It's been a very busy winter. Everyone is so glad that the days are starting to get longer and the weather is slightly better, enabling us to make progress with building projects. We have also finished vaccinating all our sheep and goats. Our newest pig, the lovely Ginger Lola, has moved in with our other Lola, and they are making friends. Two of our cows, Poppy and Hazel have now found a lovely home with lots of long grass, after their previous adoption unfortunately did not work out. Other new arrivals include two gorgeous and friendly ducks, Deadpool (pictured below) and Myfanwy, whose previous caregivers had moved to Australia. All the animals are enjoying our tree lucerne, including the bunnies, goats and local kererū as well as the pīwakawaka (fantails).
 


 
We're delighted to report that our two rescued guinea pigs Cissy and Miffy have been reunited in their spacious outdoor quarters. They had to be separated while Miffy was recovering from his desexing operation. We'd been told he was a female, but he proved not to be on arrival, so swift action was necessary!




One of our ducks, Niffler, was more determined, and managed to evade our non-breeding policy to lay a hidden clutch of eggs. The ducklings have been a delight, though young creatures are always vulnerable. Initially we had to keep everyone in a large cage to ensure safety from predators, but now the ducklings are exploring the outdoor world.  

Winter is always a hard time for the older animals, and we also have some sad news. Ivy, our oldest goat, had been slowly but steadily becoming more frail, and recently had to be euthanased. Although previously the matriarch of the goat herd, she became mellow and loving in the months before her death, and we miss her very much. Our beautiful Squeaky pig also had to be put to sleep by the vet as she was suffering from advanced breast cancer. She had been sick for a while, and as her health and quality of life went downhill, euthanasia was the only option left. Squeaky had moved in with us in 2013, a large sow with a sweet personality. Sadly, her life had  been a succession of crises. She began her days in a petting zoo, but when she grew bigger and less ‘cute’ she faced death. A kind family took her in but when their life circumstances changed, Squeaky ended up with a pig farmer in Ōtaki, who kept her constantly pregnant until her body was exhausted. He was about to send her to slaughter, but thankfully her previous caregivers got in touch with us, and she slowly settled into the sanctuary, regaining her trust in humans. We're so glad that she lived to spend her final years at the sanctuary.
 

 
Some of our animals are still looking for sponsors. Sparkles arrived at the sanctuary in early 2018, flyblown and facing death. Fortunately she has made a wonderful recovery, and we've discovered that she is very sociable and interactive, and will come running to greet any passing humans. She is our friendliest sheep!


Are you interested in volunteering with us? Come to a meeting at 4pm, Sunday 14th October at Opportunity for Animals, 162 Riddiford Street, Newtown or at the Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary, 2 pm Sunday 28th October. Whatever your skills and interest, we probably have a task for you! Jobs that we need help with include animal enclosure cleaning, animal house building and repair, volunteer coordinating, opshop volunteering and restocking, fencing and onsite projects, event coordination, fundraising, outreach, and social media. For further information and directions to the sanctuary please email blacksheepcrew@yandex.com
  

With grateful thanks for your support, 

Catherine
for the Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary
www.theblacksheep.org.nz

We'd love to hear from you if you can help out! Full training is provided, and it's an enjoyable environment to work in in. You can also fill out our online form

It's been a very busy autumn at the Black Sheep. We are happy to announce that our lambs Dobby, Enzo and Winky have found a new abode with a beautiful view and lots of fresh tasty grass. The three were rescued as tiny newborn lambs and grew up at the Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary. We will miss them but we are also delighted to re-home animals to such wonderful homes! Above you can see them exploring their new paddock.

Do you know anyone who can offer our lovely young goat Vincent a safe loving space where he will have company, room to play, and will live out the term of his natural life? Any possible home will need to have secure fencing as Vincent is a great escape artist, and it will also need to be within two hours drive of Ōtaki so that we can visit during the adoption process.

