Animal lover's £25,000 plane bill

Sylvia VanAtta said she could not face putting the animals down

An animal lover has paid more than £25,000 to fly 19 stray animals to her new home in Carmarthenshire from the United States.

Sylvia VanAtta, 47, decided to close her animal sanctuary in North Carolina, but could not face putting any of the animals down.

So she brought the 14 dogs, four cats and a horse back with her.

She said: "They were the unwanted of the unwanted, but I could not turn my back on them."

London-born Mrs VanAtta has spent her adult life saving animals after training as a dog psychologist.

She formed rescue centres in Kent and Israel before heading for America and opening the sanctuary in Richmond County.

Sometimes you just have to say to yourself that you are going to do some good and to hell with the cost Sylvia VanAtta

"We had thousands of unwanted animals through our doors," she said.

"But I was always aware that the situation in Wales was pretty bad and for a long while I wanted to do something there."

Mrs VanAtta bought a small holding at Cefneithin, just outside Cross Hands, with four acres of land and set about rehousing the animals back in America.

"It went pretty well but I was left with 19 animals and there was no way I was going to see them killed.

"The only thing to do was to bring them with us," she added.

Rehoused

She and her husband Bill sold their American home and used some of the proceeds to finance the operation.

They first had to ship the dogs and cats 400 miles to Miami, Florida, to find an airline willing to fly them across the Atlantic.

Bandera, the stallion, proved even more difficult. He had to be taken by road to New York and then flown to Amsterdam, where he was collected and taken by road and ferry to Wales.

Before that, it took six months to satisfy British animal health regulations.

The VanAttas paid for a vet to test and register all the animals disease-free and then to repeat the tests six months later. Only then were they granted "pets' passports" that would get them into the UK.

"It was all very costly and no doubt people will think about all the good we could have done for other animals for the same amount of money.

"But when you have seen as much suffering as we have then sometimes you just have to say to yourself that you are going to do some good and to hell with the cost," said Mrs VanAtta, a mother-of-two.

Two of the American dogs have been rehoused in the UK but homes are still needed for the rest.

The couple are now developing facilities at their new Many Tears sanctuary to cater for abandoned pets.