We will always be governed by compassion never by our accounts. That's why we are here.
BRITAIN’S FIRST FARM ANIMAL SANCTUARY: ABOUT US
Janet Taylor
"Walking into a Worcestershire livestock market one freezing morning twenty years ago I felt as though I'd passed through the gates of hell. The noise, the frantic bleatings of distressed animals mixed with the loud shouts of men. Sheep running and slipping as they were chased down wet, dirty concrete passageways into pens. Cattle making their loud noises of incomprehension as they stood at the top of steep ramps too afraid to move, men moving towards them with sticks.
I watched orphan lambs being auctioned, some of them only forty eight hours old, hanging motionless as they were held aloft by their front legs to show them off. One small black lamb was carried in a box by an elderly farmer. The lamb wasn't moving so the old man was told to take him away as he wouldn't last until the end of the sale. I handed over £1 and with the lamb held inside my jumper and the car heater turned up high raced him to our vets. He survived his hypothermia and dehydration and gut infection. We named him Taro and he lived until he was fifteen years old.
Phoenix the Lamb who died, Read his story
Each and every market I visited there were scenes of similar horror, except they weren't noticed by the people who worked and traded there. Sheep with gangrenous mastitis, a tumour growing from an eye, burst abscesses, feet so crippled with footrot they were barely able to stand. An old ewe dying from pneumonia. Cows with distended dripping udders and overgrown feet, calves a few days old shaking with fear and cold showing signs of severe intestinal infection, sold to dealers to be exported to Holland and France for veal rearing. Horses and ponies covered in lice and with ribs showing, others showing obvious signs of illness, unwanted and knowing it. Sad little featherless ex-battery hens with raw chests sold for 10p. Old ducks who had never seen water with filthy dirt clogged feathers.
I purchased over sixty of the sickest animals, nearly all of them survived with veterinary care, comfort and food. The story was taken up by national and local press and the Sanctuary was formed, not just for the sake of the animals already rescued but to be able to make people aware that in spite of laws meant to protect them, the woeful lack of welfare considerations surrounding all farm animals. Meetings were held with veterinary officers from the state veterinary service, private vets, market managers, trading standards officers and representatives from the farming world. All of them agreed that the evidence presented to them was un-acceptable and that improvements were to be made."
"Currently at the Sanctuary we are caring for 450 sheep, 7 cattle, 5 pigs, 12 horses and ponies and an assortment of poultry. We need to raise £1.500.00 every week to keep going and need every bit of help we can find to keep these animals safe. There are so few places for rescued farm animals to go to and a lack of sympathy from the general public because they prefer to eat them without wanting to think too deeply about how they got onto their plate. We enjoy being amongst them when they are alive. Our animals need your help. Please give them a thought."