In late March we were approached with the news that an abandoned peacock urgently needed a new home, otherwise he risked being killed. After a few days we finally managed to catch the beautiful bird and take him to his new home, a predator-free bird paradise! He is now named Frank, and we are delighted that he is safe from harm. He was successfully released on April 6th at his new adopted home, where he has lots of land to roam and find shelter.  Thank you so much to all our supporters that liked, shared and commented on his adoption post on Facebook. Without you we may not have found this beautiful peacock a forever home. 

I'm afraid we have some sad news. Our large white pig Horace had to be euthanised after developing chronic arthristis and an acute joint infection that the vets were unable to treat. Horace was one of our earliest sanctuary residents. He was rescued as a tiny piglet from a factory farm, where he would have been slaughtered at a few months of age. Soon he grew enormous, but remained friendly, affectionate and playful. He loved attention from humans almost as much as he loved his food, and we miss him very much indeed.

On a more positive note, our rescued piglet Gherkin is growing up. He was found by the side of the road when he was just one day old. Now he is old enough to move in with his two pig friends, Doris and Toa

Our fundraising Opportunity for Animals op-shops are thriving, but we need more volunteers to join the team.  Shifts are available in all three stores, Newtown, Miramar and Ōtaki. We need people who can commit to a half day shift each week for at least 3 months. It is fun, easy and helps fundraise for animals!

We're looking forward to the vegan Wine Tasting Fundraiser on August 5th at the Winemaker's Daughter in Te Horo. This will be a fundraiser for the Black Sheep - thank you so much to Alastair for organising this. Look out for us too at the next Vegan Vault market on 5 May, from 6 pm at 171 Victoria Street, Wellington. The Black Sheep Sanctuary Pantry will be selling pies, cakes and merchandise.

The Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary Ōtaki is running its second ever street appeal, and we are seeking wonderful people to help us - like you. The funds raised through last year's appeal paid for fencing materials to divide our larger sheep paddocks, improving our paddock rotation and keeping the grass and animals healthy and happy. This year, we plan to fence a section of the hill paddock so that the goats have a new area perfectly suited to their needs. We need your help to make this possible.

Can you collect for us for two hours or more on the streets of Wellington on Friday 8 December, sometime between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.?  We will provide everything you need, including:

• information about the sanctuary
• official identification as a Black Sheep collector
• vegan treats
• optional animal costumes

You'll also receive an invitation to our December open day. This is our chance to raise funds, while promoting animal protection and animal rights. If you are able to help, we'd be delighted to hear from you.

Please contact our appeal coordinator Clare Gillard at gillardgirl@gmail.com to sign up.
​
Otherwise, we'd love it if you could spread the word. Please look out for the cows and pigs, sheep and chickens collecting on the Wellington streets on 8 December! https://www.facebook.com/168073479885928/

In honour of World Vegan Day, the Black Sheep is releasing a short film featuring the sanctuary pigs. The stars include Horace and Doris, who turned up at the sanctuary as tiny mischievous piglets, almost exactly six years ago. Doris had escaped life as a breeding sow, chewing in boredom and fear on the bars of a farrowing crate, her skin ulcerated with pressure sores. Horace would have been separated from his mother and fattened with a hundred other piglets, his world defined by dank concrete walls. At five months of age he would leave the pen for the first and last time, screaming with fear, to be trucked to slaughter. Pig voices sound almost human.

Horace and Doris are lucky indeed. Here they are, relishing life with the other sanctuary pigs, enjoying mud baths in summer, tummy rubs, and chasing games.

 Filmmaker Kate Logan describes what inspired her to make this video:
 
“As I haven’t had a lot of first hand experience with pigs in my life, it’s always been lovely having the opportunity to go up to the Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary and spend some time with the assortment of pig characters who live there.
 
There’s Horace and Doris, the Large Whites, who were the first pig residents at the sanctuary. Trotter, the Kunekune, with his adorable face and tongue that hangs out. Brian, the cheeky little Captain Cooker, who was oh so cute as a wee piglet and is now a charming adult pig. And all of the other lovely pigs with their unique personalities that make you smile and laugh.
 
