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On the 4th July 2008, We were devastated to walk down our garden and find that all of the fish in our pond, which started of as my grandads, were floating lifeless on the top of the pond. The fish varied from Koi Carp, Golden Orfe's To Gold Fish most of which were my grandad's and some were children, who had won fish at the Fair and had brought them for us to look after in the pond.
The fish had a lot of memories for everyone, and we couldnt believe that anyone would want to do something so cruel. Not only did the fish hold alot of memories they were also worth alot of money.
The fish are irraplaceable!
When i contacted The Northern Echo and The Evening Gazette to see if they could help me with an appeal to try and find whoever had done this, they were realy help full. A day after the article was published in the paper i recieved a phonecall from the RSPCA to say that a Couple from Richmond had read about what had happend and they were devastated to hear about it. i was given there number and was aksked if i could give them a call, as they would like to help me get my pond back up and running. I rang Ivy & Stephen Ward straight up and they said that they kept fish themselves and would like to donate some of their fish to us. So on the 12th july we went up to Richmond to plan on how to get the fish home safely and also to meet Ivy & Stephen, They were lovely. The following Wednesday we went back up to richmond to bring the fish back and place in the pond. ITV Also done a follow up story that evening on us restocking the pond back up.
since then we have had numerous donations of fish which has really helped us get the pond back to how it should be.
Thank you to everyone for their support.
Below is the article which Mr Dave Robson wrote for the gazette, to try and help us find who could do such a devastating act, as my aim is always to make people smile and these cruel people brought me such sadness.
Thank You to both Dave Robson & Chris Brayshay for the help thye gave us. Best Wishes to Chris on his retirement.
40 fish killed as vandals pollute pond in Redcar
Posted by Evening Gazette on July 10, 2008 3:59 PM | Permalink
A TEENAGE charity supporter has been left devastated after a pollutant was used to deliberately kill 40 fish in her garden pond.
It is believed bleach or washing up liquid was poured into the pond at Kendra Pilcher's Dormanstown home.
Kendra, 16, has raised thousands of pounds for charity through her Change For A Smile charity.
About 40 fish were found floating, lifeless, on the pond's surface last Friday evening.
Cleveland Police and the RSPCA are investigating. Water samples have been sent off for analysis.
The pond was established by her beloved grandad Eddy Buckton, whose death in 2003 partly prompted Kendra to start her sterling charity work.
Local children used to enjoy coming round to see the pond and even helped stock it with goldfish won at fairgrounds.
Several impressive koi carp, bought by Eddy, also perished in the vandal attack.
Kendra, who is 17 in August, said she was devastated.
"It was heartbreaking trying to empty the pool," she said.
"The pool is particularly precious to me because it was my grandad's. We're going to gradually re-stock it, though. We can't just leave it empty."
RSPCA inspector Nick Jones said: "The fish died a horrible and completely unnecessary death."
Anyone with information is asked to call Redcar Police on 01642 302626 or the RSPCA 24-hour hotline, 0300 1234 999.
Kendra - a finalist in the Gazette's community champions awards last year - is setting up her own business, KTR Designs, producing business cards and leaflets.
She has also raised thousands of pounds for charity, with beneficiaries including the Parkinson's Disease Society, Epilepsy Outlook, James Cook University Hospital and the Merchant Navy Association's Redcar and Dormanstown branch.
The photo's above are of when we first found the fish on the morning. It took just over 2 weeks of hard work scrubbing and rinsing the ponds out to get rid of any trace of the poison that had killed the fish.
We only decided to continue to build the pond back up after all the kind help and support so many people showed. It gave us back hope that it was still possible to give back the memories of all the many years of hard work my grandad had put into the garden and built the pond to great beauty that brought us all great pleasure & comfort to me on loosing my gran & grandad.
Below you will see what can be achieved with help & support .
These for fish were the first donation we recieved. Tony donated them as the Explorers, to test the water was safe before we put any more fish in!
Indie (after Indiana Jones) Niel (After Niel Armstrong) James (After Captain James Cook) & Scott (After Robert Falcon Scott) have all surivived and are doing really well in the pond!
