BIG MOUTHS TO FEED
Barry Smith gives llucky llama Charlie a treat at his Land O’ Lakes Rescue Petting Farm, a Kaladar-area zoo that has hit hard times despite its focus on rehabilitating abused and injured animals.
What grew out of Barry and Donna Smith’s compassion for abused children and animals is in danger of closing down in this cottage community, just north of Highway 7 at Kaladar.
The couple operates the Land O’ Lakes Rescue Petting Farm in Cloyne — an endeavour they opened to the public five years ago after taking in scores of abused and neglected animals while raising five foster children. They believe traumatized children and animals can help heal each other, and say they have witnessed it with their own foster kids.
The purpose of the operation is to provide permanent homes and rehabilitation for the animals and to teach visitors, particularly children, about them.
The Smiths say for the farm needs to start breaking even to stay afloat and say their last resort is to convince the Canada Revenue Agency to grant the farm charity status.
The student legal clinic at Queen’s University is helping with their application and student Brody Appotive says charity status would give the operation more credibility and recognition to approach potential corporate and private donors. It would also allow the Smiths to issue tax receipts. “They’re doing really good work in the community,” Appotive says.
“The Smiths seem very dedicated to helping out these animals that need rescuing” and educating the public. Visitors include children and adults with mental and physical disabilities.
Although visitors are clearly impressed, the Smiths say the petting farm attracts fewer than the 6,000 people it is estimated to need over the five months a year it is open to meet costs. Veterinarian bills and animal feed make up the bulk of the $30,000 in expenses, and the $5 admission fee pays for a fraction of that.
The couple says there is never any money left for advertising after the bills are paid, so they rely on word of mouth from guests and their website to get the word out.
The Smiths hold some fundraising events, and visitors have helped, too. Catherine Forbes, who started taking her children to the farm a few years ago, uses her Facebook page to promote the operation and organizes fundraising events such as a bottle-can drive in Kingston, where she lives. She even managed to secure a $4,000 donation from someone who was touched by the Smiths’ work.
Donna sells baked goods to raise money. The Smiths have also dipped into their savings and Barry’s pension from his days as a commercial pilot.
Peter Noonan, a retired teacher from Toronto who visited the farm for the first time last summer, is pitching in “anyway I can.” It was Noonan who contacted the Citizen to say the couple’s farm and devotion was worth a look.
When the couple started planning a family about 12 years ago, they decided to offer their home to children who had been abused and traumatized. They took in three little sisters, wards of the Children’s Aid Society, as foster children.
Twin boys were placed under the care of the Smiths about four years ago.
But well before their arrival, the girls, who had formed a bond with an ailing colt under the care of an acquaintance, told Barry and Donna they wanted to care for animals in need at home. Barry says he noticed how well the colt and three girls were interacting, and believes it had a healing effect on both sides.
Children, Barry says, can bring traumatized animals “back from their dark places. Children have a magic. They are able to approach these animals, hug and talk to them. The animals start to trust again.”
Conversely, he says, interaction with an animal that needs care and love helps a traumatized child.
So after the girls’ request, Barry went to a livestock auction house and found a small calf, considered “no good” because it had a bad leg and couldn’t walk. He paid $50 for the animal and took it home.
With a vet’s help and the girls’ constant attention, the calf started to walk. “Mickey Moo” grew up to be a massive bull. He was a star attraction as soon as the petting farm opened.
However, after Mickey Moo almost killed Barry last Feb. 16, the bull had to be moved away for the everyone’s safety. The massive but “gentle” bull became agitated by some startled horses. It crashed into an electric fence, then charged Barry and repeatedly rammed him as he lay helpless. Barry suffered a shattered pelvis, lacerated liver, broken ribs and femur, saving himself by pulling himself under a truck.
He is still undergoing rehabilitation.
Situated on a three-acre site they purchased beside their home a decade ago, the petting farm presently has about 50 animals — including horses, Shetland ponies, a donkey, two pot-bellied pigs, sheep, goats, ducks, a Canada goose, rabbits, chickens and a turkey.
Animals come to the farm in various ways, through the SPCA, acquaintances/friends, animal auction houses, and people who just show up with one they have found injured or simply don’t want to care for anymore. Like all 135 kilograms of Charlotte the Pig, whose owner had been led to believe she was of the miniature pot-bellied variety.
The children are allowed to hold, hug and feed the animals. So young visitors aren’t troubled by stories of how the animals arrived there sad and neglected, Barry tells them they now have a home and are content.
“It’s like a Walt Disney movie,” he says. “It’s a happy ending story.”