Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett

Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column

SOME jobs are too good to be true and this is one of them.

Collecting mud from a wallow in a field full of rescued pigs, putting it in a bucket to take to

Nora, a pig who is too poorly to wallow in the mud herself. It was a hot day and pigs use mud as a sunscreen so Nora needs help covering herself with mud. We’re visiting The Retreat

Animal Rescue Farm

Sanctuary. It’s the largest multi-species rescue centre in the South East taking care, at any one time, of more than 1,000 residents.

Please join me on holiday as we visit a few of the centre’s highlights. We’re met on the drive by a team of rescued ducks, geese and chickens checking us in.

Turning left at the top, we come to the main pig field where different breeds of pigs are rooting about. Many are ex-pets, strays plus some rescued from the meat industry. Notices tell us pigs can live up to 20 years and are smarter than dogs.

Next is the field for “Delicate Pigs” who have complex medical needs. As we turn back along the path, we meet Nora waiting for her mud bath, like waiting for her turn at the hairdressers.

Then on to the rescued cows. They’re all on the other side of the field so let’s move to the horses who, in contrast, are standing at the gate waiting to be admired.

There are 32 horses including Lovebug and Jaffa-Jake who was previously a riding school pony but decided he didn’t want to be ridden anymore.

There are more fields with sheep, goats and donkeys all carrying their own story of how they arrived here.

And, of course, we must look at the caravan for the cockerels who have ASBOs for antisocial behaviour. All the cockerels there have a history of kicking visitors and bullying the ducks. They have access, through a caravan window, to an extensive run.

We can’t leave without a visit to the plant-based café. And there we meet the founder of The Retreat, Billy, an amazing man who’s just written a book, Earth Boy, about how The Retreat started.

If you’re looking for somewhere that fits in with the poem by Athey Thompson which talks about gathering up all the lost souls that wander the earth, all the ones that are alone, broken or who never really fitted in and “together we shall find our home” – it’s here at The Retreat, High Halden, Kent.

Lovebug

Nora