Their three children have all grown up and flown the coop, but the compassionate couple isn’t free of parenting responsibility. Ardent animal activists, Lucy and Gary share their picturesque 16-hectare property with a motley crew of rescued animals, including 20 pigs, two cows, four chooks, two geese, six dogs and two cats. Much like caring for their children as babies, Lucy and Gary are kept busy from dawn to dusk – there are mouths to feed, water troughs to fill, pens to clean and fences to mend. “It’s our pleasure to serve our animals. We’re very happy here on this property,” Lucy says. “My favourite time of day is dusk when everything is calm and quiet and the birds are all around settling in the trees.” Gary loves the early morning fog that floods the valley below them and gradually thins as it sweeps up the hill to greet them on their porch. It wraps around the cottage like a cool embrace. Lucy explains their property has become the unofficial drop-off for abandoned, neglected and abused farm animals, and caring for them is her passion. “I think farm animals get the raw end of the deal. They don’t have a lot of protection,” she says, explaining that the welfare laws that prevent cruelty to domestic pets don’t apply to farm animals. Lucy’s background tales of the animals she receives are saddening and often sickening. There are puppies rescued from puppy farms suffering fleabites and malnutrition, and exploited pigs that have spent their entire lives in pens the size of a >
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