FARR – the Pack knows best…
(What I like about FARR is tthat they have taken it upon themselves to add capacity to a scarce resource in the animal welfare community – fostering. They also have a unique approach, and it is one that the ‘Lords’ of welfare have not considered, much less tried, since they oppose fostering, thereby giving up a unique opportunity to rehabilitate animals in the most natural of surroundings…)
Patti was in the process of ‘divorcing’ herself from FORA when we first came in contact with her and we spent many long hours on the phone discussing all the pros and cons of the place and what we could do to improve the lives of the animals there. Fostering was our solution. We had 13 dogs at that stage and 4 pigs (my passion) and had the space, finances and time to take in more.
Before we had even seen the ‘Dog Whisperer’ – and we don’t condone all his methods – we discovered the healing ability of the pack, their willingness to take in sick, abused, abandoned animals and turn them into healthy, balanced individuals ready to be re-homed into a normal home environment. As humans we also play a part in the rehabilitation of these lost souls – they live with us in our home, eat and go for walks with our dogs, sleep on our beds and are loved and welcomed as part of the family.
We leave most of the disciplining to our Alpha male – a 75kg Boer Bull called Stalin – and to the untrained eye it might sound and look rather frightening with a lot of growling and gnashing of teeth but it works. Unlike us humans, dogs like to know where they are in the order of the pack and are happy and content with their lot. They all have duties involved in the well being of the pack – we have ‘hospital’ dogs, ‘mother’ dogs (Stalin loves licking very young pups to stimulate their digestive systemJ), ‘comforter’ dogs, look-out dogs, attack dogs , ‘clown’ dogs – you name it, a pack has them all. It can be quite daunting for any animal to walk straight into all this – especially if they have been neglected and un-socialised – so usually for the 1st week or so the new dogs are a little withdrawn but then they start playing and we know we have won.
Patti then took the time to walk us through home checks and the adoption process – and of course Dr Shelagh Hahn has given us ridiculous rescue rates to enable us to keep our adoption fees low. We branched out from FORA and now do a lot of fostering for CLAW – we have helped 4PAWS and Husky Rescue and are now dealing with Patti again. If the animal comes to us already sterilised then we make sure the adoption fee goes to the Welfare Society concerned – if we do the sterilisation then the adoption fee goes into our account at Dr Shelagh’s.
Of course, we have grown – we now have between 40 to 50 dogs with us and 40 rescue pigs and of course, the problems of feeding and housing them all. None of our animals are in pens – unless the pig came to us pregnant and has given birth, in which case we keep them away from the dogs until they are old enough not to look like prey. We have 10 huge wooden containers filled with straw dotted around the yard – each container can hold up to 4 sleeping pigs – and 2 Wendy houses also filled with straw and infra red lights for mum and piglets. Our doors remain open 24 / 7 – even when we are at work – and all pigs and dogs can choose if they want to be inside or outside. We do have kennels outside for the dogs but they are rarely used – our Chows refuse to sleep either inside or in a kennel no matter how hard we try to entice them. Of course the sleeping place of choice are our beds but we have blankets and baskets all over the house and sofas, chairs are all used by both pigs and dogs! I rotate the puppies and usually have 5 puppies on the bed with me each night and the rest in baskets – so they get used to both and will not be too distressed at changes in their new homes.
We use our own salaries to buy food and get cheap rates from a lady who has all the damaged bags of food delivered to her from certain manufacturers. Of course the Welfares help us out when they can but they are also struggling and we try not to pressure them. We have a wonderful lady who donates some bags to us each month and now Shelley and Viv from SAINTS have helped us quite a bit with food, home checks etc.
Leslie Giles and Mel Stander
God bless you for all the work you do for the annies