Sanctuary provides forever home for farm animals like Nancy, a sheep with a new leg
A year after starting, Lily's Place packed up and moved from Ontario to New Brunswick
Nancy the sheep arrived at Lily's Place Animal Sanctuary only a few weeks ago. She will spend the rest of her life there.
But Nancy looks a little different than other sheep at the sanctuary — she has a prosthetic leg.
"Nancy's story is a difficult one … because she was born on a farm, suffered a broken leg that was never treated, and the bottom part of that leg fell off," said Jamie Sabot, co-founder of Lily's Place along with her husband, Tim Clancy.
"It's a miracle that she's even alive."
Lily's Place is a non-profit sanctuary in Codys, about 85 kilometres east of Fredericton by the Canaan River, that provides forever care for displaced farm animals. The sanctuary started in Appin, Ont., west of London, in 2019 with just five chickens and a sheep.
From Ontario to New Brunswick
Less than a year later, Lily's Place moved to New Brunswick.
"We were looking for a place that didn't have very many farm sanctuaries," said Sabot. "There [are] a lot in Ontario and it seemed like there was a need here for more farm animal rescues."
Clancy said the property they purchased in Codys had been operating as a golf course that didn't use any pesticides, so it was safe for the animals, and it had a large storage building that could be used as a barn.
"We kind of heard through the grapevine that [the owners] were just looking to retire and to move on. So for us, it was the perfect property because of all the cleared land," said Clancy. "It was an excellent opportunity to have a nice grass field for the animals."
Now the sanctuary has 21 animals, but Sabot said it has had up to 30 at one point, including sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, quails, a turkey and horses. Sabot said they also have rescue dogs and a barn cat named Carl, but they are not counted under the sanctuary.
Clancy said they don't take on animals if they don't have appropriate housing for them.
"We don't feel like that's fair to the animals either. So, really, we're trying to work on infrastructure, make sure that we have safe, comfortable housing for the animals and then once that's in place, then we hope that we can continue to help more animals," he said.
Many of the animals at the sanctuary require different types of care, like Nancy, for example.
Sabot said it has been a learning experience with Nancy's prosthetic. She said there have been many animals with missing limbs, but the prosthetic was new territory.
Sabot said on the farm where Nancy lived, she was only given food and water and she wasn't sheared or provided with hoof care. When the older sheep on the farm died, Sabot said the owners looked for a place for Nancy and she ended up at Cedar Row Farm Sanctuary in Ontario, before getting fitted for a prosthetic leg and being sent to Lily's Place.
Nancy was severely malnourished when she went into care, so her energy levels are also lower than most animals, said Sabot.
"She's kind of getting back on her feet again and learning how to use it, while we're learning how to fit it on her properly and, you know, support her."
Rosie's story
But the learning curve with Nancy's prosthetic is preparing Sabot and Clancy for the sanctuary's newest addition — a small brown lamb named Rosie.
Rosie, currently 10-12 weeks old, suffered frostbite as a very young lamb. She has no ears and no back hooves and was only walking on her front knees when she arrived.
Sabot said the vet believes that she has constricted tendons that need to be straightened out. That means daily physiotherapy for the young lamb.
Eventually, she will require prosthetics or orthopedics for support because of her missing hooves.
Both Sabot and Clancy are animal lovers. Clancy owned rabbits and dogs as a child and fostered and adopted rescue dogs as an adult. Sabot went to college to become a veterinary assistant and worked as an animal care attendant at the Ontario SPCA for several years.
Although they both have experience with animals, they also have provincial veterinarians come in from Sussex when a there is new arrival or in the case of an emergency, said Clancy.
Costly work — in more ways than one
Running a sanctuary is also expensive.
When Lily's Place first started, it wasn't a non-profit and was all self-funded, said Sabot. But it grew to a point where they couldn't sustain it on their own. It now has a board of directors, donors and volunteers who help out.
"Obviously, we can't save every animal out there. But we would like to save as many as possible. And we cannot do this alone," said Clancy.
Sabot said although the work is rewarding, "there's a lot of grief" and frustration.
In the fall and early winter, she said there were a lot of losses at the sanctuary, which can make it feel like hospice care for animals. But other times, there are so many babies around that it feels like a nursery.
Both Sabot and Clancy have careers outside of the sanctuary. Clancy is a real estate agent and works from home most of the time and Sabot runs her own business, which allows them both to take time to work with the animals.
"It's difficult," said Sabot. "Which is why we need to kind of have careers outside of this, why we need support, and it's not just all on our shoulders."
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