I may only have one ear.
I may be the shortest goat in the gang.
But I know who I am. Nobody is going to get in my way.
Today I was feeling short, so I stood on a bale of wire.
I didn’t feel short any longer. I could see over all of the other goats.
I stayed there for a long time.
When I want something, I make it happen.
The grass on the other side of the fence is always greener.
So I jump the fence.
It may be $7000 worth of ‘pig worthy’ fencing, but I make short work of it.
Like I said, nothing can stand in my way.
Jumping over the fence keeps life interesting.
It’s a thrill.
Gives new perspective.
It’s empowering and exciting.
It’s also lonely, but we’ll get to that.
]]>We now have a treasurer. Someone to keep us on track financially was always going to be the best thing we ever did. Christine is organised, driven, passionate, supportive, knowledgable about all the things the rest of the team are not, and of course she is in love with animals. Basically, she adds to the team ten-fold.
It was Christine’s initiative to get the ball rolling on donation boxes. We know have TWELVE! These donation boxes, and the businesses that support them, are a small miracle in the lives of the animals and people here at Sugarshine. They are collected once a month and always have money in them, every one. Each donation box averages to $30 a month, which is EPIC from where we’re standing. The cute toy animals and fake grass found inside them must help. Each box also has a picture of Primula the bobby calf and Romeo the piglet, if you spot one of these gorgeous boxes around the Far North Coast, feel free to part with your spare change…
You don’t have to live in Lismore in order to support us through our donation boxes. They are spread all over the Far North Coast. However buying a delicious treat for yourself or your pet is definitely a requrement! Please show all the support you can for these businesses. Scratch and Sniff in Ballina, The Spotted Pig in Lindendale, Helens Heavenly Foods in Burleigh, Flour of Life Bakery in Helensvale, Go Vita at Ballina Fair, Coffee and Kitchen in East Ballina, Healthy Life in the lismore shopping square, The Beet in Byron Bay, The Garden Plate in Lismore, Spacebars Ice-creamery stall, Zeebras Cafe in Casino, and Landy’s Bulk Foods Alstonville. A special mention goes to Pacific Bulk Foods in Lismore, who usually have our box proudly displayed on their counter, but due to recent flooding have not found their box just yet. Also keep an eye out for a box at Flock in Lismore.
It is customary for stores in Australia to have a donation box sitting on the counter. Rather than ignoring them, why not spend your loose change on a worthy cause, and support a charity that needs your help?
]]>Our wonderful volunteers (you know who you are), were our sanity during the day. Like we’ve said many times before, you make Sugarshine. All those who give us their days-off and work themselves to the bone to support the animals are what make doing this Sanctuary thing possible. Steve and team from Flour of Life Bakery in Helensvale, were the real hero’s of the day. Steve made over 400 vegan sausages from scratch just for us. They were delicious, and we were beyond lucky for the help of the Bakery, because if we hadn’t had them swoop in at the last minute we would have been without enough sausages for the sold-out day that we had! So thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
We were pleasantly surprised by the response to the vegan sausages. Lismore is a progressive place as it is, but Bunnings Warehouse doesn’t exactly attract that crowd we would normally have at our Farm Animal Sanctuary Volunteer days. Most people were surprised about the new form of cylindrical protein. Surprise did not lead to disgust in many cases, and we can confidently say the day was a success!
It’s safe to say Bunnings can look forward to some more Vegan Sausages in the future.
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Most of the other pigs here at Sugarshine also deeply appreciate human interaction. There is something deep inside a pigs psyche that can’t resist a good belly rub. The humans seem to know just the spot. If they decide it’s time for pig patting, it’s like a some deadly disease flows through the barn – pigs flopping to their sides left right and centre! There’s really nothing like someone gently stroking your back, belly and cheek. I bet even humans love a back-rub!
People who have only ever experienced pigs as food, or sport, are always the ones who love patting time the most. They cannot believe that such a ‘loud’, ‘aggressive’ animal is really just like any dog or cat they might have waiting for them at home. It never gets old. The expressions they pull. Priceless.
Sometimes the humans even lay down in the straw and make nests next to us to get comfortable and continue to give belly rubs for as long as possible! I think humans and pigs are more alike than everybody thinks we are. Pigs love belly rubs, humans do too, pigs love making nests, humans do too! Pigs love sun baking and from what I’ve heard from Baby pig (who has been to the beach) humans love it too!
]]>We are often rough with each other simply as a sign of communication. How else to you decide who to respect? Human families that are close with each other are often rough with one another are they not? The way I see it is, being able to push someone around without feelings being hurt is a sign of friendship.
It is more common to find piles of pigs laying around next to, on top of, or near each other trying to catch some shut-eye. The piglets Baby, Olive, Dreamy and Hazel all love to lay on top of each other and snuzzle one another for comfort as their mothers are no longer with us. You see, we take comfort and solace in our fellow pigs more often than we are bossy to one another.
Sugars is a problem. The princess pig who thinks she’s the cat’s meow. I mean, just because she’s Kelly’s favourite and all the humans fear her, does NOT mean she has the right to go around ridiculing, sass-talking, bossing and bothering everyone else! DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHE DID TO ME THE OTHER DAY? She told Hamish and Cecil that I had placed her second-in-command and told them that the humans had laid out a gourmet taster plate of food just for them. Of course they followed her instructions perfectly, (my subjects are nothing if not efficient) and destroyed lunch for EVERYBODY! I would NEVER do that to any of my fellow-pigs. Such humiliation.
[sigh] If you can’t tell, speaking about Sugars gets me into a tiff.
