The Farmers That... Just Couldn’t...

Here are some of the many animals, including cows, goats. pigs. horses and ponies that we gave a home to in October 2017 when their owners could no longer afford to feed them. The owners ran a farm shop where they had intended to sell meat but having bred the goats, they couldn’t face having them slaughtered! We also took in 16 cows which they also couldn’t send to the same fate after they saw firsthand the dreadful suffering that animals were enduring at the slaughterhouse.

When first in business, they took a herd of sheep to the slaughterhouse. When they started to leave, all the sheep jumped out of the abattoir pen and followed them back to the trailer! The ‘farmers’ loaded them up and took them back home again.

In the end, the kindhearted ‘would be farmers’ found their business financially unviable and became bankrupt. We took in their animals, including some heavy horses, who had nowhere else to go.

In January, we were alerted to a swan who was reported to be in trouble with a damaged wing on a local river. We had to wade, waist deep, into the river to reach the swan and bring her back to the bank, where it was obvious that she was in need of urgent treatment. We rushed her to our vet who attended to her badly infected wing. Back at the Sanctuary, our thoughts turned to her mate on the river who had been extremely distressed at having his lifelong mate taken away from him. So, we took the decision to return to catch him so they could stay together while the female recovered. We wish we had filmed the heartwarming moment when the pair were reunitedthey were obviously so relieved to be back in each other's company. The injured swan's wing was treated and dressed every day but our vet advised the best course of action was to amputate the afflicted wing and the operation was carried out successfully. However, without the use of both wings, we could not release her back into the wild. So, both birds were taken to Hillside Shire Horse Sanctuary at West Runton, to live together on our well-fenced pond where they wouldn’t have to worry about predators.

Soon after, the swans (who we named Romeo and Juliet) were released,Romeo flew away. However,a month later, he returned and has not left Juliet’s side since. They now remain living happily together on our pond, atWest Runton by the sea with other rescued swans.