Bare bones: Charity in financial dire straits

A Sunshine Coast animal welfare charity is in financial dire straits after its driving force was left incapacitated from a horror truck crash.

Popular lawyer Anthony Walsgott on the road to recovery after a horror truck crash earlier this month. He is lucky to be alive but his primary concern is not himself but the huge number of cows he looks after. Pictured, Anthony's partner Julianne Watson. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

AN ANIMAL welfare charity is in financial dire straits after its driving force was left incapacitated from a horror truck crash.

Save a Cow Foundation owner and operator Anthony Walsgott survived a crash where a cement mixer crushed his ute.

His partner has been left to run the sancturies.

He sustained multiple injuries including a fractured diaphragm, four broken ribs and was in a coma for four days.

While he is back on his Booroobin property he is unable to walk, let alone work.

READ: 'Under the wheels of the cement truck': Man's coma nightmare

Prior to the crash, Mr Walsgott would be working around the clock to keep the charity alive, at times 24-hours a day.

Popular lawyer Anthony Walsgott on the road to recovery after a horror truck crash earlier this month. He is lucky to be alive but his primary concern is not himself but the huge number of cows he looks after. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

"Even though I have a high pain threshold, my aorta in my heart was badly damaged, so I have to be careful not to get a hernia," Mr Walsgott said.

"We really need the foundation to become financially sustainable. We have run on bare bones for 10 years, sometimes working 24 hours straight.

"We haven't been able to step away from this place for more than one night. It's been so full on."

He said it could cost thousands of dollars to feed just one cow.

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"Weddings, holidays, weekends away, we can't do them," his partner Julianne Watson added.

"Our aim is to train up people to enjoy what we have, so if we do want or need to go away, we can."

Save a Cow Foundation have 80 cows across five sanctuaries - Maleny, Gympie, Nambour, Glasshouse Mountains and Wamuran.

Mr Walsgott said it was one of the largest of its kind outside of India.

He had been en route to one of the sanctuaries when the near-fatal crash unfolded.

A crowd-funded campaign to aid the charity and Mr Walsgott's recovery had been a godsend, but the couple fear what will happen when it runs dry.

"I'm really grateful for all the support of the community. It has been beautiful," he said.

"But if that tap cuts off we are in trouble."

Power cuts homes, but no rain damage

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