- November 18, 2024
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SAFFARI Animal Rescue owner Ruth Rupprecht has decided not to apply for special exception that would have allowed her to continue housing rescued animals at her Hammock-area homestead.
Without the exception from the county, Rupprecht will be limited to the same number of domestic animals as other people in residential areas: three.
“It would be like $700 dollars, and after researching, and delving in, it’s clear that we’re not going to get it,” Rupprecht said. “We’re thinking that that money could be better spent.”
At a meeting this past week after she decided not to apply for the exception, Rupprecht said, the county gave her 60 days to bring the number of animals at the homestead down to three from its more usual 12-14.
But she’s not shutting down the rescue, she said. Instead, she has parceled the rescued animals out to temporary foster homes and started looking for land on which to build a shelter.
“We like our animals to be in a home environment anyway,” she said. “So we reached out to the public, and said, ‘Can you take two? Maybe you can take two.’”
Rupprecht had planned earlier this summer to apply for the exception from the county, but she first appealed to the County Commission to reduce the variance application fee from $345 to $172.50 and to reduce the special exception application fee from $300 to $150.
Commissioners voted unanimously at a July 7 meeting not to reduce the fees after Commissioner Nate McLaughlin made a motion for denial, “based on the fact that it does cost money, time and money,” for the county to process variance and exception applications, and that “it’s really not the best policy to set down this road of fee reductions.”
For now, Rupprecht said, SAFFARI is accepting new animals only as spots in foster homes become available.