You want to know how I keep order? And why Sugars is NOT Queen-B? Respect and trust. The others trust that I would never ask them to do anything humiliating or dangerous. I don’t get angry, although from a humans perspective it may seem that I do. I am stern with everybody. I push them away if I have to, but I never bite with intent to seriously harm. I could take a fellow-pigs ear off if I wanted to. But I don’t. There’s your proof. I can’t say I have a friend in any of the animals at the sanctuary, less I destroy my reputation. But I don’t need friends, I have respect. No one can look up to a friend as a Queen. I keep my socialisation to human interaction only.
Like any family, our group of pigs has every kind of personality you can think of. This means we clash, but we always find a way of making up, either by vocalising our issues, or simply through body-language.
]]>I don’t mind really. I know the humans really appreciate that I keep everyone in line, and it makes them feel good that they’re in cahoots with the roughest, toughest pig-in-charge.
I guess I do the work for them [the humans] really. I keep the others [pigs] in line and I’ve accepted them [humans] so they don’t have to get onto all fours and fight it out with Willy-Joel or Sandy. Seeing one of those scrawny two-leggeds on their knees trying to wrestle a 1000 Kilo pig is not something I need in my life right now.
When I say pigs are vocal, I’m not kidding. Today I had to have a stern speaking to four troublesome piglets names ‘the mini maloos’. They are new to Sugarshine, so I can forgive them for not following the rules just yet. First, I spotted their troublesome black and white patched be-hinds outside the fence – a big no-no from the start – and when they eventually caught on that they had to come back in, one piglet decided to be rebellious and stay outside the fence. You should have heard the curses that flew out of his mouth when he realised his siblings weren’t part of his plan! Thank goodness that the humans don’t try to speak our language or they would have learnt some new words that day! Pigs are usually very clean creatures. I can’t say that is true of those youngsters, after hearing what can come out of their mouths.
The four of them continued their unproductive profanity back and forth for a long while. Nothing I said or did had any effect on those young ruffians. All I can hope is that they will fall in line one day. Although I consider pigs to be very intelligent, I suppose I can’t speak for everyone.
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If you love roosters as much as we do check out the social media profiles of some of our favourite famous rooster personalities! P Blizzard the rooster And Ricky the Chicky And of course we follow all the other animal sanctuaries in Australia and around the world, who also have many roosters in their care. Brightside Edgar’s mission, FAR and many more.
]]>Each of the sheep at Sugarshine are miraculous. Bonnie, Lollie, Opal and Maartin are defying the odds each day they live past eight months of age. This is the age lambs are sent to slaughter in the lamb industry. The wool industry is an entirely different ball game. Because of the high amounts of sheep per farm and lack of observation, lambs are lucky to make it past a few days old. If they do, their tales and ears are cut, their skin in certain parts of their body is shaved in order to attempt to prevent fly strike, when in reality the open wounds attract flies. This is all done without anaesthesia. If they survive all this they are then left to grow wool in amounts that are not natural. When the farmers are ready to profit from the sheep, their precious wool is taken from them in often what is a horrific experience for the sheep. Sheep scare easily, even the gentlest of shearers are likely to scare them. The wool industry views sheep as products, not as delicate individuals, therefore the majority of sheering is not gentle, and it is not uncommon for sheep to have cuts and bruises after the ordeal. When these sheep have stopped producing as much wool as is needed to keep consumers happy, they are sent to the abattoir. Sheep in the wool industry are very lucky if they ever live out their natural lifespan. The sheep at Sugarshine will continue to live happy and healthy lives until they are 12 or older.
If you want to read more about the reality of wool please click here
Goats such as Millie, Shirley, Forest, River, Misty, Rueben, Nibbles, Never, Sunshine have outlived their factory-farmed counterparts by years. Cheeky Millie Moo is more than a year old, but would not have lasted more than a day if he had stayed as part of the goat dairy industry. This is because male kids are considered a waste product because the industry has to sell the milk their mothers produce for them. Goats used for meet are usually killed within five months of being born, still kids. Their natural lifespan can be up to 14 years. Millie has a lot of cheeky tricks to perform yet!
Don’t let appearances deceive you. All the animals sent to the abattoir are babies, no matter how big they look.
]]>If they had not been rescued, pigs such as Baby, Missy Piggins, Willy Joel, Bliss, Cecil, Charlie, Petunia, Percy, Piggy, Freeda, Hamish, Sugars, Sandy, Patchy, Pinto Bean, Zoy, Hermione, Zahn, Rainy Pants, Leopardio, Puppy, Mini and Miss Maloo would not have made it past six months of age. Each one of the 23 Pigs here at Sugarshine have their own personalities. They all love humans and have very different lives to their brothers and sisters in factory farms. Our Charlie was given the opportunity very rarely afforded to pigs read her story here. Female pigs are not given the space to move let alone speak to their children when they are born. Our ‘golden oldies’ Piggy and Freeda are almost teenagers and they have not yet lived out their entire natural life-span. Because they are living in a sanctuary such as Sugarshine, each one of these pigs will live out their natural life-span of 12 years.
Despite his tough life so far, Bunny calf has had it easy compared to what his brothers and sisters go through just weeks after being born. Bunny is a Bobby calf. He is considered waste by the dairy industry. If he was not rescued by Sugarshine he would have been sent to slaughter before he was five weeks old. His sisters on the other hand, are kept in crates away from their mothers until they are old enough to produce babies of their own. Dairy cows only live out 3 of their potential 20 years. Just because you are not eating beef does not mean you’re not harming cows. Because of his harsh beginning Bunny is likely to be sickly for the rest of his 20 long years.
Don’t let appearances deceive you. All the animals sent to the abattoir are babies, no matter how big they look.
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