Page 46 - Black Velvet Magazine Issue 105

BV105 pg 46-47 Cause For Applause.qxp_BV105 pg 46 30/12/2021 19:35 Page 1

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One of the things we’ve loved doing during the pandemic, outside of music and
gigs, has been visiting animal sanctuaries. While they are a sanctuary for animals,
they’ve also been a sanctuary for us. It’s quite magical to go and meet different an-
imals, especially ones that have been rescued and saved. We’ve visited three dif-
ferent local sanctuaries - going to each once twice. We’d go more often if we could!
One that we thought we’d mention this issue is FARS near Stratford-Upon-Avon.
We think FARS rocks and deserves more support.
FARS stands for Farm Animal Rescue Sanctuary. FARS is owned by Carole
Webb, who initially started rescuing farm animals in 1988, after having been a vet-
erinary nurse. She initially adopted a new-born lamb from a local farm and has not
looked back since. Her home, Woolly Park Farm in Wolverton, is now home to over
400 sheep! Although that’s not all, as Woolly Park Farm also includes a number of
pigs, chickens, feral cats - and is the place to be for many pigeons.

Shari made a new friend

If you check out the FARS website, over at
https://www.farmanimalrescuesanctuary.co.uk, you’ll find
that one way in which you can support the sanctuary is to
sponsor an animal. By sponsoring an animal, you also get
the chance to go and visit the sanctuary and meet your
chosen rescue (and others). We sponsored a couple of
sheep and, while COVID meant that FARS wasn’t taking
visitors in 2020, we received an email inviting us to visit a
few months ago. We had a great couple of hours meeting
the animals. Ellie, who works at the sanctuary, showed
us around and offered us a few biscuits to feed the sheep.
Be prepared for them all to rush at you, eager to grab a
biscuit, if you do! We discovered that some of the sheep
are very cheeky, they may nudge you for attention. Others
are more timid. Some have injuries. Rodney, for example,
has three legs. Peggy is blind in one eye, and Georgie
has only one eye. Some are quite old, others are younger.
One of our favourite sheep was Amos, a younger black
sheep who, Ellie told us, liked to eat the blackberries
when picked from one of the bushes in the field. We
picked a few and, sure enough, Amos ate them out of our
hand.

Cute little Amos

That moment when Penny (and
Sam) got the biscuits out.

CAUSE FOR APPLAUSE