Usually my interactions with the pigs have just involved hurling food over the fence to them, and watching them run around, snuffling and scoffing the treats that land nearby. Or taking photographs of people rubbing and snuggling them, with me, at a distance… on solid ground. This was not quite the case during the making of this documentary.
 
Getting into a pen with a bunch of enormous white pigs who really enjoy rubbing up against you and using you as a scratching post certainly had its moments. I constantly had to watch my back whilst conducting the interview with Caan in case I was suddenly bowled over in an affectionate manner. At one point I ended up stuck in the pig’s mud pit, unable to move my feet, holding the camera up and trying not to fall over whilst Doris ambled over curiously to see what was going on. Luckily Caan and Kate were able to help me out before the camera took a dive into the mud!!
 
I have been involved with the Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary since its beginnings in 2009, and my role within the sanctuary group has predominantly been as the media person / designer. This video about the pigs is a short excerpt from what will eventually be a longer documentary about the sanctuary.
 
I think it’s so important that places like the Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary exist so that animals in need can live out their lives free from abuse and exploitation. It takes a lot of hard work and monetary input to care for all of these animals, so I hope that through promoting the great work that the sanctuary is doing, funds can be raised to keep the animal residents happy and healthy for the rest of their natural lives.”

The Black Sheep Animal Sanctuary is a safe and sustainable space that rehabilitates and re-homes abused, injured, and neglected animals.  Located at Ōtaki Forks, an hour’s drive north of Wellington, New Zealand, the sanctuary is home to around 200 animals as well as several caretakers.

Over 600,000 pigs are killed in New Zealand every year, after short, unhappy lives, in a kind of agricultural determinism. We can change this, however, by boycotting the meat industry. Celebrate World Vegan Day by keeping pork off your fork. Let’s shut down the pork industry, and stop the suffering.

We would love it if you could promote this video through your networks on behalf of Horace and Doris, to remember the pigs who were rescued and the ones who were not.

Read more about the Sanctuary pigs here http://www.theblacksheep.org.nz/pigs.html

Help us fight the mud at the animal sanctuary!

We are experiencing an increasingly serious mud crisis at the sanctuary which is affecting our animals' quality of life. It is always problematic at this time of year, but it is currently the worst it has ever been. As extreme rainfall continues, the mud is getting worse for our pigs and goats.

Why is there a mud crisis?

Pigs are social, curious creatures that love to dig and we encourage our animals to exhibit this type of natural behaviour. They are also very heavy animals that compact the ground in their paddocks. During the winter months, digging behaviour combined with the lower compacted ground level results in a build up of water and mud which can't drain away. We have various sized pigs and the smaller ones are getting more isolated in their paddocks, as the increasingly deep mud pools leave much of their play area completely off limits.

We have tried to reduce the mud problem by rotating our feeding stations and moving water troughs to give the worst areas time to recover. We dug trenches to assist with the drainage, but the problem is now so urgent we need a large scale solution.

Our solution:

We are fundraising for the cost of hiring a digger and truck for 4 days to help us drain the mud and water and put gravel in the pig paddocks. This will stop the formation of increasingly deep pools of mud. The gravel and additional top dirt layer will raise the ground level to form higher permanently dry areas and create a firm base to help with drainage in the paddocks.

Our goat paddock is also in deep mud in many areas and making our goats unhappy. We only have limited paddock space in which to rotate them and let the ground recover. We have built raised runways to give our goats some relief from the mud around their feeding areas, but we hope to create an additional 'hilly area' in their paddock using the digger and the dirt we have on site.

We have all the gravel and dirt resources required for the job, but we urgently need you to help us raise funds for the digger and truck.

We have three pig paddocks that we need help with and one goat paddock that needs some mud rescuing.

The approximate costs are:

$300 to get the digger up to the sanctuary property
The digger costs $145 a hour
The truck costs $120 a hour

The Funds raised will be used to pay for the digger and truck to pile up gravel and dirt. That will help drain the mud and water as well as raise the ground level to form higher permanent dry areas and create a firm base to help with drainage in the paddocks.