Keeping the Team Together!

After a long, wet, winter, we were all prepared for our best season ever in 2020. T he diary already half full at the start of March... Then Covid struck!

When lockdown hit we lost our entire display season - at a stroke. The summer and all of our wedding bookings. W e had to cancel all our private bookings too, as well as every contract display at local hotels.

So we've no income since the start of March - and, like many others, we don't qualify for any of the government support. Our Horses, hounds and hawks do not qualify for furlough either!

Running on Fumes
Our overheads remain the same but there are lots of mouths (& beaks) to feed!
Caring for our  animals is our priority. Despite falling outside all of the government support schemes we have been holding things together. But with no option to re- open for customers on the horizon, the team is in real trouble - now and for the winter, as our mainstay - the  summer season - has been wiped out...

We Want to Keep Our Team Together

We’ve now got to the stage where our only way of surviving is to start to disband the team -
selling one, or possibly two of our higher value birds. This is a heart-breaking decision to face as
it is very much one team and one heart here - hawks, horses, hounds and humans working together.
It has been 20 years to get Dartmoor Hawking to where it is now, and to even be thinking of
breaking up the team, through no fault of our own, is completely devastating.

This is really our last option left to keep the team together and we are hoping that you can support
a small local business survive the summer. We know everyone is struggling now but if you could
give even a little, you would be feeding so many mouths and preventing some heart-breaking
losses in our team.

We’ve all worked so hard and to not be able to do what we do best is difficult
as it is, but without your help, we might not be able to get to fly in the same way ever again.

We're the only place in the UK people can experience falconry from horseback - and we
want  to continue to be able to do that for years to come.
To provide those once in a lifetime experiences that our customers enjoy so much, from the kids
seeing an eagle fly to one of our owls delivering a little extra magic on a wedding day, flying the
rings down the aisle.

Saving the Dartmoor Dream

Each and every animal involved is so important in this, and we just wouldn’t be the same without
them as they all contribute so much, large and small. If you can help keep the Dartmoor Hawking
team together, and become one of the Support Crew with your contribution, we would be so
grateful for your support.

With love from a ll of the Dartmoor Team…

Featuring:

Martin and Philippa (the humans!)

Rosie, Artemis, Barney, Dolly, Ted. Floki, Merlin, Frank, Florence, Charlie, Ron and Reg, Sharon
and Dave (the hawks, falcons, eagles and owls)

The ‘recycled’ racehorses (who are a little shy and don’t like the spotlight)

The hounds, Monty, Max and Will I Woof