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Happy Trails Farm Animal Sanctuary provides safe haven
By LINDA M. LINONIS
RAvenna
Odessa, a one-eyed, white-haired goat, looks as if she’s smiling in her photo featured on a bumper sticker for Happy Trails Farm Animal Sanctuary.
She and her pen companion, Natasha, are “visiting goats” that make the rounds at nursing homes as goodwill ambassadors in the Farm Animal Visitor Program sponsored by the sanctuary. “For people in wheelchairs, the goats are just the right height to pet,” said Annette Fisher, sanctuary founder. “The goats are gentle and patient.”
Odessa was rescued from the “dead pile” at a farm in Medina County, and Natasha was found along a road in Summit County — a motherless newborn.
They’re among the 250 to 300 farm animals under the sanctuary’s care; the number fluctuates because as animals are adopted, others come in. Fisher said 19 horses are stabled at the sanctuary and 48 are in foster care. Also at the sanctuary are 13 farm pigs, which weigh in from 800 to 1,000 pounds; 25 to 30 pot-bellied pigs; 11 sheep, three goats, two mini horses (others are in foster care) and about 300 poultry — chickens, ducks and geese.
Fisher founded the sanctuary in 1999; it became a 501(c) nonprofit organization in 2000.
It all started with one pot-bellied pig. Fisher said she took a temporary job caring for a woman’s horses while she was away. “I found a pot-bellied pig in the barn living in its own filth,” Fisher said. When the woman returned, Fisher learned the pig had broken its back legs years before but never saw a veterinarian. Fisher contacted the local humane society, which “didn’t address farm animals.”
Fisher said she was “disturbed” that there were no resources available in such situations. “I found there was a huge hole in Ohio about abuse of farm animals,” she said. She rescued the pot-bellied pig, whose legs weren’t broken but atrophied because of the terrible conditions she was kept in. Fisher named the pig Janice, and it became the inspiration for the animal sanctuary.
The sanctuary takes in animals from abandonment, abuse and neglect cases, Fisher said. “Some type of law-enforcement has to be involved,” she said, adding “animal-cruelty charges must be made.”
“Many cases of animal abuse are tied to other crimes,” she said, noting that she’s testified in a range of animal cases that have involved domestic violence, theft, drugs, guns and neglect of children. “There’s usually more attached to the animal issue,” she said.
Until the court case is resolved, animals are cared for at the sanctuary and in foster care, where they are housed, fed, receive veterinary care and, most importantly, are loved.
Once the sanctuary has custody, Fisher said, the animal is spayed or neutered and is ready for adoption. “We’ve adopted out to 22 states including the surrounding ones,” she said.
Currently under sanctuary care are nine horses along with some alpacas and goats that were rescued from a hoarding situation in Columbiana County. Fisher cited two cases in Trumbull County involving pot-bellied pigs that were rescued from neglect situations.
From Mahoning County, a hoarding situation brought 50 ducks to the sanctuary. “That case was a mental-health issue,” Fisher said, noting the ducks were kept in the house in a city neighborhood. Three severely neglected horses from Mahoning County also are at the sanctuary.