The Fish below are the ones which we recieved from Ivy and Stephen. We Named the 7 Fish : Ivy, Stephen, PigBag (Named by Claire Montgomary of ITV News) Robert, Jeff, Wall-e & Eve. they are settling in great.
the Red & white fish is a koi carp and is called Pigbag after the boro it was named by Claire Montgomory from ITV Tyne Tees
these flowers were a gift for Ivy as a thank you for her kind donation of beautiful fish ,but unfortunatly due to her asthma she was unabe to accept them and asked if we would place them in our garden at the benches that we have in memory of gran grandad & nanna it was so kind of her to think of them this way .
this photo was taken of the fish in their crates on the journey back from Ivy & Stevensin Richmond. Tony was ever so careful driving and kept apologizing to them whenever we hit a bump in the road
The Donator below is Chris Henwood from Maidenhead Aquatics, Stokesley.
he had been told about what had happend by Ivy and Stephen from richmond they gave him the article that was published in the Northern Echo.Chris then took time out on his day off and went personaly back into where he works to choose a fish for our pond
.Chris donated a lovely Koi Carp called Bill! Bill has settled in brilliant and is a lovely addition to the pond he brought it to place in the pond with his friend Steven Carass pictured below they both also said they would like to attend my next charity event to which they are more than welcome all support is greatly accepted.
Chris with his friend Steven Carass
Bill being released into his new home in our pond .
The donators below Matty Hugill & Yvonne Hume had read about what had happend in the gazette and are also friends of a friend. they had spoken to 2 friends of theirs Craig Hobson & Dean Morgan and they donated 5 of their fish to go in my pond. The 3 Blue Orphes are called Gok (After Gok Wan!) Gordon (After Gordon Ramsey) and Graham (After Graham Norton) and the 2 gold fish are called Justin and Alan (After Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr)
I recieved phone call in August from Mr Keith Swain who you will see in the photo below .he was my Form Tutor at school. He had heard about what happend to the fish and said he would like to donate some fish to my pond and also some Lily plants, which are out of his own pond. That same day he brought me 10 lovely goldfish, one of which he has called carole!
The fish are very cute and they are loving been able to swim around the whole pond.
At the end of August i recieved a lovely email from a gentleman called Derek and his daughter Sheree... who wanted there goldfish to go to a good home and asked if i would like them for the pond, which i greatly accepted.
Derek and Sheree kindly brought the fish the following day, and they settled straight away into the pond, below is a photo of all the fish and the names we have given them.
On the 24th August me and Tony went fishing! well not actually fishing, we went to find some fish i could put in my pond to name after The Family, which Tony said he would buy me as a birthday present. and also a Sturgeon! as they are totally different .after we had seen the one which stephen and Ivy havein there pond Tony said we've got to get one of them.
We first went to Ripon and Tony baught me 8 Koi Ghost Carp which you will see on the photos! whilst we were there we also found some smiley face balloons which were irresistable!!!
All of the fish have been named and their names are with the photo's.
the pond is now completely back to how my grandad would have wanted, and thats because of the lovely donations from so many generouse kind people and the most tremendous support i have had from Tony for completing the pond by buying fish to name after The Family which has brought a brilliant end to such a deverstating tragedy.many special thanks come from myself and my mam to you all xx
below are pictures of Tony the sturgen hes got beautiful eyes there like diamonds hes so tame if you wiggle your finger on the top of the water he will come to you hes a great pleasure to watch ,
The Orange White & Black fish is named Bailey
Orange & White fish is called after my Mam
The Silver & Black fish is named kendra .the Brown one at the front is named Tony
In the photo below the light golden ghost carp on the right is called grandad and the smaller light golden ghost carp on the left is Nanna
silver fish with slight black markings hiding at the side of the lily pot is called Gran the orange and white is mam and the light gold is grandad
In the photo below is gran & grandad having a great time swimming around with the family not far away
Mam & below Mam with Bailey
My Smiley balloons they say it all !!!!!!!!!!
Thank you xx
