Comedian Ricky Gervais backs Cornwall monkey sanctuary's fight to stay open
Watch the director of Wild Futures explain the impact of the cost of living crisis in Charlotte Gay's report.
Comedian and Hollywood star Ricky Gervais has shared his support for a monkey sanctuary in Cornwall that is fighting to stay open.
Wild Futures in Looe is home to 40 rescued monkeys but is struggling amid pressures from the cost of living crisis.
Rachel Hevesi, Director of Wild Futures, told ITV News West Country: "We've had a sort of triple whammy over the last couple of years.
"First of all, COVID, which meant that we lost most of our visitor incomes for two years and then Brexit meant we lost a lot of European funding that we really depended on.
"And then the cost of living crisis means our energy bills as with so many other people, they are going through the roof."
The pandemic and the current hikes in prices have meant the charity was forced to use its reserves to cover maintenance costs.
Rachel said: "It's just too much for us at the moment and so we do have this sort of cash flow crisis."
Over the last two and a half years, the charity estimates to have lost around half a million pounds.
The sanctuary's running costs for one year are £600,000.
"We think it's going to take us about three years to build our way out," Rachel added.
But the charity is not alone in trying to keep the sanctuary open, receiving help from unexpected supporters in recent weeks.
Rachel said: "We've got some amazing supporters - for instance, Ricky Gervais has tweeted for us and that really helped to raise awareness of the campaign.
"We need more of that sort of high level support and need to try and reach as many people as we can because one of the issues is there aren't many places that can take monkeys with that kind of background," she said.
Frances Certhew-Davis, a volunteer, said: "The prospect of this place ever closing down is just devastating to think of for me, for the locals, but also for the staff here, for the monkeys.
"Even though we're at full capacity of rescuing monkeys, there are still so many more which need to be rescued and there's not really any other place in the country which do as much work as we do here in that."
Earlier this month, the charity launched an appeal after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic put the sanctuary under financial strain.