Op Shop helps give rescue animals second chance on no-kill ranch

Soquilichi Rescue Ranch President Miranda Wells with volunteer Maree Buttery. Ms Wells opened the Op Shop at Kulangoor to help cover the costs of caring for hundreds of animals each year. 

by Janine Hill

A FORMER morgue between Nambour and Yandina has been reincarnated as an op shop to benefit rescue animals.

Soquilichi Rescue Ranch opened the op shop at Kulangoor in May to help cover the costs of caring for hundreds of animals each year at the associated ranch at Yandina, formed to save animals from death row.  

President Miranda Wells said she was moved to establish the no-kill rescue facility after she discovered that many horses were butchered locally and sent overseas for human consumption. 

“I used to buy all of them that I could,” she said. “Most of them that I could afford were just skin and bone so they didn’t want them.  I had to do something. So we set up the Rescue Ranch.” 

Soquilichi currently has about 300 animals – dogs, cats and horses – in care. Ms Wells said most animals were farmed out to their network of foster homes. Still, the running costs were huge.

“Vet bills are probably our biggest expense, about $250,000 a year,” she said.

Soquilichi, which means “friends of horses” in Native American, has survived through donations, online fundraising games, sausage sizzles, garage sales, and “club” membership of $1 per person per week. But Ms Wells hopes the op shop will shoulder some of the load.

The op shop building has had an interesting past. 

Originally a textile factory, it was used as a morgue by two funeral directors before being converted to a winery and had been the base of a rubbish removal business before Soquilichi got the keys.

Ms Wells said Soquilichi ran an op shop from another section of the complex years ago but was forced to close it after the store after vandals broke in and trashed it.

A film crew which chases paranormal activity checked out the morgue building when Soquilichi moved in May.

Night Watchers Paranomal Queensland has posted a video on YouTube of a session at the morgue which appears to show electronic equipment detecting entities and emitting garbled speech.

Ms Wells said some volunteers had noticed a possible presence.

“Some of the girls have felt something. I haven’t,” Miranda said.

The op shop is open four days a week and is stocked with items donated by the public. Pet items and homewares were the best sellers, Ms Wells said.

Donations can be dropped off at 5 Rutherford Road, Kulangoor, during store opening hours, which are 9am to 3pm Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.