Our Vision

About Tower Hill Stables

Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary (THS) was founded in 1994 with a mission to provide care and a forever home to animals in need. 

The sanctuary was an enormous undertaking, something I could not possibly have envisioned those twenty-plus years ago when I started it. I had always rescued animals in a small and simple way, but when one of my horses had a terrible accident due to the negligence of a stable owner, I decided to create a home for the animals I loved. After that, frantic preparations began and the mammoth process of raising the necessary funds to buy land commenced. It was huge; it seemed insurmountable. We sold everything we possessed of any value, and somehow we did it.

On the 5th December, 1996, my partner Martin and I moved to the sanctuary, with our family of animal friends. The next day, our injured horse Oscar came “home,” living happily for another four years, until old age eventually took him from us.

Since that time, the sanctuary has just grown to nearly 450 animals spanning across 5 properties. Whether they be retired race horses, ex-fighting dogs, or neglected and abused farm animals, they all are given love, respect, medical care and a peaceful place to live at THS.

We wouldn't be able to help so many animals without your continued support. Thank you for standing with us. 

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Fiona Oakes
Tower Hills Stables Animal Sanctuary, Founder

Please help me celebrate my birthday by donating to Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary. They have an opportunity to double your donations up to 20,000 dollars because of a generous donor. I was able to visit Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary in England last month and fell in love with their animals. One of the things that I love the most about Tower Hill Stables and how Fiona runs it is how the animals were able to bond across all species. That the animals had the space and freedom to be friends with whoever they wanted and that they knew they were in a safe space. Tower Hill Stables doesn't get a lot of attention or visitors like many sanctuaries do. So I felt so fortunate to be able to get up so close, bond and film their animals. So, please watch my video and take a look inside this beautiful place. Welcome to Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary in Essex England. Operated, almost single handedly, by vegan ultra athlete Fiona Oakes, with help from her partner Martin, Tower Hill Stables is home to over 400 rescued animals that include horses, pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, goats, ducks, geese, turkeys, dogs, swans, a donkey, a pony, cats and rabbits. Since being founded in 1993 by Fiona, Tower Hill Stables has rescued numerous animals from severe abuse and neglect. Fiona, who has no regular volunteers and has never taken a salary, cares for every single one of these animals while managing to run over 100 miles a week. She relies heavily on funding from her family, her partner and the generosity of a small group of regular supporters. Fiona wakes up at 3:30 a.m. each day to attend to the animals at three different sites. She does all the feeding, caring, treatments and medications required before fitting in her daily training which is a 20 mile run or speed work on the treadmill. After training, Fiona will start again with the afternoon and evening care of the animals. Fiona, a vegetarian since the age of 3 and vegan since the age of 6, has dedicated her life to saving animals and uses her vegan athlete platform to further advocate for animals. Fiona is an amazing yet relatively unknown vegan athlete who holds three marathon world records and five marathon course records including the The North Pole Marathon and The Antarctic Ice Marathon. She has completed over 50 marathons with a personal best of 2 hours 38 minutes. In 2012 Fiona became the first vegan female to complete the grueling Marathon des Sables which is described as the ‘toughest foot race on the planet’ involving running six consecutive marathons across the Sahara Desert carrying all your food and supplies for the week on your back. In 2015 Fiona ran 6 official marathons in 6 days on 6 continents. Fiona is the fastest woman in the world to run a marathon on all 7 continents and the north pole in both cumulative and elapsed time. Fiona’s achievements are made even more astounding due to the fact that she was told at the age of 14 that she would never walk properly, let alone ever run, after undergoing 17 radical knee surgeries which ultimately led to having her entire right kneecap removed. With overcoming her own adversity, Fiona’s true drive to achieve incredible feats of speed and human endurance are motivated by a deep desire to raise awareness for the plight of animals around the world. DONATE HERE: youcaring.com/veganshani