rings you asking for your bank details. They try to make you set up regular monthly payments to them. The woman ringing could have been anyone, no idea if they are even legitimate. Will not be entering again

We gave each of our grandchildren an adoption package purchased from Ivybridge sanctuary. They had several very enjoyable visits to Ivybridge, and found the visits to be informative and personalised.
It was with great sadness that they learned of the close of Ivybridge. They have received no notification of the closure- finding out through local media instead. They have no idea where " their" donkeys now are. The recent newsletter I received had no mention of the closure of this sanctuary.
Surely it would have been a matter of basic courtesy to have notified children who had been involved with the sanctuary.
An online search on the website fails to give an emaill address .

Feel sorry for the donkeys, so many ceos are on the huge salaries and yet sanctuaries are closing! Ive been to Sidmouth and Buxton and both salaried staff are ignorant only the volunteers who work for nothing are nice. The Buxton and Sidmouth Managers are ignorant. My heart goes to the donkeys bless their beautiful souls. The 2 stars are for the donkeys 0 for the Management!

Excellent place for donkeys not a place for dogs on a hot day,
dog walking on a very hot day there was no better than leaving a dog in a hot car

Been visiting for years. Always enjoyed.
Little bit disappointed to see, the hut which serves ice cream only does contactless payments. Group of children waited to be served left disappointed because they only had cash.

In total agreement with other one star reviews. The donkey sanctuary have closed Uk centres and we have not been informed where our sponsored Donkey is? Or Have any chance of visiting.
They claim it’s financial issues yet the three directors are still reported to be claiming £160000 a year in salaries. That’s £480000 per year altogether, that could be funnelled back to the animals.
And surprise, surprise no offer of a refund. It appears they have no interest in the welfare of animals and more interest in lining there own pockets.
In my opinion don’t waste your money on these con artists.

To my grave shock and disappointment, I have received an unexpected email today from The Donkey Sanctuary, stating they are proposing to close 4 of their UK centres, including Leeds due to disclosed financial issues. A consultation to this end is said to commence today. As a consequence, they have cancelled my 12-year old daughter's appointment to visit her sponsored donkey, Harbin, in Leeds this Saturday, 23rd May, 2024. Understandably, she is extremely disappointed, upset and tearful.

Financial problems for an organisation do not just arise out of thin air. Did The Donkey Sanctuary know 4 of their UK centres were in financial trouble when my mother purchased this sponsorship for my daughter, her granddaughter? The Donkey Sanctuary has NOT offered to refund our money.

Moreover, in spite of their declared financial problems, The Donkey Sanctuary continues to advertise sponsorship of donkeys on their website. Unbelievable. Is it lawful for an organisation to do so when in declared financial difficulty? If they go into adminsitration we may never see our money again.

This debacle has very much undermined our trust in sponsoring any animal charities in future, especially The Donkey Sanctuary.

A very, very poor show on the part of The Donkey Sanctuary, especially as charities are exempt from tax.

In spite of the fact The Donkey Sanctuary are currently completing a 45-day consultation re: closure of 4 of its centres, including Leeds, they continue to advertise online for donkey adoption. Although they emailed me last week to say my scheduled visit to see donkey, Harbin at their Leeds sanctuary was cancelled due to their 45-day consultation, nevertheless they keep sending me emails advertising donkey adoption. Is this lawful? Are customers like myself with The Donkey Sanctuary adoption packages being taken for fools? This is starting to feel like a smaller scale version of the MG asset stripping scandal a few years back.

if The Donkey Sancuary want to save their 4 centres I suggest that they lay off all ofn their executive board, who doubtless receive bloated salaries and benefits courtesy of donkey adoption payments.

The Donkey Sanctuary have given a very vague reference to the welfare of the donkeys in their care.

I would strongly advise against taking out a sponsorship of a donkey with The Donkey Sanctuary.

Once the 45-day consultation concludes on Friday 05/07/24, depending on the outcome, I am considering lodging a formal complaint with the Charity Commission. I would encourage other adoption holders to do likewise.

The Donkey Sanctuary are undermining public confidence in animal charities.

If after the 45-day consultation ends on 5th July the 4 centres are closed, I strongly urge everyone affected to lodge a formal complaint with the Charity Commission. Chariites are being exploited far too much for asset stripping. A charity is a charity, not a business designed to make greedy executives richer. These unscrupulous people should leave the third sector and go to the private sector. Their unscrupulous behaviour is ruining charities and undermining public confidence in these.

In spite of planning to axe most of their centres, The Doney Sanctuary still have the sheer audacity to send me emails encouraging me to take out donkey adoption. This is unbelievable. No wonder the public have no faith in charities and won't invest in these. You can't blame them when these are run by greedy, money-grabbing, asset-stripping executives.

We fostered 2 donkeys and had them for 8 years. We looked after them fed them vaccinated them dosed them when they were due. The donkeys sanctuary then decided that they needed dental care. We were to pay for this . When we refused to pay the vet for this they removed the 2 donkeys. The donkeys had a fabulous life here with us . As we had bonded with them it was extremely difficult to see them go .In the same breath the sanctuary were advertising that they were not taking in any donkeys as the there were full to capacity. Extremely petty of the sanctuary to refuse to pay their vet for dental care. I don’t expect this review will be left up here long. Regards
Neil Murphy
Ardpatrick.

We spent the day yesterday at the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon. Just WOW. Such a beautiful, huge and well maintained heaven for donkeys. Around 220 animals on site. Very instructive day, full of information available on site about the life and organisation of the sanctuary and their 4 legged hosts. Visibly the animals are loved and looked after and the staff is friendly. We made a donation, bought nice items from the shop and had lunch at the restaurant. The food is really delicious. We took loads of pictures and we were delighted to pet some of the donkeys. For animal lovers like us it was fabulous to get close. We spotted Beau the cat too. Lovely day guaranteed.

Just visited Donkey Sanctuary Leeds, amazing place. So informative and the lovely people who work there will answer all your questions and have a mound of information to give you. We sponsor 2 donkeys and it’s only £3 per month each, they don’t pressure you, but you will just fall in love with them all. A beautiful magical relaxing place. It’s 10 stars minimum from me & my daughter🥰🥰🥰

An absolutely brilliant place to go, totally family friendly. Free entry and a lovely day out.

The donkeys are so well cared for by the friendly wonderful staff, you can stroke the donkeys as well if you like. The café is really nice and the coffee is very good.

To adopt a donkey is only £3 a month, so worth it for the free entry and the day out.

So worth a visit, and nice to support such a worthy cause.