Cornish woman’s Bulgarian dog rescue needs £50,000 to buy its land

She Left Cornwall For A Quiet Retirement. Bulgaria Had Other Plans

She moved to Bulgaria thinking the hardest part of her day would be choosing where to walk. Ten years later, she is running a dog rescue with hundreds of lives behind her and a £50,000 race against time in front of her.

Justine Garratt left Cornwall for what she imagined would be a peaceful retirement. What she found instead was a country where thousands of dogs live and die on the streets, often overlooked and uncared for. She could not drive past. She started taking in the odd stray, offering food, warmth and a bit of kindness, and word travelled fast. People began leaving dogs at her door. Some were thrown over her fence. She helped every single one.

That is how Santerpaws Bulgarian Rescue began. Not as a plan. As a response.

From one woman to a registered UK charity

A decade on, what started with one stray and a soft heart has grown into a registered UK charity (Registered Charity No. 1183401) that has rescued, rehabilitated and rehomed hundreds of dogs, along with cats, horses and donkeys picked up along the way. Justine has built it all as a volunteer.

She runs the Bulgarian sanctuary day to day with her partner Pete. Back in the UK, close friend and fellow founding trustee Amanda Hitchcock coordinates from Betchworth in Surrey, where the charity is registered. Between the three of them, an idea that was never meant to be an idea has become something thousands of animals have passed through.

Alongside the rescue work, Santerpaws also runs a neutering programme aimed at reducing the number of unwanted litters at source, cutting off the problem before it reaches the streets. Every dog that comes to the UK arrives fully vaccinated, health-checked and compliant with import regulations, then carefully matched with a family. Adopters get lifelong back-up support.

There is no paid CEO. No paid trustees. No government funding. Just volunteers and donations.

£50,000 to save the sanctuary

The shelter itself was built by the charity with public donations, but the land beneath it has always been rented. Rental costs have risen, improvements are restricted, and there has been a constant background fear that one day Santerpaws could be asked to leave and lose the only safe place dozens of dogs have.

That land is now up for sale, and the charity has been given the chance to buy it outright. The target is £50,000, which covers the purchase and secure fencing so the dogs have room to roam and play safely. Owning the land would also unlock formal grant funding that renting currently blocks, putting the charity on far steadier ground.

The campaign launched on 7th April 2026 and so far has raised £2,338 from 50 donors. The GoFundMe is live here.

Justine said: “I came to Bulgaria for a peaceful retirement. I never planned any of this. But when you see a frightened dog by the side of the road with nowhere to go, you can’t just drive past. You stop. And then you stop again. And before you know it, you’ve built a sanctuary. I wouldn’t change a single moment of it but right now I need help to make sure what we’ve built can last.”